Have you just bought an external hard drive to store lots of precious files downloaded from the Internet, but before you start “moving” your data, would you like to make sure that the drive has no problems or bad sectors? Good idea! However, if you are here now and reading these lines, it is clear that you don’t have the slightest idea how to do this.
Excuse me? That’s exactly how it is and would you then like to see if I can help you achieve your goal? Of course you can! If you give me a few minutes of your precious time, in fact, I can show you how to test an external hard drive using some special tools available for both Windows and macOS.
They are valid for both mechanical disks and SSDs and, contrary to what it may seem, they are not difficult to use, even by those who don’t really consider themselves tech-savvy. So? Ready to get started? Are you? Great. Let’s put the small talk aside and proceed. I wish you, as my usual, happy reading and wish you the best of luck with everything!
How to test PC external hard drive
Do you use Windows and would you like to understand what tools you have on your side to test your PC’s external hard drive and, most importantly, how you can use them? Then read on. Below you will find what, in my humble opinion, are the best utilities in the category and their directions for use.
Disc Control
The first tool to test the external hard disk in your possession that I recommend you consider is the Disk Control utility, evolution of the historic ScanDisk included “standard” on Windows computers.
This is a tool thanks to which it is possible to check the integrity of the storage units connected to the computer, not only externally but also internally, and that allows repairing all the errors that commonly prevent hard drives from working properly.
In order to use it, first open the File Explorer by selecting the File Explorer icon (the one with the yellow folder) on the taskbar. In the window that appears on the desktop, select the name of the external hard drive connected to the computer from the left sidebar, right-click on it and choose Properties from the context menu that appears.
In the additional window that opens, select the Tools tab and click the Check button located under the Error Checking section. On the new screen that opens, click the Analyze and Restore Drive button.
This will start the analysis procedure of the external disk, at the end of which you will be able to find out, through the report that will be proposed to you, which errors, if any, have been detected and corrected by the utility.
Command Prompt
You can also check the proper health of an external hard drive connected to your PC from the command line by invoking the CHKDSK tool from the Command Prompt. How do you do it? I’ll tell you right now, it’s a breeze.
To begin with, invoke the Command Prompt as an administrator by clicking on the Start button (the one with the Windows flag) located at the bottom left corner of the taskbar, typing “command prompt” in the search field displayed, right-clicking on the relevant suggestion, selecting Run as administrator from the menu that opens and pressing the Yes button in the window that appears on the desktop.
In the Command Prompt screen that you now see on your desktop, enter the CHKDSK C: /F /R command (instead of C, type the letter that was assigned to the drive relative to the external hard disk), which is the one that allows you to locate the bad sectors of the disk and then try to recover the information contained in them, and press the Enter key on your computer keyboard.
Next, it will start analyzing the disk and, once the process is finished, you’ll be able to consult the appropriate report, find out if any problems were detected and what actions, if any, had to be taken.
If you’re using Windows 8/8.x or Windows 10, please note that as an alternative to how I indicated earlier, you can take advantage of the command CHKDSK C: /spotfix (instead of C, you must always type the letter that has been assigned to the drive related to the external hard drive), which is much faster than the correction with the standard parameters.
CrystalDisk
To test the external hard drive connected to your computer, you can also use some third-party tools, such as CrystalDisk. This is a free program that does not require installation and is capable of retrieving S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) parameters and predicting impending malfunctions.
To download the program to your computer, visit its website, locate the CrystalDiskInfo x.x.x – Manual / History section at the top, then the Standard Edition heading below and click the ZIP (XP-) button.
Once the downloading process is complete, extract the ZIP archive to a folder of your choice and run DiskInfo64.exe (if you are using 64-bit Windows) or DiskInfo32.exe (if you are using 32-bit Windows) from within it. In both cases, then click the Yes button in the window you see appearing on your desktop.
Once the downloading process is complete, extract the ZIP archive to a folder of your choice and run DiskInfo64.exe (if you are using 64-bit Windows) or DiskInfo32.exe (if you are using 32-bit Windows) from within it. In both cases, then click the Yes button in the window you see appearing on your desktop.
If problems are reported, you can consult the information in the Parameter column at the bottom of the screen, so you can understand what is wrong, bearing in mind that the items marked with a yellow dot are those related to criticality and problems.
Other applications to test external hard drive
If you’re looking for more third-party tools to verify that the hard drive connected to your computer is working properly, you can evaluate the ones listed below.
HD Tune – free software that allows you to check the health status of hard drives connected to your computer using the S.M.A.R.T. system. It is also great for testing the speed of an external hard drive, both reading and writing, as it has a special feature built in. It should be noted, then, that eventually it is available in a paid variant (at a cost of 24.95 euros), which offers some extra features, such as the possibility to consult the error log.
