MHDD program - detailed instructions for use. How to use the MHDD program How to fix a hard drive with the mhdd program

The most accurate way is to check them through DOS using the MHDD program. In this case, the HDD will not be loaded with third-party programs and processes, only one program will access it, this will reduce response time and produce reliable results.

What cannot be said about, which, working under Windows, may produce not entirely correct results. This is due to the fact that while the utility is running, third-party services and processes are running that access the hard drive, increasing response time.

This means that if you run the test and continue to use your computer at this moment, you will see a large number of slow or inaccessible sectors in the test results. And we don’t need this at all.

What is this program

MHDD is a professional free solution for checking hard drives for errors and defects. It boasts very wide functionality, allowing you to carry out not only basic and advanced scanning, but also perform HDD recovery.

Since installation takes place not on a computer, but on a USB drive, MHDD is suitable for all operating systems, including Windows 7 and 10 (32 and 64 bit). It is distributed absolutely free of charge, the interface is quite simple, although entirely in English.

And now, I propose to move on to detailed instructions on how to use it.

Where can I download

First you need to download the latest version of MHDD from the official website developers, always in .ISO format, saving it to your computer. By default, the “.zip” archive is downloaded, do not forget to unzip it.

ISO is a special format for recording on a flash drive or disk, intended for subsequent launch through DOS.

The utility is also included by default in popular free Live CDs: Hiren’s Boot CD, Ultimate Boot CD, 2k10 Live CD and others.

Creating a bootable USB flash drive with MHDD

To record to a flash drive, we will use a special free program “UltraISO”. It is free and distributed in Russian. Therefore, download and install it first.

Save the settings and restart the computer again.

Instructions for use

Now let's talk about how to use the MHDD program correctly.

Next, all hard drives connected to the computer will be displayed. Each HDD will have a serial number located to the left of its name. Enter the required number and press “Enter”. In my case, this is the number “2”. To redefine the disk with which you plan to start working, you need to press the combination “SHIFT + F3”.

Now you can start working with the hard drive. The MHDD program by default will offer to familiarize itself with all the commands that are available to us. To open a list of commands, press the "F1" key.

Let's look at the most popular of them:

As an example, I will run a regular surface scan for bad blocks. To do this, enter the command “SCAN” and press “Enter”.

In the window that opens, I leave all the values ​​at default and press “F4” to start scanning. In this case, all information will be saved, and ultimately I will receive a report on the existing problems.

I would like to immediately draw your attention to the fact that there are other functions:

• Start LBA– the starting point from which the scanning will start.
• End LBA- final destination.
• Remap– used in cases where it is necessary to perform a scan with automatic reassignment of damaged sectors (used to restore the functionality of the hard drive). Takes the value " OFF" And " ON", that is, turn on - turn off.
• Timeout– delay time for reading a sector. Upon expiration, a transition will be made to the next area.
• Spindown after scan– stops the HDD after the scanning procedure is completed.
• Loop test/repair– cyclic check.
• Erase Delays– used to completely overwrite slow or inaccessible sectors. In this case, some of the information located on the drive will be deleted. Accepts the value "OFF" and "ON".

To change parameters in the MHDD program, use the "Enter" key, to move to another parameter, you can use the arrow keys on the keyboard.

Analysis of scan results

After the check is completed, you will see a window with detailed information in the form of multi-colored squares and letters.

