How to check the hard drive on a laptop: methods, step by step

A hard disk is the main data storage on any computer equipment. Often the slow operation of the system is caused by problems with the hard drive, because before you bring the laptop to the workshop, you can check the drive yourself and try to fix all the errors.

How to check the hard drive: ways

Often, the slow operation of the operating system in a laptop is caused precisely by malfunctions of the hard drive. There are many ways to determine the health of a hard drive.

Standard Windows Tools

This check is the same for all versions of Windows.

Stages of action:

1. Open My Computer.
2. Right-click on the desired drive and click on the "Properties" menu.
3. In the tab that appears, find "Service", click "Check Disk".
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4. In this menu, it is necessary to mark two checkboxes opposite: “Sector recovery” and “Automatically fix errors”.
5. Perform a “Start”.

If there is a message “Windows cannot check the disk used”, you need to enter the “Scan Schedule”.

Reference! After that, a restart is performed, and during the startup of Windows, a test will begin to work to check the status of work and correct errors. The duration of testing is from several minutes to 2-3 hours, taking into account the size and parameters of the hard disk.

Using command line

To perform the verification, you need to perform the following steps: go through the "Start" in the "All Programs" menu, then select "Standard" and find the section "Command Prompt". Right-click, and select "Administrator".

In the field we write “chkdsk drive: verification_ settings”. Please note that this method can only work with storage devices formatted in FAT32.

For example "chkdsk D: / F / R". I.e:

1. Drive D is checked.
2. Errors are corrected automatically (command F).
3. All sectors are checked and data is restored (R command).

If you need to diagnose the disk that is currently used by the system, a message appears prompting you to check when you restart the PC. Y - agree, N - refuse. After checking, information about the number of errors and bad sectors will appear.

How to understand that there are problems with the hard drive

It is always better to know the approximation of problems with the hard drive in advance before the hard drive "dies" and the information cannot be restored.

Listen for extraneous sounds

Periodically literally listen to how the storage device works. If you hear any sounds that previously were not in the laptop, this may be a harbinger of the malfunction of the hard drive.

What else is indicated by the sounds in the laptop case:

• a power problem, for example, a broken head, a burnt out chip, damage to hard drive pancakes, failure of the pcb controller, voltage drop or malfunctions associated with a shock;
• a firmware failure on the ROM chip of the storage device;
• on the failure of the read head.

If the cooling system starts to make a lot of noise, it means that the central processor starts loading. If at this time there are no active tasks, then you need to check for the presence of virus programs.

Winchester, which will soon fail, strongly “knocks” and “pops” during opening files. These sounds only amplify over time. But it is necessary to exclude the situation if extraneous noise indicates an overflow of disk information. Defragmentation can help here.

Blue Screen of Death BSOD

In the best case, if the documents are damaged, the BSOD screen pops up. In this case, try to put the system on another hard drive and save the information.

These screens indicate that the system is malfunctioning.

Winchester is not formatted

This message usually occurs if one of the sectors of the drive is damaged. This is caused by various reasons, among the most common: incorrect restart, virus programs, utility launch, separation Winchester, shutdown or power surge, install new software, antivirus, software update. There are quite a few reasons.

The laptop restarts all the time

The main reason is the boot sector, which attacked the virus, creating a constant PC restart cycle. The virus program forces the OS to access the boot sector and continuously restart the laptop. This can lead to rapid damage to the drive.

Folder Opening Speed

For example, the opening of the "Explorer" lasts more than 20 minutes, cleaning the "Basket" takes more than an hour. This is a very common problem, which is constantly accompanied by a breakdown of the hard drive after 2-3 months.

In the case even when the checked hard drive is working, experts advise to save important data located on the hard drive anyway. Backup copies of documents should always be done on another drive.