How to check the drive for bad sectors windows 7. Check the hard drive for bad sectors. Checking errors using Windows

Hello everybody! Very often, when diagnosing a computer, you have to check hDD   on bad sectors and sometimes you need to check the program in Windows. From under Windows it is certainly more effective, but there are such cases.

I already wrote an article as possible, but people are looking for a program to check hdd in windows itself and sometimes I understand them. Therefore, I will show how this can be done in the most popular and proven HD Tune program.

The bad sector on the hard drive is just a tiny cluster of storage space - the sector - on the hard drive, which seems defective. This sector will not respond to read or write requests. Bad sectors can occur as on traditional magnetic hard drives, and on modern solid state drives. There are two types bad sectors: one of which is physical damagethat cannot be repaired, and one of the mistakes softwarewhich can be fixed.

There are two types of bad sectors, which are often divided into “physical” and “logical” bad sectors   or “hard” and “soft” bad sectors. A physical - or hard - bad sector is a cluster of memory on a hard drive that is physically damaged. Head hard drivemay have touched this part of the hard drive and damaged it, maybe some dust could have settled in this sector and destroyed it, the flash memory of the SSD might be worn out, or there might be other defects or wear problems on the hard drive that led to physical damage to the sector.

Download and install. This version is free.


  1. Choose a hard drive, for example, I have 2 of them
  2. Select the Error Scan window
  3. Click the Start button

It will check the hard drive. Its time depends on the size of the hard drive. My terabyte will be checked for about an hour. When the check is complete, all cells should be painted. It should not be red. If there is a red color, then you have a bad sector. If everyone is green, then hard sectors   drive intact.

This type of sector cannot be restored. Logical or soft - a bad sector is a cluster of memory on the hard drive that does not seem to be working properly. Perhaps the operating system tried to read the data on the hard drive from this sector and found that the error correction code does not match the contents of the sector, which indicates that something is wrong. They can be marked as bad sectors, but can be restored by overwriting the disk with zeros or, in the old days, performing a low-level format.

Symptoms of the appearance of bad sectors

Your hard drive may be shipped from a factory with bad sectors. Modern production technologies are not perfect, and there is a margin or a mistake in everything. This is why it often comes with some defective blocks. They are marked as defective and reassigned to some additional memory cells of the solid-state drive.


What to do if there is a bad sector on the hard drive?

  1. First you need to find out the reason:
  • Temperature. Look at the temperature of the hard drive, the norm is considered to be from 30 to 35 degrees, and from 35 to 40, this is already critical, which is no longer normal! In order to have a normal temperature, you need to monthly clean your computer from dust and the computer must have a properly configured cooling system (as in the picture below).
  • Manufacturing defects. There is nothing to be done. Just if there is a guarantee - take where you bought it, if not, you can try to fix it.
  • Misuse. Any device is afraid of falls, well, and large vibrations. If you did not drop it and did not shake it strongly, then most likely the reason is temperature or marriage.

2. When you identify the cause of the breakdown, you can try to cure the hard drive. To do this, you can use the program, it can automatically fix bad sectors. If you are a professional, you can use the program mhdd   so or victoria.

On a solid state drive, natural wear and tear will ultimately lead to bad sectors because they are written many times, and they will be redirected to additional or “oversold” solid state drive memory. When the SSD runs out of memory, disk capacity will begin to decrease as sectors become unreadable.

On a traditional magnetic hard drive, bad sectors can be caused by physical damage. It is possible that a production error occurred on the hard disk, natural wear may have occurred, part of the hard disk may have been erased, the hard disk head may have touched the plate and damaged some of the sectors, possibly the sealed area of \u200b\u200bthe hard disk and dust can damage the drive - there are many possible reasons.

Each hard drive has spare sectors, usually 50 of them. So the program reassigns the bad to spare. If you have a whole block of bad sectors and there are more than 50, then it will be pointless to overwrite.

3. After all the tests, I would advise you to buy a new HDD, because there is no guarantee that new bad sectors will not appear. In the meantime, it is cured, you can sell it cheaper, warning that in hdd sectors are overwritten.

