Hello.

Forewarned is forearmed! This rule comes in handy when working with hard drives. If you know in advance that such and such a hard drive will most likely fail, then the risk of data loss will be minimal.

Of course, no one will give a 100% guarantee, but with a high degree of probability, some programs can analyze S.M.A.R.T. readings. (a set of software and hardware that monitors the state hard drive) and draw conclusions on how long it will last.

In general, there are dozens of programs to perform such a hard drive check, but in this article I wanted to focus on some of the most visual and easy to use. So…

How to find out state of hard disk

HDDlife

(By the way, in addition to HDD, it also supports SSD drives)

One of best programs for continuous monitoring of the hard drive condition. It will help you recognize the threat in time and replace the hard drive. Most of all, it captivates with its clarity: after launching and analysis, HDDlife presents the report in a very convenient form: you are shown the percentage of the “health” of the disk and its performance (the best indicator, of course, is 100%).

If your performance is above 70%, this indicates the good condition of your disks. For example, after a couple of years of work (quite active by the way), the program analyzed and concluded: that given hard the disk is approximately 92% healthy (which means that it should last, unless force majeure occurs, at least as long).

After launch, the program minimizes to the tray next to the clock and you can always monitor the status of your hard drive. If any problem is detected (for example, the disk temperature is high, or there is too little space left on the hard drive), the program will notify you with a pop-up window. Example below.

HDDLIFE alerts you when your hard drive is running out of space. Windows 8.1.

If the program analyzes and gives you a window like the one in the screenshot below, I advise you not to delay making a backup copy (and replacing the HDD).

HDDLIFE - the data on your hard drive is in danger, the faster you copy it to other media, the better!

Hard Disk Sentinel

This utility can compete with HDDlife - it monitors the disk status just as well. What captivates us most about this program is how informative it is and how easy it is to work with. Those. it will be useful for both a novice user and an already experienced one.

After launching Hard Disk Sentinel and analyzing the system, you will see the main window of the program: on the left you will see hard disks(including external HDDs), and their status will be displayed on the right in the window.

By the way, there is a rather interesting function for predicting the performance of the disk, according to how long it will serve you: for example, in the screenshot below the forecast is more than 1000 days (that’s about 3 years!).

The condition of the hard drive is EXCELLENT. No problematic or weak sectors were found. No speed or data transmission errors were detected.
No action needs to be taken.

By the way, the program implements enough useful feature: you can set the threshold for the critical temperature of the hard drive, upon reaching which, Hard Disk Sentinel will notify you that it has been exceeded!

Hard Disk Sentinel: disk temperature (including the maximum for the entire time the disk was used).

Ashampoo HDD Control

An excellent utility for monitoring the status of hard drives. The monitor built into the program allows you to find out in advance about the first problems with the disk (by the way, the program can even notify you about this by e-mail).

Also, in addition to the main functions, a number of auxiliary ones are built into the program:

Disk Defragmenter;

Testing;

Cleaning the disk from garbage and temporary files (always relevant);

Deleting the history of visiting sites on the Internet (useful if you are not alone at the computer and do not want anyone to know what you are doing);

There are also built-in utilities for reducing disk noise, adjusting power, etc.

Screenshot of the Ashampoo HDD Control 2 window: everything is fine with the hard drive, condition 99%, performance 100%, temperature 41 degrees. (it is desirable that the temperature be less than 40 degrees, but the program considers that everything is in order for this disk model).

By the way, the program is completely in Russian, intuitively thought out - even a novice PC user can figure it out. Pay special attention to the temperature and status indicators in the main program window. If the program produces errors or the condition is assessed as extremely low (+ in addition there is a grinding or noise coming from the HDD), I recommend that you first copy all the data to other media, and then start dealing with the disk.

Hard Drive Inspector

A distinctive feature of this program is:

1. Minimalism and simplicity: there is nothing superfluous in the program. It gives three indicators in percentage terms: reliability, performance and absence of errors;

Hard Drive Inspector - monitoring the condition of the hard drive.

