better chkdsk & scandisk

[KevinGPO]

I need to chkdsk and scandisk FAT32 & NTFS partitions.

However chkdsk and scandisk aren't good enough.

Does anyone know a better 3rd party tool?

 

[Ted Zieglar]

You sound like someone who's tough to please. What makes a utility "good
enough" for you?

I guess searching the internet is out of the question, right? Or you can
just cross-post to more newsgroups.

 

[Doug Kanter]

I need to chkdsk and scandisk FAT32 & NTFS partitions.

However chkdsk and scandisk aren't good enough.

Does anyone know a better 3rd party tool?

The best:
Spinrite - it's been around for years, and just keeps getting better.
www.grc.com

 

[Steve N.]

I need to chkdsk and scandisk FAT32 & NTFS partitions.

However chkdsk and scandisk aren't good enough.

Why? Specifics please.

Does anyone know a better 3rd party tool?

Depends on what's wrong.

Steve N.

 

[Bob I]

Visit the drive manufacturer web site and get the HD diagnostics utility.

 

[Glen]

Spinrite is for hard drives with sector problems. It doesn't touch the file
system. so any corruption in the file system will remain. It depends what he
OP is looking for.

 

[Alan]

I need to chkdsk and scandisk FAT32 & NTFS partitions.

However chkdsk and scandisk aren't good enough.

Does anyone know a better 3rd party tool?

What do you mean by not good enough? You need to be specific with your
requirements as better can mean many different things to people. I'm pretty
sure you'll not find any applications claiming to be worse so in your broad
terms I guess they all are better. (in their own publishers eyes).

And you mention 2 different tools with different purposes, yet you ask for
'a .... tool' - you want one that performs 2 different tasks? That restricts
your options.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I need to chkdsk and scandisk FAT32 & NTFS partitions.

However chkdsk and scandisk aren't good enough.

First, there is no scandisk in Windows XP, and scandisk won't work with it,
so there's no question of its being "good enough."

Second, why is Chkdsk not good enough?

Does anyone know a better 3rd party tool?

Tools do different things, and one which is better at one thing may be
terrible at doing something else. A hammer is great for driving nails, but
much inferior to a screwdriver for driving screws. Tell us what you want to
accomplish and why Chkdsk isn't good enough, and perhaps someone can
rcommend a better alternative.

 

[Guest]

Here is a neat little free tool, may float your boat, if you like seeing your
files in color..
http://windirstat.sourceforge.net/
Might help you to id and remove large or unnecessary files on your drive..
Read the Help file and as always be careful..
j;-j

 

[KevinGPO]

Thanks this tool looks cool but it's only a viewer.

 

[KevinGPO]

Basically, there's my laptop HD which sometimes I find very fragile.
Sometimes it makes funny noises, similar to a CD-ROM whirly fast and never
stops. I believe it's probably because sometimes I lift my laptop with one
hand at one end. This obviously would bend the laptop. If the laptop bends,
so will the HD. So I am worried about physical damage, and I guess
file/logical damage too.

Second is my portable USB 40GB HD. Recently it's been making funny noises,
similar to a quiet burgular alarm being tripped. Maybe it's because I leave
it connected in my USB socket too long and is overheating? Or maybe because
it's been carried around too often and had a few shakes, up and downs.

 

[KevinGPO]

Basically, there's my laptop HD which sometimes I find very fragile.
Sometimes it makes funny noises, similar to a CD-ROM whirly fast and never
stops. I believe it's probably because sometimes I lift my laptop with one
hand at one end. This obviously would bend the laptop. If the laptop bends,
so will the HD. So I am worried about physical damage, and I guess
file/logical damage too.

Second is my portable USB 40GB HD. Recently it's been making funny noises,
similar to a quiet burgular alarm being tripped. Maybe it's because I leave
it connected in my USB socket too long and is overheating? Or maybe because
it's been carried around too often and had a few shakes, up and downs.

 

[KevinGPO]

Thanks that's a good tip.

Visit the drive manufacturer web site and get the HD diagnostics utility.

 

[KevinGPO]

Spinrite might be good. Wish they had a free trial or something. Otherwise I
may waste money on a wrong product, if you get what I mean.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Basically, there's my laptop HD which sometimes I find very fragile.
Sometimes it makes funny noises, similar to a CD-ROM whirly fast and
never stops. I believe it's probably because sometimes I lift my
laptop with one hand at one end. This obviously would bend the
laptop. If the laptop bends, so will the HD. So I am worried about
physical damage, and I guess file/logical damage too.

Not an issue. There's no reason to suppose the HD will bend.

Second is my portable USB 40GB HD. Recently it's been making funny
noises, similar to a quiet burgular alarm being tripped. Maybe it's
because I leave it connected in my USB socket too long and is
overheating? Or maybe because it's been carried around too often and
had a few shakes, up and downs.

Funny noises can be indicative of a developing problem. But you didn't
answer the question: what makes you think chldsk isn't good enough?

 

[Paul Knudsen]

I need to chkdsk and scandisk FAT32 & NTFS partitions.

However chkdsk and scandisk aren't good enough.

Does anyone know a better 3rd party tool?

Diskkeeper often has a 30-day free trial when this issue a new
release. Simply wait for it and download.

 

[Paul Knudsen]

Basically, there's my laptop HD which sometimes I find very fragile.
Sometimes it makes funny noises, similar to a CD-ROM whirly fast and never
stops. I believe it's probably because sometimes I lift my laptop with one
hand at one end. This obviously would bend the laptop. If the laptop bends,
so will the HD. So I am worried about physical damage, and I guess
file/logical damage too.

No software is going to fix "funny noises". And I have never heard of
a laptop "bending" and certainly not a hard drive. I suggest you
backup and get a new drive pronto.

Second is my portable USB 40GB HD. Recently it's been making funny noises,
similar to a quiet burgular alarm being tripped. Maybe it's because I leave
it connected in my USB socket too long and is overheating? Or maybe because
it's been carried around too often and had a few shakes, up and downs.

Yes, I have a USB drive cage and the drive spins all the time when
it's on and gets quite warm. Unplug it when not in use. A drive
should be able to tolerate being "carried around". Dropping, not so
much.