What does each of them mean:

• Gray squares (3-50 ms) - show the total number of the fastest sectors with which no problems are observed.
• Greens (<150 ms) – they talk about the presence of slow sectors. A large number of them (above 500) can reduce the speed of the hard drive. However, the presence of green squares is inherent in every drive and is the norm (in reasonable values).
• Orange (<500 ms) – very slow sectors, significantly reducing the speed of the drive. Ideally, they should not exist at all. The presence of at least one indicates the beginning of problems in the hard drive.
• Red (>500 ms)– bad sectors (bad blocks). They significantly slow down the operation of the hard drive and cause various malfunctions in Windows and programs.
• UNC– a failed area that cannot be restored. Most likely this is a “logical bad block”. Usually eliminated by overwriting with the “ERASE” function.
• AMNF– missing address label. Most often it occurs due to a malfunction of the hard drive hardware. You can try ERASE or REMAP, but in most cases this does not work.
• ABTR– read request rejected. It may appear as a result of a hardware malfunction, or due to the incompatibility of the MHDD program with a specific hard drive.
• IDNF– identification number not found. Indicates a malfunction or an unsuccessful attempt to access the area.
• T0NF– the zero track was not found, recalibration failed. Indicates a HDD failure.

Recovery procedure

Now, judging by the received report, we can proceed further according to the instructions.

It is important to remember that the Erase Delays command will only delete some of your files, while the ERASE command will completely delete all files. Therefore, I first recommend saving all important files to another medium.

Then we re-check. If some bad blocks remain, then it is obvious that they are caused by a physical malfunction of the hard drive. In this case, only the “REMAP” option or replacing the drive will help. Otherwise, such a HDD may fail at any time.

Now about how I do it. First, I start a regular scan with the Remap function. Then I start Windows and save all the information to another medium. Then, using the MHDD utility, I overwrite the damaged areas with the “ERASE” function. This approach increases the chances of effectively restoring the HDD and saves time.

SMART Analysis

In theory, this is the topic of a separate article, but I would like to touch on some values ​​that in one way or another affect the result of the test and generally show the current state of the hard drive.

The F8 key or the “SMART ATT” command will help you open SMART in the MHDD program. Pay attention to the “RAW” column.

The most significant attributes:

• Reallocated sectors count– the total number of automatically reassigned sectors (bads).
• Current pending sectors– sectors that are in line for reassignment.
• Ultra ATA CRC– the number of errors that occurred when transmitting data via a SATA cable. The value should be reduced to zero. Eliminated by replacing the cable or SATA connector.

Read what actions to take in this or that case in the previous section.

Problems you may encounter

It happens that the utility MHDD, even though it is displayed in Windows. Most likely it's a physical problem. Try connecting the device to a different connector using a new SATA cable or remove oxides on the board.

If the device emits, then most likely the problem is in the internal mechanism, then only replacement will help.

A freeze at the testing stage may also indicate a faulty mechanism. Or the HDD dump in the main menu with the message “driver has been disconnected”.

Detailed video on working with MCDD

youtu.be/8gYB4u_2rzc

Updated: 2018-10-19

Professional help

If you are unable to resolve the problems yourself,
then most likely the problem lies at a more technical level.
This could be: a failure of the motherboard, power supply,
hard drive, video card, RAM, etc.

It is important to diagnose and repair the breakdown in time,
to prevent failure of other components.

Our specialist will help you with this.

Leave a request and receive
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MHDD is a hard drive diagnostic utility that allows you to check for various damages and then eliminate them. The utility will become an effective tool if you suspect problems with your hard drive.

Often, using MHDD and other similar programs, you can return your hard drive to normal operation. The first sign of problems with your hard drive is a blue screen when you try to start Windows. In advanced cases, you may not be able to reinstall Windows, because... The BIOS may simply stop seeing the hard drive.

It is worth noting that MHDD works exclusively from a boot disk, so after you download the program from the link at the end of the article, it must be burned to disk.

1. Create a boot disk or flash drive with the program, and then boot from it.

2. As soon as the program is launched, you will need to select the drive with which further work will be carried out. The selection is made by pressing the key with the number corresponding to the hard drive number.

3. In the next window you will need to enter the command "scan" (without quotes) or press the key F4 . To start scanning, you will need to press the F4 key again.

4. The scanning process itself will begin, during which you need to observe the right area of ​​​​the program, in which the delay in milliseconds will be displayed. You should be wary if the numbers around the last two values ​​are too high.