СrystalDiskInfo

A simple but reliable utility for monitoring the status of hard drives. Moreover, it works even in cases where many other utilities refuse, crashing with errors.

The program supports several languages, does not have many settings, and is designed in a minimalist style. At the same time, it has quite rare functions, for example, reducing the noise level of the disk, temperature control, etc.

What is also very convenient is a graphical display of the situation:

Blue color (as in the screenshot below): everything is ok;

Yellow color: alarm, measures need to be taken;

Red: you need to take immediate action (if you still have time);

Gray: the program was unable to determine the readings.

CrystalDiskInfo 2.7.0 - screenshot of the main program window.

HD Tune

This program will be useful to more experienced users: who, in addition to graphic display“health” of the disk, we also need high-quality tests of the disk, in which you can familiarize yourself in detail with all the characteristics and parameters. It should also be noted that the program, in addition to HDD, also supports new-fangled SSD drives.

HD Tune offers a rather interesting feature to quickly check a disk for errors: a 500 GB disk is checked in about 2-3 minutes!

HD TUNE: quick search disk errors. Red squares are not allowed on a new disk.

Also very necessary information is checking the disk read and write speed.

HD Tune - checking disk speed.

Well, we can’t help but note the tab with detailed information about the HDD. This is useful when you need to know, for example, supported functions, buffer/cluster size or disk rotation speed, etc.

HD Tune - detailed information about the hard drive.

In general, there are at least as many similar utilities that can be cited. I think that these will be more than enough for most...

And lastly: don't forget to do backups, even if the disk condition is rated as excellent at 100% (at least the most important and valuable data)!

Good luck...

If the HDD makes strange sounds or there are problems with writing and reading information, you should use one of the programs to check the hard drive for errors. Depending on the task (checking the disk surface for damage, searching for bad sectors, correcting errors, etc.), different software may be useful.

You can quickly check the disk for errors using standard system tools, but to restore the hard drive you will need special third-party programs. Having learned how to check the health of a hard drive using various utilities, a user of any level will be able to cope with any problems that may arise.

CheckDisk System Service is the simplest hard drive diagnostic program that can't find complex errors or fix bad sectors, but is useful for fixing basic problems. It is available on all versions of Windows OS and can be used to check drives of any type. All users need to know how to check a hard drive for errors with this tool.

The graphical interface version of the utility is most convenient for novice users. You can launch it through the disk management menu, which can be accessed in two ways:

1. in Windows XP/Vista/7 - select “Manage” in the context menu of “My Computer”, then go to the desired menu;
2. in Windows 8/10 - press the Win+X combination and select the appropriate item.

In the window that opens, select the device that needs analysis, right-click on it and select “Properties” from the drop-down menu. By going to the “Service” tab, you need to run the hard drive diagnostic program.

The system will check and automatically correct errors if the disk is in this moment not busy with reading or writing processes. Otherwise, the program will offer to test after rebooting the PC. If necessary, in the scan results window you can see detailed information about the HDD status.

The GUI version does not always help, since it is sometimes necessary to check the status of the hard disk safe mode or without starting the operating system at all. In such cases, the console comes to the rescue; you can launch it before the system starts using boot disk.

Once you open the recovery console, you need to run the chkdsk /f command, which will check all connected drives. In some cases, this will help fix the error. However, in most situations, if a HDD failure has made it impossible to start the system, a more in-depth check of the hard drive’s condition will be required.

To use the console command from inside the system you need to:

• launch the command line (via Win+X or by entering cmd in the “Run” window);
• enter the chkdsk command indicating the letter of the partition being checked and additional flags;
• Confirm the operation by pressing Y.

Checking the HDD via the command line will be a little faster than using the GUI version of the program; the results will be shown here in the console.

Linux systems also have standard tools— hdparm and smartctl, launched from the console.

Simple programs for quickly checking HDD

If standard utilities are not suitable, hard drive diagnostics can be carried out using simple third party programs. They allow you to obtain more information about the health status of the HDD, but in case of serious problems they will not be suitable, since they cannot be used to fix the damage.

