Checking hard drive for errors

Smiley1 said:

You're right about that extended test in DiskCheckup. It got stuck at 10% and wouldn't abort. I shut down the laptop and powered it back up. It now shows that a test was aborted by the host, it seems to be on the short test and still stalled out at 10%. The other short tests run earlier today showed no errors.

I just have a column of "N/A" 's under 'predicted TEC date'.

Okay, so it sounds to me like your drive needs CHKDSK run on it to correct errors (it's not uncommon). But you can run the Seagate long test if you like first. It will take quite a while.

Disks can get "bad blocks" over time. CHKDSK /r will identify those blocks as unusable, quarant them off, and move any data in them to healthy blocks (if possible). Sounds to me like you need to do this, before any data in them is irrevocably lost.

Smiley1 said:

Well, I'm embarrassed and I am offering an apology. I have an external hard drive I leave connected to the laptop and File History is backed up to that. I also use the external storage device to backup our business financial software records. The disk errors reference Hard Disk 1, and in checking my storage management, I see that my computer is calling this external hard drive Hard Disk 1. My internal drive is Hard Disk 0. I powered down the laptop and disconnected the drive, then powered the laptop up and checked Event Viewer. No disk errors listed.

I think I do need to be concerned about the health of the external drive, but that's an easy replacement.

Thanks for your advice and patience, Simrick. I've learned a lot here. I'll mark this thread 'solved', with a huge sigh of relief. And I think I should replace that external hard drive.

That's good news, sort of! Yes, I would get that external drive replaced right away and get your data off it quickly. No need to be embarrassed - yes, it's confusing; disks are numbered beginning with "0". Good luck and glad you've identified the problem. Cheers!