Hi,

this might be a dumb question but I'd like to know - I've read somewhere that it's good for the HDD's life span to run ScanDisk (chkdsk) from time to time as well as a defragmentation program. I know that defragmentation is good for the HDD's performance but what about Scandisk, is that true? I have never run chkdsk on my 4yo PC/HDD as I never had any problems and CrystalDiskInfo's SMART says my HDD is in a good condition. I defrag each two months or so, using PerfectDisk and that's all I do for my HDD.

Your toughts, is it recommended to run Scandisk from time to time even if there are no (noticable) problems with the HDD?

About the Defrag, I don't think it's still necessary, because the OS's are already "smart" enough to avoid fragmentation.
Scandisk, I also don't think is necessary too.
I rather use HDDScan to check the drive from time to time, check SMART status, surface scan...

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IMHO running CHKDSK against your drive in readonly mode would be worthwhile. I wouldn't bother with CHKDSK's surface scan, though.

Some defrag software does more than just defragment your files. For example, you might like to push the most frequently accessed files to the front of the partition.

http://www.mydefrag.com/index.html

BTW, the Layout.Ini file is used by Windows Disk Defragmenter to reorder the most frequently used files at the beginning of the drive, so you may not need a third party tool for this.

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A backup a day keeps DR away.

Chkdsk surface scan isn't a bad idea to run before you start using a new or repurposed drive (to see of you should trust it). However after you have data on there its more likely to create a data recovery issue than prevent one.

Defrag - not much use IMHO.

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Data Medics - Hard Drive, SSD, and RAID Data Recovery Service Company

Hello again!

I am experiencing freezes of my screen when using Firefox (a long story) and it's 99% all software related but I would like to test my HDD - you know, just in case.

So, is it safe to run CHKDSK on my HDD? Which parameters should I use only to check it's health/state? /F or/and /R, none...?

Thanx!

Anyone? Is it possible to lose data or to harm the HDD in any way by running CHKDSK? Thank you.