5. Scanning can take quite a long time - from several hours to several days. Once the scanning is completed, on the right side of the program you will be able to evaluate the statistics, where bad blocks will be indicated in the “UMC” column.

6. To proceed directly to the hard drive recovery procedure itself, enter the command at the bottom of the window "erase" and press Enter.

Next you will need to enter a number that will indicate the first sector that will be restored, for example, 0 , and then press Enter. In the same way, you will need to specify the last sector (type the number indicated in brackets and press Enter).

To start the procedure you will need to enter an English letter Y and press the Enter key.

Please note that as a result of this operation, all information contained on the hard drive will be permanently deleted. Therefore, we recommend that you first copy important files from your hard drive to another location.

As a rule, the cleaning and recovery procedure takes even longer than scanning, so you will have to be patient.

When the hard drive recovery procedure is completed, perform the scanning procedure again to ensure the success of the steps performed.

Please note that the MHDD developers website is currently not working, so below is a link to download the utility from a third-party resource.

Everything breaks down someday, and the hard drive is no exception. If your hard drive is faulty, then you should check it with the MHDD program. Previously, we looked at what factors can affect the performance of a computer and what hard drive errors exist.

MHDD is one of the most popular free programs for thorough diagnostics and self-repair of your drive. In this article we will look at how to restore functionality using this program.

Checking the hard drive with MHDD

Attention - you carry out all manipulations at your own peril and risk, since using this utility can harm the drive and all the information on it.

First, you should download the program image to burn onto a flash drive or CD. To do this, download the archive with the program from the official website: download MHDD for free.

Unpack the file and burn the disk image in any way convenient for you. I used one of the most popular programs Ultra ISO.

Restart your computer, enter the BIOS and select boot from a flash drive or any other drive on which you have the MHDD program stored.

You will see a program screen with a choice of download options. The first item is for owners of a SCSI controller; by default, the checkbox is on the second item. In our case, press Enter.

On the next screen we have to choose which hard drive to work with. Pay attention to the list of devices and enter the number with which the disk is signed. In our case, we have one disk in the system.

Let's start diagnosing the disk. To do this, call up the menu with the F4 button to identify the presence of bad sectors. Press F4 again and start the diagnostic process.

On the left you will see a disk map that displays the blocks currently being scanned by the program. If MHDD finds a bad one, it will mark it with a red X or green S.

If you find bad blocks, immediately copy all important data from the drive, since errors on the hard drive lead to the loss of all information, and the process of getting rid of Bad blocks involves completely wiping the disk.

If there is important information on the disk, it is worth repeating the scan with the command Erase Delays, which will erase all bad sectors. Otherwise you should use Erase for complete removal and cleaning.

If after all this there are still red bads on the hard drive, use the command Remap, however, it is better to immediately think about buying a new hard drive.

Purpose of the program

The Victoria program is designed for testing various drives: HDD, flash, RAID arrays, and also allows you to hide HDD surface defects, if such a possibility exists. The author of the program is Sergey Kazansky, it is distributed free of charge, you can download it http://hdd-911.com/

Brief description of the program

On Vista and older systems, the program must be run as Administrator, even if your account has administrator rights.

The program window is divided into several tabs: Standard, SMART, Test, Advanced and Setup. The API and PIO switches change the mode of operation of the program with the disk under test. PIO mode requires support from the motherboard chipset. Modern systems younger than approximately 2011 do not support this mode of program operation, so we will not describe it. Here is a brief description of the control elements in the tabs.

Standard. The window on the right shows a list of drives installed in the system. These are not only hard drives, but also USB flash drives, SD, CF and other memory card readers. They can also be tested. Selecting a device for testing is done by clicking on the desired item. Immediately on the left in the Drive ATA passport window, information about the selected device is displayed. Seek, Acoustic management & BAD"er runs the seek test, allows you to manage AAM (if supported by the disk) and simulate bad sectors on the disk.

