Chkdsk alternative disk error checking software
Although Windows computer systems come with a built-in disk error checking scanner, which offers many command-line options to scan the hard drive for Errors and Bad Sectors, you can use a third-party free disk error checking software to scan hard disks for errors. In this article, I’ll talk about the following CHKDSK alternatives to repair and fix bad sectors on Hard Drive:
1] Windows Surface Scanner
Windows Surface Scanner will scan for bad sectors and generate a report for you. This program will not correct the bad sector, but it just finds them for you. Once you download it run the setup to install it. When you open the application, you’ll get the end-users agreement. Accept it. Once you open it, first you will have to mount your Hard drive, and then click on Scan. You can download the Windows Surface Scanner from here.
2] HD Tune
HD Tune hard disk utility is a hard disk utility, and a freeware tool for Windows OS, which uses a set of simple steps to check the status of hard drives (internal, external or extractable). Apart from checking the status, the application is measuring the drive’s performance, errors during scanning, health status and much more.
3] Macrorit Disk Scanner
Macrorit Disk Scanner can also help you fix bad sectors. The program displays the complete statistics on the top panel which includes the device selected, the speed of the scan, number of errors found, scan area, elapsed time and estimated time remaining to complete the scan.
4] EaseUS Partition Master Free
EaseUS Partition Master Free includes a surface test that can scan for and fix bad sectors.
5] AbelsSoft CheckDrive
AbelsSoft CheckDrive offers you an easy way of checking your PC’s hard drives for errors and fixing them. Even Solid-state drives (SSD) are supported.
6] HDDScan
HDDScan is a freeware utility for hard drive diagnostics (RAID arrays, Flash USB and SSD drives are also supported). The program can test storage devices for errors (Bad-blocks and bad sectors), show S.M.A.R.T. attributes and change some HDD parameters such as AAM, APM, etc.
Fix Hard Drive Bad Sectors
OK, you found a Bad sector – so what next? Well, the first thing that you could do is start backing up your data because there is a good chance your hard drive might fail soon. If your hard is still under warranty then RMA it. If not then the next thing to do is to find a way to fix these bad sectors. There are a couple of programs out there that claim to repair bad sectors. Each Hard drive manufactures its own Hard drive diagnostic tools. Check their website and run a diagnostic just to be sure. I’ll recommend a few programs which may be able to fix bad sectors. If nothing works then, nowadays, hard drives are rather reasonably priced – do consider replacing them.
