Seagate USB External drive diagnostics

There are several methods for testing your Seagate hard drive. Some of these diagnostics test the drive hardware, as others test the logical hard drive features (partitions, sectors, file system, etc.)

Seatools Diagnostics
Windows OS diagnostics tools
Mac OS Diagnostics tools

SeaTools Diagnostics

1.) It is suggested to close all other applications before running hard disk diagnostic, in order to keep the drive focused on SeaTools as much as possible.

2.) Please keep the computer fully powered on.  Power management controls may need to be suspended while doing very long tests.  Make sure you have the computer plugged in by power supply to a main wall socket.

• Click on the Start or Windows icon button in the bottom left corner of your Windows desktop.
• Select Control Panel.
• Select Power Options.
• Select “Change plan settings”
• Select “Change advanced power settings”
• Expand the Hard Disks in this window
• The setting “Turn off hard disk after” should be set to “Never” while  running any SeaTools for Windows test.

3.) Select the Drives to Test.  Seagate, Samsung, LaCie, and Maxtor drive models are all supported drives. Please safely remove all other hard drives except the drive(s) that you want to test. 

4.) Select the Tests to Run.  A menu of the possible diagnostic tests is shown. Select the test that you would like to perform. You should backup all of your data before running tests that have options to “Fix”. The test will begin immediately.  These tests include:

• Fix all
• S.M.A.R.T. check
• Short Drive Self Test 
• Short Generic
• Long Generic (progress in 1% increments and may take several hours to complete)

5.) Upon completion of running the diagnostics, a log for each drive is saved to the program installation folder.  You can read the log by clicking on Help>View Log File.  You can also view a log about the test results by clicking on either “Pass Info”or “Fail Info”, depending on the results of the test, when the test is done next to the “Help” option.  Then you will see three tabs:  “Pass Info”, “Warranty Checker”, and “View Log File."

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Windows OS Diagnostics

The Windows Operating System has a great tool for testing hard drives.  This program is called Check Disk (ChkDsk).

Always backup your data before running any check disk (chkdsk) scans of your hard drive. If there is a bad sector, any data that may have been accessible before chkdsk, will likely become inaccessible once the bad sector is re-allocated. 

1.) Access command prompt

Mac OS Diagnostics

The MacOS has great tools for testing hard drives.  This program is called First Aid.

Always backup your data before running First Aid scans of your hard drive. If there is a bad sector, any data that may have been accessible before running “Repair Disk” will likely become inaccessible once the bad sector is re-allocated. 

1.) Confirm the drive is seen in Disk Utility.

• Click Go on the top menu bar from the Desktop.
• Choose Utilities.
• Choose Disk Utility.

2.) Once Disk Utility is launched a drive list will be displayed in the left hand column.
 
3.) The external Seagate drive should appear in this list as a selectable drive. Click on the drive icon to highlight the drive and the window will display the information about the current drive and the file system.

4.) If the drive partition(s) is still visible in the left column as the second indented row under the hard drive itself, but is not mounted on the Desktop, you can try to run a repair on the partition using Disk Utility’s First Aid function. 

To get to First Aid:

• Click on the partition to select it. When done correctly, the partition will be highlighted in blue (may vary at some point).
• Click on the First Aid tab.
• Click on “Verify Disk” and if Disk Utility says it’s needed, then run “Repair Disk”.

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