S.M.A.R.T. When you press the Get SMART button, the SMART is read. USB drives are not supported. The remaining buttons SMART ON, SMART OFF, Auto save attributes ON/OFF allow you to enable/disable SMART monitoring and save the read attributes.

Test. The main tab that we will work with in the future. The Start LBA/End LBA windows specify the beginning and end of the tested area. By default, the entire disk is tested. Pause – pauses the test, the value changes to Continue. Start – starts the selected test, changes the value to Stop – stops the test. Diamond with green arrows - moving forward or backward along the surface of the disk. Block size – the size of the block of sectors read at a time; you can leave it alone. Timeout – time after which, if there is no response from the drive, the program will move to the next sector. End of test – what to do at the end of the test: stop the disk, start the test over again, turn off the disk or turn off the computer. The color scale shows the number of blocks with the specified reading time. Switches Verify, Read, Write – test selection. Verify - check: the disk reads the sector, but does not transfer its contents to the computer. Read – reads a sector into the computer. Write – erases a sector - this test destroys user data. Switches Ignor, Remap, Restore, Erase – mode of working with bad blocks. Ignore - skip. Remap – attempt to perform the procedure of reassigning a sector from the reserve. Restore – attempts to read data and write it back (does not work on modern disks >80GB). Erase – an attempt to write to a damaged sector. It can correct it if an incorrect check sum (CRC) is written to the sector. > - test execution forward.<- выполнение теста назад: с конца диска. >?< - чтение по случайным адресам. >|< - тест «бабочка»: чтение попеременно сначала и с конца диска. Break All – отмена всех команд. Sleep – остановить диск. Recall – включить диск снова (после sleep).

Advanced. The main window shows the contents of the sector specified in the Sec field. The window below shows the contents of the partition table using the View part data button. The MBR ON/OFF buttons enable/disable the ability to recognize partitions in the operating system.

Example of working with the Victoria program For an example of testing a disk, let's take a faulty HDD WD2600BEVT, which has surface damage and bad attributes in SMART. We launch the program, select our disk and see the following: on the left we see the parameters of the selected disk.
Next, on the SMART tab, you can see the SMART of our disk. Here he is.

We see that the program interprets it as bad. Let's take a closer look.

Attribute 5 Reallocated sector count – number of reassigned sectors 1287 - the disk “crumbles”.

Attribute 197 Current pending sectors – the number of candidate sectors for reassignment; if the 5th attribute is full, it indicates that the disk is “crumbling”, the surface is quickly degrading.

This means that if you need data from a disk, you need to copy it immediately, and not try to repair such a disk. The actions that we will consider next can lead to the loss of information.

You can see errors like UNCR - these are bad, unreadable sectors - bad blocks.

You can uncheck the Grid checkbox, then a disk reading graph will be displayed. In places where there are bad spots, speed dips are visible, marked in red.

At the end of the test, you can try to hide the bad sectors by selecting the Remap mode. This can help if there are bads, but SMART does not yet have BAD status. It looks like this:

The result of the remap can be viewed by reading the smart disk. Here he is:

The value of the 5th attribute increased and became 1291. During normal operation, disks, in the absence of access to them, launch their own procedures for checking and reassigning sectors in the background, and the number of candidates for remap, numbering in the hundreds, indicates that the disk can no longer maintain condition condition and must be replaced. And the SMART status does not always adequately describe the condition of the disk - it can be severely damaged, and the SMART status is displayed as GOOD.

MHDD is a multifunctional program for accurate diagnosis and repair of hard drives.
The program is completely free and provides great practicality and reliability of scanning.

MHDD performs a high-quality disk check for various damages, including bads and so-called soft bads.
One of the most important advantages of the program is that it works with the hard drive at a low level, directly through the IDE controller ports.

