Disk Verification

[bigandy]

I've just bought a new 750Gb external drive, and it's making some 'different' noises - noises I've never heard come from my raft of other external disks.

Is there any Mac software that will exhaustively check *each and every sector* and verify that a disk is ok (not the half-arsed check that Disk Utility does)? I seem to remember there were a few such applications for Windows, back in the days before I switched, but as it's HFS+ formatted, they'll be pretty useless.

Ta.

 

[KoolStar]

You can use Disk Utility, Located in Applications->Utilities->Disk Utility. You can use this tool to verify disk and repair if necessary.

Sorry about the post I didn't see the post where you already tried Disk Utility.

I'm looking into it for you.

 

[sushi]

Do you have a PC, or one that you can borrow?

If so, then you can connect your external HD to it and then use SpinRite to check out the drive.

 

[KoolStar]

Does SpinRight have the ability to read HFS+ formated disk?

 

[sushi]

Does SpinRight have the ability to read HFS+ formated disk?

AFAIK, it reads everything (all formats).

To be more specific, I've used it on FAT32, NTFS and HFS+. Works great.

Go here.

Unfortunately, you cannot run it on the Mac OS. SpinRite boots from a floppy disc or CD via FreeDOS. And then runs within that environment.

I have recovered HFS+ and FAT32 disks were no other software would work, Mac or PC. Well worth the purchase price IMHO for your HD needs. I have a PC, so it is just a matter of attaching whatever HD needs to be repaired/fixed/recovered.

It can take time -- especially for large hard drives.

Edit: From the GRC web site:

By operating directly upon magnetic storage media at a level below any installed operating system, this major milestone release of SpinRite is able to operate on all Windows XP NTFS formats, all DOS FAT, all Linux file systems, Novell, Macintosh (if temporarily moved into a PC) or anything else — it can even be used to repair and recover the hard drive from an ailing TiVo!