I've been using MHDD for some years, and IMHO it's a great utility. Actually, I use the "magic boot disk", but I've got some problems that suggest me to change to another hard disk checker.

- MHDD doesn't work with ACHI drives. In some computers the BIOS allows to change between IDE/AHCI/RAID modes, but most laptops are stuck in AHCI mode.
- Magic boot disk works with some external USB enclosures, but not with all of them... and one of the exceptions is my unbranded SATA/IDE to USB adapter.

On the other hand, there are some Windows hard disk testers, but I don't really trust that they can "talk" to the disk controller freely (without being disturbed by the OS). Also, I could use Parted Magic (linux distro) that have GSmart control (it allows me pass any SMART test, even in USB connected HDDs).

The questions...
- Are extended self test as realiable as MHDD surface test (to know if a hard disk is working properly)?
- What program that works with AHCI controllers can be used as a replacement to MHDD? Will that program work with any USB enclosure?

Thanks in advance.

Use Victoria its a good tool just like MHDD .

MHDD is a very good tool and when it's not possible to change to IDE mode I prefer
removing the disk and hook it to a motherboard with a proper controller.
On most laptop usually it involves removing a couple of screws

Victoria for DOS is a very good tool too and usually works well with lot of raid controller
but I never got it to work with AHCI.

When it's a problem moving the disk I use Victoria for Windows from a Vista or 7 based WinPE environment that works fine with AHCI/IDE and most of RAID controller even if I prefer to use
DOS based software for such tests.

I was not lucky with SATA/IDE to USB adapter, the few ones I tested didn't work well and
I'm still looking for one that could read SMART data.

Try HDDScan. It works under Windows

smartmontools has good SMART support for most USB-IDE/SATA bridge chips, at least those that are SMART capable. You could run it from a Ubuntu Live CD.

In addition to HDDScan, HD Sentinel and CrystalDiskInfo are all capable of retrieving SMART data from drives behind USB-SATA/IDE bridges, in a Windows environment.

_________________
A backup a day keeps DR away.

OK, Victoria seems the best option for Windows x32.

smartmontools and Gsmart control (a GUI) works with my USB enclosures, so it's fine.

Now the problem is that victoria won't work with my PC (Windows 7 64, AMD970/SB950 motherboard, SATA drives in RAID mode)... but if I run into trouble, I'll use Hiren's Boot CD.

You could try R-studio if you want a simple yet reasonable software recovery program. The cost is about $80 the last time I looked and will work with the type of PC that you are using.

IT will take a while to process a drive though and if it crashes then there is no way to re-start the recovery midway or there was not in the recent edition that I own.

One tip though you should be connecting your analysis drive up to the mother board of your machine. Good tools – hardware and software will use commands that cannot be (for want of a better word) transmitted / sent through USB. You will be crippling what ever tool you are using if you are using USB.
With Regards
Marcus

MHDD is not anything like R-Studio or similar recovery software - recovery software is not written to allow user-specified ATA commands to be sent to the drive, to watch the ATA registers, etc. etc. which MHDD is designed to do.