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I am using Windows 8.1 Pro and have a drive that I think may be dying, so I ran 4 different repair tools on it. And now WD Data Lifeguard shows no disk errors at all after a full test. I’m still concerned about the stability of the disk, but I would like to try using it again with the knowledge that any data on it could be destroyed at any time.

Is there a way I can monitor the disk access reads/writes or whatever information I would need to be able to tell if the hard disk drive is in fact going bad? I don’t mind having a program run in the background to monitor as I’ll likely only be using it for a few weeks at most.

Julian Knight
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vaindil
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1 Answers1

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As Google found out a couple of years ago, the SMART data from disks is not actually valuable in predicting failure.

They ran tests against thousands of hard drives comparing SMART data with actual failures and found there was very little correlation.

Personally, I've only ever come across one tool that is a good indicator of disc issues - and able to often fix them. Unfortunately it is a commercial tool and quite expensive at around USD90. Spinrite from grc.com is the tool in case you are interested.

Worth noting that, in the last 3 years, I've seen 4 or 5 hard drives fail and that is a pretty high ratio. The move to laptops and more mobile use while the increasing data density seem to be the issues.

Julian Knight
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