HDDScan is a free program that performs analysis in two modes:

• according to S.M.A.R.T. indicators;
• linear processing.

The tool evaluates the read and write speed of various sectors, marking the “slow” cells. During the analysis, the program ensures that the tested hard drives do not overheat; at the end of processing, the user is presented with a full report.

HDDScan good versatility. The utility allows you to check disks for errors regardless of the type of device: it can either check an external hard drive or analyze a RAID array, SSD drive or memory card.

Crystal Disk Mark has only one function - it evaluates the read and write speed. Despite this, it is often used, since it is still possible to check the hard drive for serviceability using just two indicators.

The test uses different algorithms, one of which is sequential recording mode. The program gradually fills all the space on the drive with blocks of a size specified by the user, after which it cleans the HDD. The same technique is used by hard drive manufacturers to check product quality. Its disadvantage is that it accelerates the wear of SSD drives.

CrystalDiskInfo And DiskCheckup They are similar in their set of functions, differing only in the interface. They check the status of the hard drive using S.M.A.R.T. algorithms and compile a history of checks, which allows you to track the dynamics of changes. CrystalDiskInfo has more options for visualizing history. For example, you can create a graph, not just get a written report.

Another feature of these programs is a convenient notification system. In-depth hard drive tests usually take a long time. If the user needs to step away from the computer, he can enable notifications of critical HDD errors via E-Mail.

Programs from hard drive manufacturers

Some HDD manufacturers have developed their own utilities for analyzing the status of the hard drive. They are intended for use with devices of the same name; diagnosing a hard drive from another company is possible with their help, but this must be done carefully. Unlike more simple programs, these utilities have versions in different languages, including Russian. Which program is better to analyze the HDD status?

The proprietary program from Seagate exists in two versions: a standard version for running under Windows and a DOS version in ISO image format, from which you can make bootable USB flash drive. It is recommended to use the second option, since the check in this case will be more accurate and efficient.

SeaTools uses part of the S.M.A.R.T indicators. For hard testing disk, without giving out details about each item. Three tests can be performed:

1. short self-test of HDD;
2. short rapid test;
3. a long-term check in which all sectors are read sequentially.

As the scan progresses, the program automatically corrects any errors found.

Owners of hard drives from WD should know how to check the performance of hard drives using proprietary software from this manufacturer. The range of its capabilities is similar to that of the program from Seagate, but is somewhat expanded and allows for more in-depth work with the affected device.

There are two additional functions:

1. deep disk formatting - the program writes zeros to all sectors, permanently destroying information;
2. blocking access to bad sectors - the program marks bad blocks, preventing the writing of new information to them.

Unlike SeaTools, this program for diagnostics, the HDD can be freely used with devices from any manufacturer to check the hard drive for errors - no problems were identified with this.

Deep testing software

If you need not only hard check disk for errors, but also correcting bad sectors cannot be done without complex software, which carries out the most in-depth analysis of the HDD state.

Victoria HDD

According to many users, Victoria HDD is the best software for detecting hard drive problems. The program gained this reputation due to its wide range of functions.

Victoria exists in two versions:

• with a graphical shell for use from inside Windows;
• with a DOS shell to create a boot disk.

It's better to use the second version. Diagnostics of the HDD outside the system allows you to achieve better results, so it is always recommended to follow the principle “if possible, test the disk from the boot disk.” As a last resort, you can use a LiveCD of another OS, for example, a Linux distribution like Ubuntu.

Victoria HDD has a variety of functions:

• quick and complete disk scan;
• reassignment of bad sectors and their restoration;
• checking the status of contacts in the IDE or SATA cable;
• equipment performance analysis;
• viewing S.M.A.R.T. indicators.

When checking, you need to pay attention to the access time to sectors. It should not exceed 200-600 ms. You can also view the temperature of the disk during operation, but this is not so important.

HDD Regenerator

HDD Regenerator is a program for professional hard recovery disk. It not only marks bad sectors as unused, but also tries to revive them. For this, not the standard deep formatting method is used, but a proprietary algorithm based on transmitting signals of different levels to the sector. Despite its professional level, inexperienced users can also use this software, since testing a hard drive with its help is not difficult thanks to its convenient Russian-language interface.

