Is there any way of checking if my hard drive is faulty?

Answer 1

go to the hard drive manufacturer's web site and download their diagnostic utilities.

Or you can download the ultimate boot CD for Windows and boot to that. It has most manufacturer's diagnostic programs on that (but you need to burn the ISO image of the CD correctly. Reference my sources below.

Answer 2

If you have Windows XP try the error check scan.

Start --> My Computer --> RIGHT CLICK the hard drive icon (usually local drive C) --> Properties --> Tools tab --> Check Now

Another dialog box will open called "Check Disk Local Disk (C:) with two options: 1. Automatically fix file system errors and 2. Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors.

Put a check mark in the box next to "Automatically fix...." and click Start. You will probably get a message asking if you want to run the scan the next time you start your computer. Say Yes and reboot. The scan will run. If you get any error messages, follow the prompts.

After this scan is completed, go back and run the "Scan for and attempt....." CAUTION: This scan could take a long time to run. There are four parts to the scan and all together it could be over an hour.

If your computer doesn't show any errors or problems, chances are you've got a good hard drive. Then you can go ahead and do a disk cleanup (same steps as above but instead of clicking the Tools Tab, click the General Tab and Disk Cleanup.) Put a check mark in every box and run the cleanup.

After that, do a defrag. (Same steps as above, Tools Tab --> Defragment Now.) Again, this could take quite some time to complete. But once you've done all of this, your computer should be noticeably faster and responsive.

If you use the computer every day, I'd suggest running the two scans once a month and the disk cleanup/defrag once a week.

Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Yes, there are lots of programs that do that. I suppose there are some that you can download ? There are other things that you can check too. I just love harddrives and I am a complusive shopper and so I got a lot of them and so I am moving them around and installing and uninstalling them. And, depending... there are utilities that come with them for installation that may have some useful stuff to check them with. Otherwise, I suggest that you know if you have a virus or not. If there is too much data on your harddrive it won't work because in the process of working programs write data to the harddrive. This is stuff that is only temporary but still you need to leave space for it to do that. You can defrag your hard drive and that sometimes helps. Finally you can check the installation to see if wires are plugged in correctly and are actually plugged in. That kind of thing and especially if you installed it yourself. etc. you know.

Answer 4

DO THIS:
Click start
Right click My Computer
Click Properties
Click the Hardware tab
Click Device Manager
You will now see a list of all the hardware on or connected to your computer.
From the list select Disc Drives
Right Click the drive you want to look at.
Click Properties
Look at Device Status
It should say THIS DEVICE IS WORKING PROPERLY
If it does not say that things are OK.
Then follow the instructions given.

Answer 5

See if its soft...
HAHA, thats supposed to be a really lame joke, its okay if u didn't get it.
Um, plug it in, and see if it works. thats basically the only way.
if your computer doesn't turn on, then its faulty. send it back to the place u got it from and ask for a replacement or a refund

Answer 6

Try the drop test.

Drop it from 6 feet, and see if it still works.

BTW - only kiddin' :)

Answer 7

run the disk check