Question: I’ve had my HDD replaced, and now my computer is freezing every 1 to 5 minutes for 5 to 10 seconds. Actually, only active applications freeze (but it can be ANY application), usually when I click something, but sometimes by themselves.
How can I check if this is HDD issue or software issue?
I don’t want to send my laptop for second HDD replacement right away, since the last service took 40 days, so I am looking for a tool that could confirm that this is a HDD issue.
Answer: To check your hard drive’s health, try using S.M.A.R.T. drive diagnostics:
All modern drives have a monitoring technology called S.M.A.R.T. (Self Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) that continuously monitors a number of parameters on a hard drive. Many parameters can be monitored by S.M.A.R.T. including read and write error rates, seek error rates, spin up time, temperature and much more.
(Summary taken from techsupportalert.com)
Many programs support S.M.A.R.T., but I personally use the PartedMagic LiveCD’s built-in utility to do this. ?Because this is a Linux LiveCD, you might want to use a native Windows program. ?Good choices are:
Supports various S.M.A.R.T. settings and diagnostic tests as well as a “conveyance test” (travel damage) that might suit your needs.
Open source but supposedly does not have as many features as HDDScan. ?I’ve never used it so I can’t jusdge the veracity of this.
Though this is usually used for CPU and hard drive temperatures (and of course fan speeds), SpeedFan also has a little S.M.A.R.T. tab from which you can run diagnostics.