Soft bad sectors are caused by software problems. For example, if your computer suddenly shuts down due to a power outage or an elongated power cable, it is possible that the hard drive may have shut down in the middle of recording in a sector. In some cases, sectors on the hard disk may contain data that does not match their error correction code - this would be marked as a bad sector. Viruses and other malicious programs that interfere with your computer can also cause such system problems and cause soft bad sectors.

It may be such that the test drags on to infinity or the computer does not see it at all, then something could happen to the electronics or to the head that reads the data. Here, of course, if you need data, you need to contact specialized companies that disassemble and repair them.

What to do if you think that the hard drive is not working and there are no bad sectors?

It could be like that too. I witnessed when there are no bad sectors, and the computer is so dumb that it seems that there are bad sectors))) For this, we take the HDDScan program:

Data loss and hard drive failure

The reality of bad sectors brings home a frightening fact - even if your hard drive is working fine, it is possible that a bad sector can develop and corrupt some of your data. This is another reason why you should always: multiple copies are the only thing that will prevent damage to bad sectors and other data problems on your hard drive.

When your computer notices a bad sector, it marks this sector as bad and ignores it in the future. This sector will be redistributed, so reading and writing to this sector will be carried out elsewhere. This will appear as “Reallocated Sectors”. If you have important data in this sector, it may be lost - it may be damage to one or more files.

It is portable, so we just run it without installation. She can also be checked ssd disk   for mistakes.


To run the test for a large response you need:

  1. Choose your hard drive
  2. Press the button with magnifier and hard drive
  3. Choose Surface Tests

How to check and repair bad sectors

A few bad sectors do not indicate that the hard drive is about to fail - they can happen. However, if your hard drive is rapidly developing bad sectors, this may be a sign that your hard drive is not working. Bad sectors are just reality hard drivesand usually there’s no reason to panic when you come across it. However, you should always have backups   of your important files in case a bad sector hits and fast-growing bad sectors can certainly trigger a hard drive failure.

  1. Set Read
  2. Add test. Next, the test will start automatically.
  3. We click on RD-Read two times, a window will open.


  1. Select the Map tab and see the site map. There are already more colors. Each of them means response time (to see the check in real time, uncheck the Disable map dynamic update Map Udate Queue).
  2. We wait until the hard drive is fully checked and look in the right column.
  • The more 5ms sectors, the better, these are sectors with a 5ms response.
  • Response up to 150 ms (green) and up to 500 ms (orange) are not good, but they are not critical, to know more precisely, you need to scan from under windows in the mhdd program. More than 500 ms (red), then the reason is clear. That's why it slows down.
  • If you see Bads, then you have bad sectors. What to do I wrote above. Also here, as an option, you can try and then check the HDD again. If everything is the same, then you can also sell it cheaper and buy a new one or reassign it to mhdd.

That’s all. I think many will find useful information on how to check the hard drive for bad sectors.

It is important that you keep your watch on your own. He warned me that there were errors on the disk that needed to be fixed before the image was created. There are actually two ways to do this: a graphic and a version from command line. Two options are available in the window that appears.

Automatically fix file system errors and scan and repair bad sectors. If no errors are found, this is great! When it ends, a screen report will appear. It is imperative that you keep your watch on your own. This program will not fix a bad sector, but it just finds them for you. After downloading it, run the installation to install. When you open the application, you will receive an agreement with end users.

And here's how to fix it in Victoria:

Today the topic will be discussed: How to check the hard drive for errors and bad sectors in windows 7

There are several ways. hard check   drive.

Checking hdd for bad sectors using Windows

First of all, you can check the hard drive for bad sectors using standard diagnostic tools of the operating system itself. To do this, you need to go to the “Computer” tab, select the hard drive and, right-clicking on it, select the “Properties” tab

Then it will take you to the main interface. First you have to plug in your hard drive. Error: This is a standard error message that is returned during a scan. Communication: this column will explain in plain language where the unreadable block lies depending on any file systems found on the disk. Block: this is the block number in which a read error occurred. . Ok, you found a bad sector - so what next?

