Windows HDD Error-Checking Tool

[Rockinacoustic]

I'm sure I'm not the only person around here who does Disk Cleanups and Defrag's to an unhealthy extent. 😛

However, the one windows utility I don't quite see the benefits of it the Error-Checking option in the HDD tools. What exactly does it do that makes that 2 hour wait worthwhile.... Nonetheless that long in the first place?

Thanks in adv. for your responses.

 

[Schadenfroh]

On my Seagate drive, I use SeaTools. Check your HD manufacturer's software.

 

[Nothinman]

However, the one windows utility I don't quite see the benefits of it the Error-Checking option in the HDD tools. What exactly does it do that makes that 2 hour wait worthwhile.... Nonetheless that long in the first place?

You're probably doing a bad block scan which is usually only necessary when you actually suspect the drive is developing bad sectors.

 

[bsobel]

It reads/writes to all portions of the disk looking for physical errors.

 

[Rockinacoustic]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote> However, the one windows utility I don't quite see the benefits of it the Error-Checking option in the HDD tools. What exactly does it do that makes that 2 hour wait worthwhile.... Nonetheless that long in the first place? </end quote></div>

You're probably doing a bad block scan which is usually only necessary when you actually suspect the drive is developing bad sectors.

That sounds about right. I'm assuming this isn't necessary for weekly maintainance as much as a defrag then. What are the tell-tale signs of bad sectors?

 

[Nothinman]

That sounds about right. I'm assuming this isn't necessary for weekly maintainance as much as a defrag then. What are the tell-tale signs of bad sectors?

Frankly I don't think defragging is necessary weekly maintenance either.

As for knowing when to scan, it's a bit more difficult on Windows because it doesn't automatically watch your harddisk's SMART values like I do with smartmontools on Linux or monitor your logs for oddities and notify you about them. If there's a problem Windows will log it in the eventlog but without checking there regularly you won't notice unless you use a file in the offending sector a lot. Usually you just notice the problem because a file operation takes longer than you expect and the hard disk light on your case blinks at regular intervals instead of random flashing since it's retrying the same sector a few times. And usually when that happens it's a good idea to get a new drive anyway.