The main features of the application are as follows:

Accurate diagnostics of the mechanical surface of the disc.
. monitoring IDE controller registers.
. high-quality use of the HPA function (reducing the volume of the hard drive).
. adjusting the noise emitted by the hard drive.
. Error logging.
. the presence of a function for completely destroying data on the hard drive without the possibility of recovery.
. HDD testing under extreme conditions.
. possibility of simultaneous testing of several hard drives.
. working with a password system on disk.

MHDD

This article was written for those who are interested and taking their first steps in the field of hard drives and is dedicated to the MHDD program and working with it.
At the time of writing, the latest version of the program was 2.9.

First of all, it should be noted that the program is universal; it works with all drives with an ATA interface, regardless of manufacturer and model.

This is explained by the fact that any interaction of an ATA hard drive with the outside world occurs through a standard set of ports and using a specific set of commands defined in the ATA standard specification (when developing all versions of which, compatibility considerations were taken into account, and thus it becomes completely unimportant which version of the interface equipped with this particular drive, and even more so the manufacturer, because when developing the drive he certainly had to be guided by the ATA standard).

The program is capable of running under pure DOS, and directly from Windows (95/98/ME).
True, when working from Windows, there are some restrictions (they are mentioned in the documentation: in this case, the drive does not need to be defined in the BIOS, and the controller on which it is installed is best disabled in Windows).

And although this option is workable, I personally still prefer to work under pure DOS, since even if everything works stably in Windows, the speed indicators obtained may not correspond to reality.
And then, Windows is still Windows...

Maybe I’m paranoid, but in “Varez” matters I try to stay away from “Windows”.
And since we mentioned controllers, it must be said that the program allows you to work with drives installed on external ATA controllers, but not in all versions.
This feature was announced in version 2.8, but version 2.9 available on the website does not have this feature.

The utility can be launched from any non-write-protected media that has some space for recording temporary files and work logs (minimum 70 KB required, 20 MB recommended).

Do not use the program from the same disk that you are diagnosing and treating, if it happens that you have only one drive (you are restoring bad things on your own and only one, for example) - use the program from a floppy disk.

The hardware part is your test machine, the program is not occupied at all: it can be anything, with an ATA controller, up to 286 (the documentation says so, I haven’t tried it myself, since I only have 386 available, but in theory it should) .

After startup, if there is more than one drive in the system, we are prompted to select the one we want to work with.

A hint about the main commands of the program will be displayed on the screen.

Having initialized the selected drive by clicking, we get comprehensive information about it:

Model name; logical disk geometry (logical number of cylinders/heads/sectors per track);
- serial number; microcode version;
- number of blocks addressed via LBA;
- supported ATA functions and maximum supported mode; SMART status (whether it is enabled);
- security system status (hardware password enabled/disabled);
- full size of the hard drive; the result of passing the main tests.

Some of this information is displayed in the second line from the top on the screen and is visible during operation.

In addition, the status of the disk and its use at a given time is indicated by indicators in the very top line.

They carry the following information:

BUSY- the drive is busy and does not respond to commands;
WRFT- recording error;
DREQ- the drive wants to exchange data with the outside world;
ERR- an error occurred as a result of some operation.

When this bit lights up, look at the top right of the screen.
The type of the last error will be displayed there: (valid only when the “ERR” light is on):

AMNF- Address Mark Not Found - Addressing a specific sector failed.

The likely cause is damage to this sector, damage to its identification fields (this is mentioned here).
But immediately after turning on the drive, on the contrary, it indicates the absence of problems and reports the successful completion of internal diagnostics;

T0NF- Track 0 Not Found - zero track was not found;
ABRT- Abort, command rejected;
IDNF- Sector ID Not found;
UNCR- Uncorrectable Error - Error not corrected by ECC code.

There is probably a logical bad block in this place (this was discussed here).

In addition to these, two more indicators may light up at the top - P.W.D.- signaling the installed hardware password, and HPA- if the drive size was changed using the “HPA” command (usually used to hide bad blocks at the end of the disk).

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