Free Hard Drive Testing and Diagnostic Software - Top 6 🚩

Sherly updated on Oct 15, 2024 to Partition Master | How-to Articles

On this page, you can get the best free hard drive testing and diagnostic software for Windows. Choose and download one based on your needs.

Is your hard drive running slow? If yes, install the best hard drive testing software now. These tools will help you detect and fix most errors, bad sectors, and other issues that can affect your hard drive.

Overview of Hard Drive Testing Software

The best way to detect various hard drive internal errors is to use free hard drive testing software. Almost all hard drive manufacturers have their own diagnostic tools. 

This article from EaseUS will list six reliable hard drive health testing software for you.

  1. EaseUS Partition Master Free - Portable version available
  2. HDDScan
  3. Seagate SeaTools
  4. CrystalDiskInfo
  5. Hard Disk Sentinel
  6. Macrorit Disk Scanner

But if you own multiple brands of hard drives at the same time, EaseUS Partition Master is a better free option. It supports all brands of hard drives and can test the health status (temperature, life, bad sectors, etc.) of the current hard drive.

Kindly share this article and let more users know about them.

 

Free Hard Drive Testing and Diagnostic Software - Top 6 in 2024

Most hard drive testing tools have similar functionality, but some applications only work with specific hard drives. First, we start with the most compatible tool.

1. EaseUS Partition Master Free

EaseUS Partition Master is a free hard drive testing and diagnostic tool that will check your drive for system issues and faulty sectors, temperature, and age and alert you if there are any problems with your hard drive. With it, you can run a SMART status test for your disks.

This tool allows you to run hard disk health checks offline and supports all brands. Its nice compatibility and clear interface make it the first position.

Support Brands: All brands like Samsung, Seagate, Crucial, and W.D.

Support OS: Windows 10/11/8/8.1/7/XP

Provides effective hard disk testing and diagnosing features:

  • Check hard drive health
  • Run SMART status
  • Run a surface test to find bad sectors
  • Monitor temperature, identity information of a hard drive
  • Test hard drive running speed

🏆Pros and Cons

Pros👍🏻 Cons👎🏻
  • Easy-to-use user interface
  • It provides a lot of valuable operations
  • Has great compatibility
  • Provides 24x7 professional service and guidance
  • Only for Windows

✍🏻Review from Lifewire

The overall look and feel of EaseUS Partition Master Free makes whatever I'm doing with my computer's partitions easy to understand and accomplish. The options aren't too overwhelming, and each of them is accurately named.

Hard disk health check software free download:

Don't miss this best hard disk health check software.

2. HDDScan

HDDScan is a completely free hard drive testing tool. It provides functions such as Surface Tests and S.M.A.S.T. Offline Tests to help people understand the status of the hard drive. In addition to diagnosing hard drive status, the software can also help monitor temperatures, build command lines, identity information, and more.

The official system requirements state that you need to be running at least Windows XP when you use HDDScan. Plus, it's a portable one, so it can't be installed on your computer.

💡Key Features

  • Provides all users with effective hard drive testing functions, such as surface testing, transmission testing, etc.
  • Provide users with other functions, such as temperature monitoring, identity information, establishing command lines, etc.
  • Supports all types of hard drives of different brands.

🏆Pros and Cons

Pros👍🏻 Cons👎🏻
  • Works with all hard drives
  • No installation needed (portable)
  • Easy to use
  • No built-in help docs or any tips for using it
  • Can't install the program to your computer (Portable only)

✍🏻Review from Lifewire

HDDScan is a portable hard drive testing program for Windows that can run various tests on all sorts of internal and external hard drives. The program is easy to use 

Hard Disk Health Check Software Free Download: https://hddscan.com/

Alternatively, you can click the blue button below to install the easier and safer hard disk check software - EaseUS Partition Master.

3. Seagate SeaTools

Seagate develops SeaTools for Windows, Linux, and D.O.S. The D.O.S. version runs faster and can repair bad sectors. Windows and Linux versions provide all the features you need to test hard drives. But it is more difficult to use.

💡Key Features

  • Available for Windows and DOS.
  • Provides automatic scanning function at startup.
  • Perform hard disk health check online free.

🏆Pros and Cons

Pros👍🏻 Cons👎🏻
  • User-friendly interface
  • Free of charge
  • Multilingual product
  • Scanning partitions can sometimes be cumbersome and tricky
  • Need to close all running programs before running a scan

✍🏻Review from Lifewire

Seagate's SeaTools hard drive testing programs are some of the easiest to use of any we've ever worked with. The tests are basic and easy to run.

