HDAT2
HDAT2 is program for test or diagnostics of ATA/ATAPI/SATA, SSD, USB and SCSI devices.
Features
- Hardware Monitoring
HDAT2 News & Activities
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HDAT2 information
What is HDAT2?
HDAT2 is program for test or diagnostics of ATA/ATAPI/SATA, SSD, USB and SCSI devices.
HDAT2 program has 2 levels: Drive level testing
- main function is testing and repair (to regenerate) bad sectors for detected devices
- you get much information about detected devices
File level testing
- read/find/check items (MBR, boot, directories, etc.) of file system FAT12/16/32
- check/remove (regenerates) bad sectors records, flags in FAT table
Comments and Reviews
I never heard of HDAT2 before reading about it here, on alternativeto.net, and it was up to the test the minute I found it. Turns out HDAT2 works way faster than similar software, namely Victoria. This contest finished just now! I got brother's laptop, who dropped it and wanted to see if anything can be salvaged. OS would lock up with HDD activity lit up; when HDD removed and hooked up to another PC it would lock up that computer as well. LiveCD was the only way to go. Once all data was saved (we just got lucky) I decided to salvage HDD too; it reported only 10 bads at that time, but that number grew significantly with every minute... About half of 707(!) bad sectors were repaired by Victoria, and the rest - by HDAT2. I had to restart Victoria every 20-50 bad sector repairs (I do not know why, but computer would lock up without HDD activity, possibly issue of underlying LiveCD OS) and it took me almost two days to get those 330+ bad secors repaired (I wasn't sitting by the computer all the time: left it running, came back three hours later only to find that it was locked up for last two hours - frustrating, you know...), while HDAT2 have done its READ-WRITE-READ on 370+ bad sectors at once! Well, my brother is looking for new laptop (it was time for upgrade anyways) and will give this one to his kids for "repairs"...
Couple tips - turn off that sound, if you do not want this constant noise! Well, if you have one or two bads - not big deal, but after 50 bads it becomes REALLY annoying!!! This can be done by either starting the program with /s switch, through Setup menu - just press S while in program but before the test - or by pressing CTRL+S at any time. Also I would recommend to spend some time going through all those menus (including setup pages) and familiarize yourself with the software - it is VERY POWERFULL!
Thank you developers for making this great software free and thanks to alternativeto.net users for posting and linking this software to other, more recognizable HDD utilities, where it can be found by users like me!
[Edited by kalyok, August 30]
best alternative for Victoria. support AHCI mode, new chipsets, etc.