One of the first things we do when trouble shooting a problem computer is verify that the hard drive is in good condition. Too many times has it been that, after hours of chasing out tails, it has turned out that there are problems with the hard drive that weren't obvious at the beginning of our troubleshooting but were easily identified by a direct hard drive diagnostic inspection. Hard drives fail for a variety of reasons, namely overheating, electrical shock, mechanical malfunction or physical trauma. There are several diagnostic programs out there that are free and effective. We will list a couple and provide a general overview of our favorites.
Fujitsu
Diagnostic Tools work with IDE/ATA/SCSI drives. It can perform random seek/read tests along with more detailed surface scans.
Hitachi
Drive Fitness Test tests any brand of desktop and notebook hard drive and logs error events for easy tracking. Checks for cable and temperature problems.
Maxtor
Bought by Seagate. See Seagate entry below.
Samsung
HUTIL Drive Diagnostic Utility works exclusively with Samsung hard drives and can function regardless of the state of your PC's operating system.
Seagate
SeaTools for Windows tests USB, ATA, SATA, SCSI, and 1394 drives. It works with all kinds of hard drives including Maxtor. DOS version also available.
Western Digital
Data LifeGuard Diagnostics tool can test and repair WD FireWire, USB, or EIDE drives.
Extra
By the way, if you really need a comprehensive set of hard drive management and diagnostic tools, you can download a copy of Ultimate Boot CD (available in DOS or Windows flavors).
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