Well, the first thing you could do is get started backup   your data, because there is a good chance your hard drive might run out soon. If not, the next thing will find a way to fix these bad sectors. There are a couple of programs that claim to repair a bad sector. Each hard drive manufacturer has its own diagnostic tools for hard drives. Check their website and run diagnostics to be sure.

The Properties window opens. local disk, where you need to go to the “Service” tab and click on the “Run Scan” button


The next window for checking the local disk will open before you - there you should tick off the actions that you would like to perform, and then click the start button.

If you want to manually start a scan manually, you can do this. Previously, you had to plan disk error checking for system disk   and for disks on which files or processes or folders have been opened. This option checks the disk for file system errors.

If the system detects that there are errors, you will be asked to check the disk. If no errors were found, you will see a message - you do not need to scan this disk. However, you can check the drive. If no errors are found, it will say so. If errors are detected, you will see the following message.


If during the check you selected the main disk on which the system is installed, then a warning from the system will appear on the monitor, where you will have to agree.


How to scan a hard drive with error checking tool

Restart your computer to recover file system. You can immediately restart or schedule a bug fix the next time you restart. Scanning and attempting to repair bad sectors will search for areas of the hard drive that may be damaged or unusable. If detected, this tool will mark these areas as “bad” and will not allow your computer to use them in the future. If no errors are found, you can close all open windows and continue to use your computer in normal mode. Advanced features: if you are interested, a detailed error checking check log and what was fixed if something was found can be found in the application event list in the event viewer.

Additional hard drive error checking options

  • For all the prompts after scanning.
  • If errors are found, you may be asked to restart the computer.
We will not use defragmentation utilities, as we have already noted, and today we will look at hard drive managers, comparison tools, health analyzers, and repair tools.

The next time you start the computer, the hard drive checks for bad sectors and errors.

These utilities will help you control your disks at the software level, and they tell you when something is wrong. Scanning your disk for errors is the first thing you need to do. There are many utilities that check every sector of your disk. The worst enemy of a hard drive is bad sectors. This will slow down your disk during scanning and depending on which sectors are affected, this may render it unusable.

Below is a list of some utilities that will allow you to control your hard drive. Though operating Systems   allow you to see how much space you have, there are much better solutions that show much more detailed information about the free space on your disk, as well as which files or folders take up the most space. These space managers are perfect for knowing exactly how much space you have on your drives.

If another disk was selected, the hard disk check window will appear, after which a notification will appear on the end of the check.


Disc reservoir and disc regenerator

In addition, some of these applications allow you to manage partitions on your hard drive. They allow you to create or delete partitions, as well as modify existing ones. If your hard drive is full or you want to sell it, you need to delete all information about it. In the end, you do not want everyone to have access to all your files. Simple deletion is almost not available for deleting information from a disk, since data is easily restored by specialized applications. Now let's look at some disk erasure programs.

How to check hdd for errors and bad sectors of windows 7 via cmd?

The following method is slightly different from the first. Go to the Start menu and enter “cmd” in the search field. Right-click on the result, and then select "Run as administrator" in the drop-down menu


In the console window that opens, you should enter the command: “chkdsk d: / f / r” and press “Enter”


Check for broken hdd sectors, after which the result will be displayed.


The program for checking the hard disk for errors and bad sectors

In addition, there are external programs for monitoring and hard fixes   drives of your computer. One of them is HDDScan.

You can download this program from the official site, and within the framework of this article we will consider how to check the hard drive for bad sectors with its help. So, click on the program icon. The main window will appear where you will see the workspace of the program

Click on the “New task” button, which is in the middle, and select “Surface test” from the drop-down menu


In the next window, select one of the test options and click the "Add test" button


A brief look at what each test means:

Verify - Reading to the internal buffer of the drive without transferring via sATA interface, IDE or another. The operation time is being measured.

Read - Reads, transfers, checks data and measures the time of the operation.

Erase - the program writes successively blocks of data to disk, measuring the operation time (All data in the blocks will be deleted).

Butterfly Read - just like the Read test, only the blocks are read in sequence: reading starts at the beginning and end of the range, block 0 and last are tested, then 1 and the penultimate one.

For average testing, the Read test is usually suitable: after you check your hard drive, double-click on the test test window and see the graph and status of the test.