Download Seagate Seatools: https://www.seagate.com/cn/zh/support/downloads/seatools/

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4. CrystalDiskInfo

CrystalDiskInfo is a free, open-source HDD testing and diagnostic software that displays all the information about the hard drive you are using, including health and temperature.

After installing this utility on your computer, you can check your hard drive's read and write speed and disc error rate.

💡Key Feature:

  • Supports almost all hard drives
  • You can monitor HDD performance in real-time while working on Windows systems.
  • You will receive alert emails and alert options if the disk is unhealthy.
  • It provides SMART data, including read error rates, seek response times, power cycle counts, and more.

🏆Pros and Cons

Pros👍🏻 Cons👎🏻
  • Free and open-source
  • Lightweight and portable version
  • Displays S.M.A.R.T. information on devices
  • Difficult to use
  • No explanation of the displayed data

✍🏻Review from AlternativeTo:

Compact hard drive benchmark utility with large, simple, and easily readable read/write results.

Download site: https://crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/

Share this article to let more users know about Crystal Disk Info, Hard Disk Sentinel, HDDScan, and other hard drive diagnostic tools.

 

5. Hard Disk Sentinel

Hard Disk Sentinel is a complete tool for checking your running hard drive for problems and alerting you if there is a problem with your hard drive. It provides a complete text description to help you find the cause of the hard drive failure.

💡Key Feature

  • It finds tests, diagnoses, and repairs hard drive problems.
  • It reports and displays S.S.D. and HDD health, performance degradation, and failures.

🏆Pros and Cons

Pros👍🏻 Cons👎🏻
  • Professional
  • Automatically detect disk temperature
  • Users can set threshold data to predict disk health and issue alerts
  • Features are limited in the standard version
  • macOS and older Windows operating systems are not supported

✍🏻Review from DownloadCNET

This software is pretty comprehensive when it comes to monitoring. Whether you have internal hard drives, external drives, SSDs, or even USB sticks and memory cards, Hard Disk Sentinel can handle them all.

Hard Disk Sentinel Download Site: https://www.hdsentinel.com/download.php

To run a health check on an old Windows version, we suggest you use EaseUS Partition Master, which is widely compatible with all Windows versions.

6. Macrorit Disk Scanner

Macrorit Disk Scanner is a simple and easy-to-use program for checking bad sectors on your hard drive. It's completely portable and requires no installation. But it offers limited functionality, and it contains external links that you might accidentally click on.

💡Key Features

  • It can scan and mark bad sectors on the disk.
  • It provides understandable log files.
  • It comes with a portable edition.

🏆Pros and Cons

Pros👍🏻 Cons👎🏻
  • Beautiful visual effects
  • No installation required
  • Works with multiple Windows operating systems
  • Excludes features only available in the paid version
  • Free for personal/family use only

✍🏻Review From Download Crew

Macrorit Disk Scanner checks disks quickly and gives you a simple visual report, but that's it. If you're hoping to correct the errors or do anything faintly technical, use chkdsk or try something else.

Download Site: https://macrorit.com/disk-surface-test/disk-surface-test.html

To Sum Up

If your hard drive is experiencing problems and becomes unresponsive, you must have your drive checked immediately. Using any of the hard drive testing software recommended in this article is the most direct way to evaluate the health of your hard drive.

For best results, we recommend EaseUS Partition Master Free. This tool comes in a portable version; of course, you can also install it directly on your computer. It allows you to test the health status of all hard drives and external hard drives and diagnose all potential threats to the hard drive.

Hard Drive Diagnostic Tool FAQs

Which is the best hard drive diagnostic tool Windows 10? How can you perform a hard disk health check software free download? Continue to read and get more details.

1. How can I check the health of my hard drive for free?

Besides the tools mentioned just now, you can use chkdsk commands to check hard drive health:

Step 1. Right-click the Windows icon, select the "Run" option, and enter cmd in the Run Window. 

Step 2. Enter chkdsk in the Command Prompt window and press "Enter." This scans your drive, and it will display the errors, if any.

2. What program can I use to test my hard drive?

The common hard disk diagnostic and test tools are as follows:

  • Western Digital Dashboard
  • Seagate SeaTools
  • HDDScan
  • DiskCheckup
  • Samsung Magician
  • GSmartControl

3. What is the free software to test hard drive speed?

EaseUS Partition Master is a free hard drive testing tool. It comes with DiskMark and Disk Health features, allowing you to check hard drive speed and health status.