Program features:

• ensuring data safety - it works only in read mode;
• support for different file systems;
• the ability to scan the disk surface;
• real-time monitoring.

The program is not suitable for everyone, since you can check your hard drive for functionality for free, but you will have to pay $90 for the sector recovery function.

If you don't want to pay, you can use TestDisk, a free program that can restore the partition table, boot sectors and MFT. It also detects bad sectors, can recover deleted information and fix file system errors. The only drawback is the lack of a graphical interface; you have to work from the console.

If, after checking the HDD and correcting all problems, the computer does not stop working incorrectly, it is worth checking the registry. Perhaps the failures are caused not by hardware failure, but by internal system errors.

CrystalDiskInfo is a free program for servicing computer HDDs and SSDs with ATA (PATA, SATA), USB and IEEE1394 connection interfaces. If something strange happens to your hard drive, do not be lazy to download CrystalDiskInfo in Russian for your computer for free using the link from the site https://site without registration and SMS. The advantages of the utility include: displaying detailed, reliable information about the status, powerful monitoring and verification tools, as well as effective tools for changing hard drive settings. If problems are detected, Crystal Disk Info displays a warning and sends an email to the user.

Before a large number of bad sectors appear, read and write errors, unpleasant noise, temperatures rise, performance decreases, it makes sense useful program CrystalDiskInfo free download for a computer with an operating system Microsoft Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8, 10 (32-bit and 64-bit). The utility is quickly installed on your computer and uninstalled correctly, without being tracked in the system registry. When you start the program, it checks the status of the hard drive of your computer or laptop; this takes some time.

Checking, monitoring, analysis, graphs and changing settings

When checking, the utility displays detailed information, including information about external HDD USB and IEEE1394. Displayed: firmware version, AAM*/APM** data, interface type, spindle speed, buffer size, operating life, number of bad sectors, temperature and even a graph of temperature dynamics over time, as well as others specifications. S.M.A.R.T*** parameters are monitored, including: number of read errors, overall performance, start-stops and other data. CrystalDiskInfo dynamically tracks changes in a large amount of data from drives in the system, keeps a log and allows you to beautifully display this in the form of graphs. This format allows you to clearly see the overall health picture of the computer’s disk subsystem.

There will be people who want to download CrystalDiskInfo for free without registration and SMS, without leaving the https://site, also because the utility allows you not only to diagnose the hard drive, but also to take care of its health. Changing the AAM and APM settings allows you to control performance parameters and the corresponding amount of acoustic noise produced, as well as power consumption parameters. If necessary, it is possible to reset the bad sector counters. In the "Tools" menu there is a link to the system "Disk Management", where all the necessary transformations are done with them: create a partition, expand or shrink partitions, etc.

Interface and functionality of CrystalDiskInfo

The nice, modern interface supports many localizations, as well as themes (skins), three of which are available immediately after launch. Positive reviews and comments from users are caused by an intuitive display of the status in color: blue (or green) - good, yellow - warning, red - problems/alarm, gray - no information.

This one is small free utility with open source code, is being developed by Japanese programmer Noriyuki Miyazaki (known as Hiyohiyo), so in Europe and America many people find the menus and settings confusing. The Japanese do not share this opinion. Unfortunately, there are no hints or explanations about the importance of unfamiliar to a simple user computer settings, and to figure it out, sometimes you have to refer to the help section.

