Verifying Disk Health
Definitions
Section titled “Definitions”S.M.A.R.T. - this is a monitoring system included in disk drives(HDDs and SSDs). Its primary function is to detect and report various indicators of drive reliability and health.
Sectors - these are sections of your hard drive that store data. Your hard drive has many many sectors.
Important SMART Values
Section titled “Important SMART Values”If you ever read a SMART report from any of the below tools it is useful understanding the common ones that you want to watch for. Current Pending Sector Count
When a sector is detected as bad it will be counted and the disk will attempt to move it. This value can go up and down as the disk moves or recovers sectors.
Reallocated Sectors Count
Section titled “Reallocated Sectors Count”When detected as bad your disk will attempt to move a sector. If it is moved successfully this count will go up.
Uncorrectable Sector Count
Section titled “Uncorrectable Sector Count”This count goes up when the disk is not able to recover and move a sector. This indicates lost data.
Pending Sector Count
Section titled “Pending Sector Count”This count goes up when the disk is being read with unstable sectors on the disk. They are a precursor to Reallocated Sectors, which cause lost of data.
InformationFor more info about those attributes, read Wikipedia and Backblaze articles.
Crystal Disk Info
Section titled “Crystal Disk Info”Crystal disk is the simplest way to get a reading on SMART within Windows. Download the application then run it to view every disk in the machine.
For directions on using CDI please see our factoid about it.
Reading CDI
Section titled “Reading CDI”The basics are color coded; if a disk shows up as Yellow/‘Caution’ or Red/‘Bad’ we recommend replacing it.
Hard Disk Sentinel
Section titled “Hard Disk Sentinel”SEAGATE (SeaTools)
Section titled “SEAGATE (SeaTools)”Bootable
Section titled “Bootable”Windows Application
Section titled “Windows Application”SmartmonTools
Section titled “SmartmonTools”You can check SMART in Linux using smartmonTools. The quick steps to get a report in Ubuntu are: (replace X with your desired disk)
sudo apt install smartmontoolssudo smartctl -a -d ata /dev/sdXGSmartControl (GUI method)
Section titled “GSmartControl (GUI method)”sudo apt install gsmartcontrol-
Open
gsmartcontrolfrom the application menu -
Select your disk once the application is opened
If your disk is anything but ‘passed’ then your disk is dying and needs to be replaced.
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To share your results choose ‘View output’ then ‘Save as’ and upload that file to a helper for review.