Thorough disk scanning

[parish]

Mhdd's scanning only performs READ ONLY scanning. But there might still be a problem with writing data into sectors. Is there a piece of software that performs more thorough test i.e. READ-WRITE test (destructive for data I understand)?

thx

[fzabkar]

Here is one:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badblocks

[abolibibelot]

Hard Disk Sentinel can perform :
– read scan
– write scan
– write + read
– read + write + read (that one *should* not cause data loss, it re-writes the sectors just as they have been read, but it's highly recommanded to backup anything remotely important beforehand ; obviously it's a very long test, and there shouldn't be any power failure until it's over, better use a UPS)
– and “disk repair” (it's supposed to do a read scan, and only attempt to write on weak sectors, so as to restore them if possible, or reallocate them if not)