Rich functionality allow CrystalDiskInfo to compete not only with free, but also with paid programs. According to reviews and comments from many users around the world, it is definitely worth downloading CrystalDiskInfo for Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7, Vista, XP (32-bit and 64-bit) for free in Russian. Among the competitors it is worth noting paid programs HDDlife Professional and Hard Drive Inspector and free Active@ Hard Disk Monitor with Russian language support, as well as paid HD Tune Pro on English language. As for the functionality of Crystal Disk Info, you definitely need to know about the following advantages of this utility:

• high data reliability,
• correct interaction with S.M.A.R.T technology,
• monitoring of more than 25 parameters,
• data on current operating modes in real time,
• temperature and S.M.A.R.T data monitoring,
• displaying disk temperatures in the system tray,
• prompt e-mail notification of problems,
• ability to change AAM/APM settings,
• control of speed and amount of acoustic noise,
• settings to save energy consumption,
• no conflicts with latest versions SSD drives,
• work with external HDDs With USB interfaces and IEEE 1394,
• compatible with big amount equipment****.

reference Information

* Automatic Acoustic Management (AAM) - control of the track search time parameter, in this case, the faster the block of magnetic heads moves along the radius during search, the more noise.

**Advanced Power Management (APM) - energy management.

*** Self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology (S.M.A.R.T.) - internal system self-diagnosis and self-monitoring using equipment built into the disk with the ability to generate reports and predict the breakdown period.

**** A comprehensive list of compatible equipment is located on the official crystalmark website in the info domain.

Download the latest version of CrystalDiskInfo in Russian

Free programs download for free

Now you are on the page "Russian Crystal Disk Info - checking the hard drive and taking care of its health", in the Computer Tests section of the site, where everyone has the opportunity to legally download programs for a computer running Microsoft Windows OS. This page was created/substantially updated on 07/01/2019. Thank you for visiting the section.

Hello admin! I read several articles on your website about the Victoria program and a question arose. What, the last one operating system from Microsoft - Windows 10 is so flawed and it doesn’t have a built-in hard drive diagnostic tool? Is it really not possible for it to determine the state of the hard drive on which it is installed and is it necessary to download third-party programs? I have new laptop with Windows 10 and if such a tool exists, then please tell us about it in your articles. I also wanted to ask. In one of your comments, you said that it is useless to run the hard drive status check utility built into Windows 10 - CHKDSK to find and fix bad sectors (bad blocks). Why? After all, on all sites like yours it is written that chkdsk, launched with the /R parameter, can fix bad blocks!

How to find out the status of your hard drive using built-in tools in Windows 10

Hello friends! On our website there are about a dozen articles on this topic, but what’s interesting is that I didn’t tell you about this method, but it nevertheless exists.

In fact, you can find out the status of the hard drive in Windows 10 using built-in tools, but these tools will simply tell you: “Yes, the condition of the disk is good” or “The condition of the disk is bad,” but how bad is it and is it worth urgently copying data from HDD and replace it, or you can wait at least until tomorrow, that’s what they won’t tell you. Why?

In simple words, the operating system simply reads the self-diagnosis readings of the hard drive (S.M.A.R.T.) and if it is GOOD (good), then the system tells us so - “The disk is working fine.” If the S.M.A.R.T status of the hard drive is BAD (bad), then the system will indicate that the disk is faulty. But in life everything is relative and very often the HDD is on the verge of failure, and Windows still shows us that the disk is working normally.

In short, if you want to accurately diagnose a hard drive, then you can’t do without special programs and even chkdsk won't help you. I will try to prove this to you in today's article.

To find out the status of your hard drive in Windows 10 using built-in tools, you need to go to« Control Panel»

"Security and Service Center"

"Service"

As you can see, Windows 10 evaluates the condition of the hard drive as normal: All drives are working fine. OK.

But in fact, if you now run special program for diagnostics hard drives, then you will see that the status of the hard drive is C (Alarm!) and it is full of unstable sectors that the built-in firmware of the hard drive could not correct.

The Victoria program will say the same thing.

How else can you find out the status of your hard drive using the built-in tools of Windows 10 or how to use the disk check utility (chkdsk). Running disk check from the GUI

Windows 10 has a disk check utility called chkdsk and you can run it directly in the graphical interface or by using command line. After checking, the utility will issue a full report on the state of the file system of your operating system installed.

