Hard drive tests
If you experience problems with your Seagate external storage, you can run diagnostic tests on its hard
drive. Windows and Mac offer utilities to test and repair hard drives and Seagate provides utlities for
Windows.
Seagate diagnosc tool (Windows only)
Download Seatools for Windows and follow the steps below to help determine the health of your device.
Make certain to back up data on your storage device before running the test.
1. Close all open applications before running the hard drive diagnostic tests.
2. Before starting the test, make certain that the computer is powered on. The computer must be plugged
into its power supply and the power supply should receive power from a wall socket.
3. Power management controls must be suspended during the tests. To adjust power management
settings:
Click Start or the Windows icon on the bottom left corner of your Windows desktop.
Go to Control Panel.
Choose Power Options.
Choose Change plan settings.
Choose Change advanced power settings
Expand the Hard Disks in the window.
Confirm that the setting is set to Never.
4. Confirm that you have the correct storage device connected to your computer. Seatools for Windows
can be used with Seagate, Samsung, LaCie and Maxtor storage devices. Safely remove all other hard
drives.
5. If you have not done so, back up data on your storage device before running the test.
6. Launch Seatools and choose the tests to run from the menu:
Fix all
S.M.A.R.T. check
Short Drive Self Test
Short Generic
Long Generic (progresses at 1% increments and can take several hours to complete)
Following the test, a log for each drive is saved to the program installation folder. To read the log, click
Help>View Log File. You can also view a log in Help by clicking Pass Info or Fail Info, depending on your
results.
Windows diagnosc tool
Windows includes a utility called Check Disk (ChkDsk) that can be used to repair bad sectors on the hard
