# How to test if a hard drive is knackered?



## MikeTyson (Dec 30, 2009)

My boot times are insanely long and the hard drive activity is crazy

Think my Western Digital has given up the ghost..

Is there a way to test this?

Thanks


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## sneekypeet (Dec 30, 2009)

I think western digital provides diagnostic software at their site.

Something along the lines of HDtune or HDtack may show or lead you to whats wrong.


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## mlee49 (Dec 30, 2009)

You could scan the drive and see if a sector went bad.  HDtune is what I use.

Damn it Sneeky! 

link for HDTune:
http://www.hdtune.com/


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## Charper2013 (Dec 30, 2009)

sneekypeet said:


> I think western digital provides diagnostic software at their site.
> 
> Something along the lines of HDtune or HDtack may show or lead you to whats wrong.



Beat me to it.


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## MikeTyson (Dec 30, 2009)

Right so what am I doing here then?


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## Phxprovost (Dec 30, 2009)

MikeTyson said:


> http://img.techpowerup.org/091230/safe.png
> 
> Right so what am I doing here then?



checking the health section for SMART error returns


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## Charper2013 (Dec 30, 2009)

MikeTyson said:


> http://img.techpowerup.org/091230/safe.png
> 
> Right so what am I doing here then?



Error Scan.


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## MikeTyson (Dec 30, 2009)

Well the tests say it's Okay but I don't believe that at all

This hard drive takes an extremely long time to do anything... a lot more than it used to


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## sneekypeet (Dec 30, 2009)

has it been defragged lately?


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## Charper2013 (Dec 30, 2009)

MikeTyson said:


> Well the tests say it's Okay but I don't believe that at all
> 
> This hard drive takes an extremely long time to do anything... a lot more than it used to



Defragg?

......Sneeky


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## MikeTyson (Dec 30, 2009)

It's been formatted cleanly several times and just keeps degrading


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## sneekypeet (Dec 30, 2009)

Charper2013 said:


> Defragg?



Twice in one thread


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## Phxprovost (Dec 30, 2009)

what leads you to believe its the hdd? are your access times really high? sure its not something else?


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## MikeTyson (Dec 30, 2009)

Phxprovost said:


> what leads you to believe its the hdd? are your access times really high? sure its not something else?



It's the same in my other system too..

It just has so much activity and it's so loud, especially when you boot up

It takes like twice as long now just to get to XP Desktop as it used to when it wasn't as old

And i used to be able to interact with the computer straight away

Now I have to wait ages..

And I don't have anything hogging my startup or extra programmes I never had before

It's just sucky

I hav a really cheap ExcelStor Jupiter 160GB SATA-II, but cos it's cheap I dunno if it'll be any better

Whats the best way to compare?

I'll finish this thread later, it's 5:40am


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## RejZoR (Dec 30, 2009)

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/activediskmon.html

Use this. It'll tell you the condition of the HDD.


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## MikeTyson (Dec 30, 2009)

This doesn't look too great


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## Beertintedgoggles (Dec 30, 2009)

Hopefully this is obvious and redundant, but you have scanned for spyware and the like right?  Also, have you recently installed an antivirus program or changed your antivirus to a different and more invasive program?  I use CA antivirus since it's free with our ISP and I have not had any virus issues since using it (not that I had them before either).  However, that program on a single core processor will being the system to its knees.  Disable it though, and the PC instantly springs back to life speed wise.


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## MikeTyson (Dec 30, 2009)

Yea, but even after a fresh clean install of XP with nothing installed it's still reallyyyyyyyyy slow


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## Chryonn (Jan 4, 2010)

really long load times, random clicking, and crazy activity all point to a knackered drive. save your stuff NOW before it's too late.


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## [H]@RD5TUFF (Jan 4, 2010)

MikeTyson said:


> It's the same in my other system too..
> 
> It just has so much activity and it's so loud, especially when you boot up
> 
> ...



Is it making any kind of noises? If it's spinning loudly, that's not really a sign of immanent failure, it's fairly normal for hard drives to grow louder as they get older, as the bearings get older and the lubricant in them begins to break down. What you should be on the alert for is mechanical scratching or crunching, or clangy squeeky noises. If this is the case, and there is a tangible difference in preformance, I suggest you back up your instilation on a spare hard drive, and begin to look for a replacement. Also as stated before, if you don't defrag on a regular basis you could just have a problem of the data being fragmented all over the hard drive, and thus increasing access times, and slowing down your computer.


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## MilkyWay (Jan 4, 2010)

i dont know if you can test but i get a feeling when mine are going to die, the noise is one major way of telling

clicks and not loading is another one

corrupt data is another one

apart from general stuff there is only like disk checking for corrupt data


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## francis511 (Jan 5, 2010)

Tried chkdsk yet ?


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## MikeTyson (Jan 5, 2010)

Hmm nah, I really can't afford another one

But yea, it does make some horrid noises when it spins up and winds down when you shut down, and a lot of crunching when it searches

When you hav no money, what can ya do...


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## [H]@RD5TUFF (Jan 5, 2010)

MikeTyson said:


> Hmm nah, I really can't afford another one
> 
> But yea, it does make some horrid noises when it spins up and winds down when you shut down, and a lot of crunching when it searches
> 
> When you hav no money, what can ya do...



Grab your "ExcelStor Jupiter 160GB SATA-II" drive and get it ready, if the drive is under 3 years old WD should still honor the warranty, and use the cheap one while you wait for the drive to come back from RMA, sadly if you can't buy a new one, that is pretty much your only option.


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## MikeTyson (Jan 5, 2010)

[H]@RD5TUFF said:


> Grab your "ExcelStor Jupiter 160GB SATA-II" drive and get it ready, if the drive is under 3 years old WD should still honor the warranty, and use the cheap one while you wait for the drive to come back from RMA, sadly if you can't buy a new one, that is pretty much your only option.



It was from an OEM PC ^_^


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## hat (Jan 5, 2010)

I use the Western Digital Hard Drive Diagnostic tool.


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## [H]@RD5TUFF (Jan 6, 2010)

MikeTyson said:


> It was from an OEM PC ^_^



Give it a shot, Seagate, has taken back and replaced drives I bought from people who took them out of an OEM PC. I mean trying is better than nothing, and you never know until you try.


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