Note: On many sites you may read that the chkdsk utility, run with the /R parameter, can fix bad sectors (bad blocks), but in fact this is not the case. Bad sectors can be reassigned to good sectors from backup tracks only by the built-in HDD technical control microprogram disk status. What the chkdsk utility does is fix errors in the NTFS or FAT32 file system and it is best to use the utilitychkdsk to fix file system errors, not to diagnose the condition of the hard drive. Let me explain a little.
You all know that the minimum unit of information on a hard disk is a sector, a volume user accessible is 512 bytes. When formatting a hard drive into a file system, all sectors are combined into clusters (one cluster is placed on several sectors); accordingly, a cluster is the minimum area of ​​the file system. So here it is, utility chkdsk does not work with hard disk sectors, but at a higher level - with clusters. In turn, the Victoria and MHDD programs are used to check hard disk sectors, not clusters; therefore, they do not treat the file system.

Go to the Computer window and right-click on the drive (C:), select “Properties”

Go to the “Service” tab and click on the “Check” button

"Check disk"

The disk is being checked for errors.

The disk has been successfully verified. No errors found.

The post contains a list of the 20 best free tools for partitioning, diagnostics, encryption, recovery, cloning, and formatting disks. In general, almost everything you need for basic work with them.

1.TestDisk

TestDisk allows you to recover boot partitions, deleted sections, fix damaged partition tables and restore data, as well as create copies of files from deleted/inaccessible partitions.

Note: PhotoRec is a related application to TestDisk. With its help, it is possible to recover data in the memory of a digital camera on hard drives and CDs. In addition, you can restore basic image formats, audio files, text documents, HTML files and various archives.

When you run TestDisk, you are presented with a list of hard drive partitions that you can work with. The selection of available actions carried out in sections includes: analysis to adjust the structure (and subsequent recovery, if a problem is detected); changing disk geometry; deleting all data in the partition table; boot partition recovery; listing and copying files; recovering deleted files; creating a snapshot of the section.

2. EaseUS Partition Master

EaseUS Partition Master is a tool for working with hard drive partitions. It allows you to create, move, merge, split, format, change their size and location without losing data. It also helps to recover deleted or lost data, check partitions, move the OS to another HDD/SSD, etc.

On the left is a list of operations that can be performed with the selected section.

3.WinDirStat

The free program WinDirStat analyzes the used disk space. Shows how data is distributed and which ones take up more space.

Clicking on a field in the diagram will display the file in question in a structural form.

After loading WinDirStat and selecting disks for analysis, the program scans the directory tree and provides statistics in the following options: list of directories; directory map; list of extensions.

4. Clonezilla

Clonezilla creates a disk image of the cloning tool, which is also packaged with Parted Magic and is initially available as a standalone tool. Available in two versions: Clonezilla Live and Clonezilla SE (Server Edition).

Clonezilla Live is a bootable Linux distribution that allows you to clone individual devices.
Clonezilla SE is a package that installs on Linux distribution. It is used to simultaneously clone multiple computers over a network.

5. OSFMount

Using this utility makes it possible to mount previously made disk images and present them in the form virtual drives by directly viewing the data itself. OSFMount supports image files such as: DD, ISO, BIN, IMG, DD, 00n, NRG, SDI, AFF, AFM, AFD and VMDK.

An additional function of OSFMount is the creation of RAM disks located in random access memory computer, which significantly speeds up working with them. To start the process, go to File > Mount new virtual disk.

6. Defraggler

Defraggler is a free program for defragmenting your hard drive, which helps increase its speed and lifespan. A special feature of the program is the ability to defragment individual files.

Defraggler analyzes the contents on the disk and displays a list of all fragmented files. During the defragmentation process, the movement of data on the disk is displayed. Those highlighted in yellow are data that is being read, and those highlighted in green are those that are being written. Upon completion, Defraggler displays a corresponding message.

Supports file systems NTFS, FAT32 and exFAT.

7. SSDLife

SSDLife - diagnoses a solid-state drive, displays information about its condition and estimates its expected service life. Supports remote monitoring, manages performance levels on some hard drive models.

By monitoring SSD wear, you can increase the level of data security and identify problems in a timely manner. Based on the analysis, the program concludes how often the solid-state drive is used.

8. Darik's Boot And Nuke (DBAN)

A fairly popular free utility, DBAN, is used to clean up hard drives.

