MHDD
This software can make precise diagnostic of the mechanical part of a drive
Operating system: Windows
Publisher: Dmitry Postrigan
Antivirus check: passed
Last revision: Last week
MHDD is a free utility for checking, scanning and repairing bad sectors on hard drives.
The program scans the surface of the disks in a sector-by-sector manner and measures the access time to the sector, and if it is exceeded or the information from the sector cannot be read, it will be marked as "bad block". Damaged sectors can be replaced with redundant sectors: most hard drives have special sectors that are specifically designed to reassign damaged units (REMAP option is responsible for this). The scan result is logged in the log/mhdd.log.
MHDD uses low-level (UDMA) access, without using interruptions and BIOS functions, but by contacting the controller directly. Because of this specificity, work is only possible from under DOS, Windows will block all attempts to set up direct access to memory. The application can work with drives compatible with IDE, Serial ATA, SCSI and USB interfaces via USB→SCSI emulator.
Below is a short list of function keys:
F1 - help with basic commands, use the MAN command for detailed instructions;
F2 - initialization of the disk with detailed information about it;
SHIFT+F3 - Select the device to be used;
F4 - surface scan;
F8 - displays SMART information.
The program is available in three versions: an ISO image that can be burned to a bootable CD or USB stick, an image that can be used to create a bootable floppy and an executable file. UltraISO is perfect for writing a bootable disk or flash drive.
Attention: MHDDD is quite complicated for inexperienced users and requires careful reading of the documentation. It is also desirable to have the skill to work in a DOS environment. Mishandling the utility can damage the drive and/or destroy all information on it.
- Check for damaged sectors;
- use of direct memory access;
- Reassignment (re-mapping) of faulty units;
- Receive SMART information;
- low-level deletion of information with no possibility of recovery;
- Low-level HDD formatting;
- recovery of information from bad blocks;
- password management;
- Acoustic Management system management (not available on all devices);
- the ability to change the configuration of the discs;
- detailed log with all user actions and results of the program;
- free distribution of the program.