HDD Health – another program that allows you to read the value of various S.M.A.R.T. parameters and notifies you in case the detected data causes concern.
AS SSD Benchmark – free, easy-to-use software that allows you to test the performance and read and write speeds of hard drives connected to your PC in a matter of minutes. It requires no installation to use.
How to test Mac external hard drive
Do you own an Apple-branded computer and would like to understand how to test an external hard drive on Mac? If so, you will find the solutions you can rely on in the steps below.
Disk Utility
The first tool you can use to test the external hard drive on Mac is Disk Utility. In case you’re not aware of it, it is an application that comes “standard” in macOS, thanks to which you can manage all storage drives, both external and internal, connected to the computer, allowing you to format them, partition them, check for proper operation, correct any problems, etc..
To use it, access Launchpad by selecting the Launchpad icon (the one with the space rocket) on the Dock bar and clicking on the Disk Utility icon (the one with the hard drive and stethoscope) in the More folder.
In the window that now appears on your desktop, select the name of the external hard drive you are interested in from the sidebar on the left. If the menu is not visible, you can enable it by clicking the View button at the top left and choosing the Show sidebar option from the menu that opens.
Now, click on the S.O.S. button at the top and press the Run button to confirm that you want to use the diagnostic function.
Then wait for the analysis procedure to start and finish. If any errors are found, Disk Utility will repair them automatically. When the process is complete, you will be shown a report.
Terminal
You can also make use of the diagnostic tools for hard drives connected to your Mac from the command line, using the macOS Terminal. How do I do that? I’ll explain it immediately, it’s not difficult.
To begin with, access the Launchpad by selecting the Launchpad icon (the one with the space rocket) on the Dock bar and then clicking on the Terminal icon (the one with the black window and the line of code) found in the More folder.
Now that you see the Terminal window on your desktop, type the command diskutil verifyvolume /Volumes/drive name/ (instead of drive name, you have to enter the name of your external hard drive, which you can find via the diskutil list command) and hit the Enter key on your Mac keyboard.
Then wait for the disk analysis procedure to start and finish. If no errors are found, repair is not necessary.
If problems are encountered, however, to try to resolve them issue the command repairvolume /Volumes/drive name/ (instead of drive name, always enter the drive name of your external hard drive), press the Enter key on your keyboard and wait for the procedure to complete.
SMARTReporter
Among the most reliable third-party solutions for testing an external hard drive on Mac, SMARTReporter is undoubtedly a noteworthy application. It takes advantage of the S.M.A.R.T. system to provide information about the health of the disks, making it easily available to anyone and showing special notifications about the health of mechanical disks and SSDs. It is paid (it costs €10.99), but you can download a free trial version with limited functionality.
To download the program to your Mac, go to its website and click on the Download for free Tryout Version button at the bottom.
Once downloaded, extract the ZIP archive to a location of your choice and move the program’s icon inside the Applications folder of macOS. Then, right-click on it and select Open twice, in order to launch the program and bypass the limitations Apple has placed on non-certified developers (this should only be done on first startup).
Now that you see the program’s window on your desktop, choose whether you want SMARTReporter to start automatically at system startup and whether you want to enable notifications by turning their switches to ON, then click the Finish Setup and OK buttons.
On the Status tab of the program you can find details about the general status of all hard drives connected to the Mac, while clicking on individual items or accessing the Disk Checks section you can view the available information in detail, decide to exclude specific hard drives from the analysis and personally configure the various analysis parameters.
I would also like to inform you that if you go to the History tab, you will find graphs and reports related to the analyses performed, while through the Settings tab you can define the program’s settings related to notifications, icons to be used etc.
As an alternative to the solutions I have already suggested in the previous lines, to test an external hard drive on your Mac you can make use of additional third-party applications attached to the following list.
Blackmagic Disk Speed Test – free utility that allows you to test the read and write speed of mechanical disks, SSDs and removable drives in a very simple way. Just press a button and you’re done!
DriveDx – this is an application that allows you to test the status of disks connected to your Mac and find out if they have any problems. It is easy to use and also has a nice user interface. Note that this is a paid solution (it costs $24.99), but you can download it as a free trial version, running without limitations for 10 days.
Drive Genius – is one of the best diagnostic tools available for macOS. It allows you to scan your hard drives for problems, fix any freezes and perform optimization, defragmentation (generally not necessary on Mac) and partitioning operations. You have to pay for it (standard license costs €88.69), but you can try it for free.