Hard disk tools

Inevitably, over time your hard drive will acquire unwanted and unneeded junk files. These files can slow performance of your PC, take up valuable space and may even cause application problems. 4Diskclean deletes all sorts of unnecessary files including temporary data, old backups, duplicated files and DLL's, caches and history. To help you make decisions about file removal 4Diskclean has charts of disk usage and settings. You can also create zip files of deleted files so you can resore them.

Licence: Shareware. US$24. A Lite version is available for US$16.
Online: http://www.4diskclean.com/
Operating system: Windows 95/98/Me, Windows 2000, NT, Windows XP.
Requires: N/A.

Install instructions

		Windows

Drive! is a Russian benchmarking application for hard disks running under Windows NT/2000/XP. It is no longer supported, but it is still an excellent benchmarking utility.

Licence: Freeware.
Online: http://www.xponik.spb.ru/drive/index.html
Operating system: Windows NT/2000/XP.
Requires: N/A.

Install instructions

		Windows

HD Tach is a physical performance hard drive test for Windows 95/98/ME and Windows NT/2000/XP. In Windows 9X/ME it uses a special kernel mode VXD to get maximum accuracy by bypassing the file system. A similar mechanism is used in Windows NT/2000. To test NTFS drives, you will need to register the program.

Licence: Shareware. Registration US$49.95.
Online: http://www.tcdlabs.com/hdtach.htm
Operating system: Windows.
Requires: N/A.

Install instructions

		Windows

Measures both sustained and burst data transfer rates of your hard disks, CD/DVD-ROMs and floppy and provides a real time graphical display.

Licence: Freeware.
Online: http://www.steelbytes.com/
Operating system: Windows.
Requires: N/A.

Install instructions

		Windows

The Drive Fitness Test (DFT)provides a quick, reliable method to test IBM SCSI and IDE hard disk drives. The analyse function performs read tests without overwriting customer data (however, DFT is bundled with some restoration utilities that will overwrite data). The users guide PDF covers how to use the test and the included utilities. The DFT does not support IBM Microdrives or Travelstar E drives. Note: This download creates a self booting diskette to run the DFT utility. You can create the diskette under Windows or Linux but you must start your system with the bootable diskette to run DFT. DFT can only be used with x86 based processors.

Licence: Freeware.
Online: http://www.ibm.com/
Operating system: Windows 95/98/Me, Windows NT/2000, Windows XP, Linux.
Requires: N/A.

Install instructions

Windows		Linux		PDF (Manual)

The IBM Feature Tool allows you to control some of the features in the newer IBM high performance ATA hard disk drives. The IBM Feature Tool allows you to: enable or disable the read-ahead or write cache; change the drive Automatic Acoustic Management settings to the lowest acoustic emanation setting (Quiet Seek Mode), or Maximum performance level (Normal Seek Mode). You can also: change the predefined capacity of the drive (This option can be used in situations where there is a BIOS limitation and the drive is not recognised); switch the Ultra DMA mode (replaces the IBMATASW utility); change Advanced Power Mode (allows you to change between the lowest power consumption and the highest power consumption (maximum performance level)); and Show Drive Temperature (shows the current drive temperature in celsius and farenheit).

Licence: Freeware
Online: http://www.ibm.com/
Operating system: Windows 95/98/Me, Windows NT/2000, Windows XP, Linux.
Requires: N/A.

Install instructions

Windows		Linux		PDF (Manual)

SMART Defender is an easy to use Windows program that monitors SMART-capable IDE and SCSI hard disk drives. The program reduces the risk of system down time by assessing the reliability and predicting hard disk drive failures. Note: RAID controllers (ATA or SCSI), including JBOD configurations, are not supported. Smart Defender does not detect RAID drives.

Licence: Freeware.
Online: http://www.ibm.com/
Operating system: Windows 95/98/Me, Windows NT/2000, Windows XP.
Requires: N/A.

Install instructions

		Windows

The Powermax utility is designed to perform diagnostic read/write verifications on Maxtor/Quantum hard drives. These tests will determine hard drive integrity. The Powermax utility is effective on all ATA (IDE) hard drives with a capacity greater than or equal to 500MB. Maxtor recommends the use of this utility for troubleshooting potential hard drive problems.

Licence: Freeware.
Online: http://www.maxtor.com/
Operating system: Windows 95/98/Me, Windows NT/2000, Windows XP.
Requires: N/A.

Install instructions: For full instructions on use of this program, go to http://www.maxtor.com/products/diamondmax/techsupport/TechnicalProcedures/20014.htm.

		Windows

Michael's Disk Benchmark is a simple disk I/O benchmark to use under Windows. It gives basic information and results, but is good for sequential reads/writes. It also runs under NT/2000/XP.

Licence: 30-day shareware US$10 registration.
Online: N/A
Operating system: Windows
Requires: N/A.

Install instructions

		Windows

SeaTools Desktop 2002 is Seagate's exclusive disc drive diagnostic software designed to troubleshoot most Seagate hard drive issues.

Licence: Freeware.
Online: http://www.seagate.com/
Operating system: Windows 95/98/Me, Windows NT/2000, Windows XP.
Requires: 8MB RAM.

Install instructions: Insert a blank formatted (1.44MB) diskette into drive A. Open Windows Explorer or File Manager and go to the directory where you downloaded the SeaTools Disc Diagnostic Diskette Creator application. Double-click on SEATOOLD.EXE to start the diskette creator application. Select a language of your choice and review the licence agreement. Follow the on-screen instructions to create the bootable diskette. To run the diagnostic diskette, shut down your operating system and insert the SeaTools Disc Diagnostic diskette in your A: drive and reboot. The system will boot to the special ONTRACK operating system and start the SeaTools application. See the "readme" menu option for complete instructions.

		Windows