How do I check the health of my hard drive?

[Autumn]

Recently my computer has been freezing (lots of piccies in the memory) also Firefox was loaded. All actions in CS3 were taking an age to complete.

Yesterday when I switched on the computer a blue screen appeared and it was checking the disks.

Today it loaded OK.

I have just been looking at the System Information and when Refreshing System Information, it Stopped Responding, so I had to close the program and start again.

How can I check my hard drive to see if it is healthy?

I see there are plenty of links for me to check my disks' health on Google, but I would like a free check if possible.

I have had my computer just over 4 years and it is in constant use and so far have not had a lot of problems with it. It is a Medion from Aldi and has been out of guarantee for over a year.

[Ian]

Re: How do I check the health of my hard drive?

Recently my computer has been freezing (lots of piccies in the memory) also Firefox was loaded. All actions in CS3 were taking an age to complete.

Yesterday when I switched on the computer a blue screen appeared and it was checking the disks.

Today it loaded OK.

I have just been looking at the System Information and when Refreshing System Information, it Stopped Responding, so I had to close the program and start again.

How can I check my hard drive to see if it is healthy?

I see there are plenty of links for me to check my disks' health on Google, but I would like a free check if possible.

I have had my computer just over 4 years and it is in constant use and so far have not had a lot of problems with it. It is a Medion from Aldi and has been out of guarantee for over a year.

I would ensure your backups are up to date immediately.

There is a hard drive self-diagnosis standard called SMART, but it's not very widely supported. I'd be tempted to 'retire' a hard drive that old and replace it anyway. You could use your old drive as a back-up unit in a separate enclosure - but it would need to be backed-up itself.

Ian

[Autumn]

Re: How do I check the health of my hard drive?

Thanks Ian. Backing up as I speak.: