Software Recommendation for Hard Drive Sector Scanning

[jmine83]

I am looking for a software program that meets the following conditions:

1. Can thoroughly scan the blocks of a hard drive in order to detect corrupt blocks.
2. Can perform the operation described in 1 without the need for a second computer (because I don't have one).
3. Preferably a free program or very cheap if it exists.

I just bought a new SSD and before I install Mountain Lion onto it I want to verify that the drive is good and does not have any corrupt blocks.

 

[Weaselboy]

When you start your Mountain Lion install just go to the Utilities menu before the main install starts and pick Disk Utility. You will need to use Disk Util to format the new drive first. After formatting click the repair disk button and it will check the disk for errors.

 

[w00t951]

Scanning for file system errors is different from scanning for bad sectors. I use Drive Genius 3, which scans for bad sectors in addition to other drive maintenance utilities.

 

[jmine83]

Scanning for file system errors is different from scanning for bad sectors. I use Drive Genius 3, which scans for bad sectors in addition to other drive maintenance utilities.

Great. Thank you for that recommendation. But before I commit myself to buying this program, you're certain it can scan for bad sectors on the same hard drive which the program itself is installed onto? Or how would it work exactly? Because again, I only have one computer.

 

[w00t951]

Great. Thank you for that recommendation. But before I commit myself to buying this program, you're certain it can scan for bad sectors on the same hard drive which the program itself is installed onto? Or how would it work exactly? Because again, I only have one computer.

I've not tested it myself, but this is what the scan panel looks like. To verify Drive Genius can perform a sector scan, I've included the Help window concerning sector scanning. It is indeed possible to run the scan on the boot drive, but I'd guess that you'd have to reboot into verbose mode.

 

[Weaselboy]

Scanning for file system errors is different from scanning for bad sectors. I use Drive Genius 3, which scans for bad sectors in addition to other drive maintenance utilities.

Disk Util can scan for bad sectors.

6. Select ‘Zero Out Data’ from the list of options. This option will perform a test on the hard drive as it writes zeros to the drive's platters. During the test, Disk Utility will map out any bad sections it finds on the drive's platters so they can't be used. This helps ensure that you won't be able to store any important data on a questionable section of the hard drive. This erase process can take a fair amount of time, depending on the drive's capacity.