Stress

Testing Tool
use in Hard
Disk Drive
 REPORTED BY:
JESSICA NIÑA ASCAÑO
EDLYN MAE ROJO
YRA DESAPORADO
ALLANA EZEKIEL ISUBAL
TRISHA ANNE CARUMAYAN
JANNA MARI TAASAN
 WHAT IS STRESS
TESTING?
Stress Testing is defined as a type of
Software Testing that verified the
stability & reliability of the system. This
test mainly determines the system on
its robustness and error handling under
extremely heavy load conditions.
It even tests beyond the normal
operating point and evaluates how the
system works under those extreme
conditions. Stress Testing is done to
make sure that the system would not
crash under crunch situations.
 WHAT IS HARD
DRIVE?
A hard disk drive (sometimes
abbreviated as hard drive, HD, or HDD) is
a non-volatile data storage device. It is
usually installed internally in a computer,
attached directly to the disk controller of
the computer's motherboard.
It contains one or more platters,
housed inside of an air-sealed casing.
Data is written to the platters using a
magnetic head, which moves rapidly over
them as they spin.
  How does a hard disk
work?
Since magnetic hard disks are still the
most commonly used variety of drives,
we will consider its example to explain
how it works. Ideally, it is a cylindrical
unit that consists of various magnetic
plates. Each plate is divided into
numerous tracks and sectors. The plate
consists of minute units that are used
to store data in a binary form (0 or 1). A
spindle is located at the middle of the
disk that rotates the unit.
How to tell
if a Hard
Drive is
Failing?
  Sign 1. Hard drive
clicking sound
A lot of times, users complain of a
peculiar clicking sound made by the
hard drive's head. It usually happens
when there is an inconsistent power
supply for the disk or a physical
damage on one of the plates.
  Sign 2. Access
Denied
When users try to access the
disk or a partition, they often get
the access denied prompt. This
means that the system can't
locate the hard disk or a
particular partition in it. A loose
connection or a corrupt storage
can trigger this event.
 Sign 3.Repeated
crashing

If the computer or the hard drive

crashes repeatedly, then consider
it as one of the vital symptoms of a
bad hard drive. The disk can stop
working out of the blue anytime.
Sign 4. Inaccessibility
of data

There are times when the data

stored in the disk is lost or
inaccessible. This is both, a hard
drive problem as well as a
symptom for further issues.
 Sign 5. OS can't
be loaded
While booting the system,
you might get a recovery
screen stating that the
system can't load/locate
certain files. This is directly
related to a hard drive
malfunction.
Sign 6. Abort, Retry,
Fail?
This is again one of the
common hard disk failure
symptoms as it occurs when
the system can't locate the
entire OS or some crucial
files. It means the system has
aborted an operation, retried,
and failed.
Sign 7. Sector not found

Sometimes, the hard disk can have a

bad sector or two. In this case, your
computer will inform you the same by
displaying a similar warning message.
This can be major hard drive problems
symptoms that you should not ignore.
 Best Hard Drive Test & Diagnostic
Tools to Check Hard Disk's Health

 If your hard disk's health is not in a

good state, then you may lose your
important data in the future. For that
reason, you must frequently take a
backup of your valuable data to another
storage device or media (e.g. on a USB
disk, DVD, etc.) and from time to time to
check your hard disk for possible
damages, by using a hard disk
diagnostic utility.
Today all hard drives have embedded
a monitoring technology called
S.M.A.R.T. (Self Monitoring Analysis
and Reporting Technology), that can
continuously monitor hard drive's
health by monitoring several
parameters on the disk, like the read
and write errors, the temperature, spin
up time, etc.

In this tutorial you can find

instructions on how you can check the
health status of any storage device
(HDD, SDD, USB, etc.) by reading
S.M.A.R.T. and how to scan the hard
disk surface for possible damages.
How to read S.M.A.R.T
and
Test your Hard Drive
for problems. (HDD,
SSD, USB)
– To read the important information that
S.M.A.R.T. provides and to diagnose your hard
disk for problems, you need a Hard Drive
Health Monitoring and Diagnostic Program. To
accomplish this task you can use one of the
following FREE HDD diagnostic utilities that
works with all hard drives:
1.CrystalDiskinfo
2.HD Tune
* Note: If you know the manufacturer of your
hard drive then you can use the corresponding
HDD diagnostic utility:
•Seagate: SeaTools for Windows
•Western Digital: Data Lifeguard Diagnostic
for Windows
•Hitachi: HGST Windows Drive Fitness Test
(WinDFT)
 1. CrystalDiskInfo
The CrystalDiskInfo, is a hard drive
diagnostic utility, than can inform
you for the health condition of your
hard drive, by reading the S.M.A.R.T.
information. To view your Hard Disk's
health state with CrystalDiskInfo:
1. Download and install CrystalDiskInfo application.

2. Launch CrystalDiskInfo. *

* Note: If you have more than one disk on your

system, click Disk from the main menu and
choose the disk that you want to find out its
health status.
A.If your hard
drive is
healthy, then
you should see
under Health
Status: Good.
B. If your hard drive is not healthy then
you should see under Health Status:
Caution *

Note: If hard disk's health status, is not

in a good condition, this means that you
must give additional attention to your
drive and your data. At this case perform
the following actions:

1. Backup your data to another storage

media/device.
2. Perform a surface scan to the drive by
using HD Tune (see below) to find out the
extend of damage.
 2. HD Tune.
The HD Tune is an excellent hard
disk diagnostic utility that can read
the S.M.A.R.T. analysis and to perform
a surface scan on any internal or
external hard drive. HD tune comes in
two versions the Free and the PRO
one. The main disadvantage of the
Free version, is that cannot read the
S.M.A.R.T. information from external
USB hard drives. A detailed
comparison between the two versions
of HD Tune can be found on HD TUNE
official download page.
* Note: You can either download the
Free or the Trial version. (For this
tutorial I use the HD TUNE Trial
Version)
1. Download and install HD Tune on
your computer.
2. After installation, launch HD
Tune application. If you have more
than one disk installed on your
computer, then use the drop down
arrow menu to select the hard disk
that you want to check for hardware
problems.
3. Choose the Health
tab to to read the
S.M.A.R.T. information
and health status of the
HDD.
A. If your hard drive is
healthy, then you should
see at the bottom of HD
Tune window: Health
status: OK *
B. If your hard drive is not healthy,
then you should see at the bottom of
HD Tune window: Health status:
Warning *

Note: If hard disk's health status, is

not in a good condition, this means
that you must give additional attention
to your drive and your data. At this
case, perform the following actions:

1. Backup your data to another storage

media.
2. Proceed to the next step to scan
hard drive's surface for damages.
4. To perform a
surface scan
on the hard
disk, choose
the Error Scan
tab and then
click the Start
button.
5. Let the HD Tune to
complete the surface scan.
If all squares becomes
Green then your hard disk's
surface is in a good
condition. If you see at least
one RED square, then your
hard drive is seriously
damaged and you have to
replace it as soon as
possible, to avoid loosing
your files.