DBAN has two main modes: interactive mode and automatic mode. Interactive mode allows you to prepare the disk for data removal and select the necessary erasing options. Auto mode Cleans all detected disks.

9.HD Tune

The HD Tune utility is designed to work with hard drives and SSDs. Measures the HDD/SSD read-write level, scans for errors, checks the disk status and displays information about it.

When launching the application, you need to select a drive from the drop-down list and go to the appropriate tab to view the information.

10.VeraCrypt

VeraCrypt - free application for open source encryption. On-the-fly encryption is used.

The VeraCrypt project was created on the basis of TrueCrypt with the goal of strengthening methods for protecting encryption keys.

11. CrystalDiskInfo

CrystalDiskInfo displays the status of hard drives that support S.M.A.R.T technology. The utility monitors, evaluates the general condition and displays detailed information about hard drives (firmware version, serial number, standard, interface, total time work, etc.). CrystalDiskInfo has support for external hard drives.

The top panel on the screen displays all active hard drives. Clicking on each one reveals the information. The Health Status and Temperature icons change color depending on the value.

12. Recuva

The Recuva utility is used to recover accidentally deleted or lost files. It scans the desired storage medium and then displays a list of deleted files. Each file has its own parameters (name, type, path, recovery probability, status).

The required files are identified using the preview function and marked with checkboxes. You can sort the search result by type (graphics, music, documents, videos, archives) and immediately view the contents.

13.TreeSize

The TreeSize program shows a tree of directories located on the hard drive, providing information about their sizes, and also analyzes the use of disk space.

Folder sizes are displayed from largest to smallest. This way it becomes clear which folders take up the most space.

Note: With Defraggler, Recuva and TreeSize, you can trigger Defraggler and Recuva functions for a specific folder directly from TreeSize - all three applications integrate seamlessly.

14.HDDScan

HDDScan is a hard drive diagnostic utility used to test storage devices (HDD, RAID, Flash) to identify errors. Views S.M.A.R.T. attributes, displays hard drive temperature sensor readings in the taskbar and performs comparison test read-write.

HDDScan is designed for testing SATA, IDE, SCSI, USB, FifeWire (IEEE 1394) drives.

15.Disk2vhd

The free utility Disk2vhd converts a valid physical disk into a virtual Virtual Hard Disk (VHD) for Microsoft platforms Hyper-V. Moreover, a VHD image can be created directly from a running operating system.

Disk2vhd creates one VHD file for each disk with selected volumes, preserving information about disk partitions and copying only the data that belongs to the selected volume.

16. NTFSWalker

The portable utility NTFSWalker allows you to analyze all records (including deleted data) in the main file table MFT of an NTFS disk.

Having your own NTFS drivers makes it possible to view file structure without Windows Help on any computer readable media. Available for viewing deleted files, regular files, as well as detailed attributes for each file.

17.GParted

- open source disk partition editor. Performs efficient and secure partition management (creation, deletion, resizing, moving, copying, checking) without data loss.

GParted allows you to create partition tables (MS-DOS or GPT), enable, disable and change attributes, align partitions, recover data from damaged partitions and much more.

18. SpeedFan

The SpeedFan computer program monitors sensor performance motherboard, video cards and hard drives, with the ability to regulate the rotation speed of installed fans. It is possible to carry out automatic and manual adjustment.

SpeedFan works with hard drives with SATA, EIDE and SCSI interfaces.

19. MyDefrag

MyDefrag is a free disk defragmenter that is used to organize data located on hard drives, floppy disks, USB drives and memory cards.

The program has a convenient function of working in screensaver mode, as a result of which defragmentation will be performed at the time designated for launching the screen saver. MyDefrag also allows you to create or customize your own scripts.

20. DiskCryptor

Using the open source encryption program DiskCryptor, you can completely encrypt a disk (all disk partitions, including the system one).

DiskCryptor has quite high performance is one of the fastest disk volume encryption drivers. The program supports FAT12, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS and exFAT file systems, allowing you to encrypt internal or external drives.