How to Check Hard Drive Health?

How to Check Hard Drive Health?Stellar Smart provide an option to monitor the hard
As told by every one that, we never know that whendrive temperature.
would our hard drive fail! However this is not true, weYou can set the warning temperature & shut down
actually do not know this because we don't want totemperature. If the temperature of your hard drive
know it! We have taken our hard drive as taken forreaches the preset warning temperature value then
granted. Today there are many tools present in thethe software will give you the alert messages. And if it
market which can easily act as shield for your driveattains the shut down temperature then system will
and provide early information about the hidden problemautomatically shut down.
of your hard drive.According to me this is very important tool, because
Let me ask you some basic question:you come to know about the temperature of your
Which processor you are using?drive. Usually temperature doesn't go above a limit,
Which is the speed of the processor?however if it goes that means that there is some
What is the size of the RAM?problem with your drive and you better start taking
I am sure most of you would have answered them,backups of your important file Or get you drive
lets me ask some other question.properly diagnosis.
What is your hard Drive Version?Some common hard disk attributes which Stellar
What is the ideal temperature of your hard drive?Smart makes you aware with are:
How many Bad Sectors are there in your hard drive?Raw Read Error Rate
So, how many questions are answered? You must beIndicates the rate at which read retries is requested.
thinking that there is no need to know all these, I wouldLower values indicate that there is a problem with
say that you are right, till your hard drive doesn't crash.either the disk surface or the read/write heads.
It's better to start taking care of our Hard Drive Health.Spin Up Time
From my past experience I would suggest StellarDescribes the amount of time it takes to spin the disk
Smart is a very good Hard Drive Monitor Tool.platters up to their rated rotation speed (usually 5400
You can download the demo version from here Youor 7200 Revolutions per minute). Values above 80
can also try other software present in the market. As Ishould be considered good. Values between 70 and
have used the above mentioned software, I would be80 are acceptable.
using this software to make you know how toStart/Stop Count
become the doctor of your hard drive. Now let's giveIndicates the total number of drive start/stop cycles
little time to our hard drive as this little time can save us(including both power on/off switching and suspend
from losing all our critical data.wakeup switching).
Stellar Smart gives you the basic information aboutReallocated Sectors Count:
your hard drive, likeIndicates the amount of the spare sector pool that is
• Hard Drive Versionavailable. Spare sectors are used to replace sectors
• SMART Feature (Self-Monitoring Analysisthat become bad for some reason. A value of 100
and Reporting Technology)means that no sectors have been replaced so far and
• Model Numbera value of 1 means that spare sectors have been
• Serial Numberexhausted due to many replacements.
• Firmware RevisionPower On Hours Count:
Other Advanced Information about your hard drive:Indicates how long the disk was working (powered on).
• Total SectorsSpin Retry Count:
• Number of CylindersIndicates the number of times the disk was unable to
• Number of headsspin its platters up on the first attempt (lower values
• Total Sector per Trackmean more retries).
• Disk SizeTemperature:
• Physical Buffer SizeIndicates the temperature of disks equipped with
These information are basic information of your hardthermal sensors.
drive which you normally do not require it however,Ultra ATA CRC Error Count:
sometimes knowing this information can help you inThe UDMA controller performs error checking on the
solving other issues related to your hard drive.data it receives from the Hard Disk, ensuring that the
Bad Sectors in your hard Drivedata was not damaged while being transmitted over
Knowing the bad sector in your hard drive is verythe cable. Each time an error is detected, the controller
important is really important, by checking the amount ofrequests a retransmission, thus slowing down the
Bad sector you can conclude how much vulnerableoverall transfer speed. Lower values of 'Ultra ATA
your drive is..CRC Error Count' correspond to a higher number of
Stellar Smart: Scan Hard diskerrors, usually indicating a cabling problem
This feature helps you to know the number of badWrite Error Count:
sectors in your hard drive, if you find lots of BadIndicates the rate at which write retries are requested.
sector, then better take the backup and change yourLower values indicate that there is a problem with
hard drive.either the disk surface or the read/write heads.
Monitor your hard drive temperatureRecalibration Retries:
High temperature can harm your hard drive so youIndicates the number of times recalibration was
should always monitor your hard drive temperature, orrequested. A low value (multiple recalibration) usually
you can set some temperature such that you're yourindicates some head positioning problem.
hard temp goes above it, you receive an alarm forI am sure all these information about you hard drive will
that. Some times dust enters the hard drive motor andhelp you to identify the basic problem with your drive
hinders the motor to run smoothly and the temperatureand you can save your self from losing your important
rises and this can lead to hard drive failure. However ifdata. However if you loose your critical data you can
you are using some temperature alert then you cantry some data recovery software or data recovery
save yourself from losing data.service.