MHDD program - detailed instructions for use. We check and repair a hard drive with MHDD Description of the mhdd program for checking hard drives

17.10.2023

Before issuing this command, the UNLOCK command must be issued.

RPM Change spindle speed(this procedure is not guaranteed to work)

FF Write disk sectors. The data to be recorded is taken from the specified file

A.A.M. Configure the noise characteristics of the drive

MAKEBAD Generation of BAD blocks. Does not work on all drives

RANDOMBAD Generation of bad blocks, scattering them randomly across the surface

INIT Reset and recalibration

FDISK Make one partition for the entire disk. Only MBR changes

SMART / Control the SMART system and view attributes

STOP / Stop spindle

I/ Send ID commands then INIT

ERASE Selectively erase sectors or completely erase a surface (low-level formatting)

To erase directly, bypassing the BIOS, you can disable the disk in the BIOS settings, or erase with the parameter /DISABLEBIOS.This parameter does not affect the erasing speed.

FASTERASE Surface erasing at maximum speed (password system is used)

TOF Reading disk sectors to a file

Everything breaks down someday, and the hard drive is no exception. If your hard drive is faulty, then you should check it with the MHDD program. Previously, we looked at what factors can affect the performance of a computer and what hard drive errors exist.

MHDD is one of the most popular free programs for thorough diagnostics and self-repair of your drive. In this article we will look at how to restore functionality using this program.

Checking the hard drive with MHDD

Attention - you carry out all manipulations at your own peril and risk, since using this utility can harm the drive and all the information on it.

First, you should download the program image to burn onto a flash drive or CD. To do this, download the archive with the program from the official website: download MHDD for free.

Unpack the file and burn the disk image in any way convenient for you. I used one of the most popular programs Ultra ISO.

Restart your computer, enter the BIOS and select boot from a flash drive or any other drive on which you have the MHDD program stored.

You will see a program screen with a choice of download options. The first item is for owners of a SCSI controller; by default, the checkbox is on the second item. In our case, press Enter.

On the next screen we have to choose which hard drive to work with. Pay attention to the list of devices and enter the number with which the disk is signed. In our case, we have one disk in the system.

Let's start diagnosing the disk. To do this, call up the menu with the F4 button to identify the presence of bad sectors. Press F4 again and start the diagnostic process.

On the left you will see a disk map that displays the blocks currently being scanned by the program. If MHDD finds a bad one, it will mark it with a red X or green S.

If you find bad blocks, immediately copy all important data from the drive, since errors on the hard drive lead to the loss of all information, and the process of getting rid of Bad blocks involves completely wiping the disk.

If there is important information on the disk, it is worth repeating the scan with the command Erase Delays, which will erase all bad sectors. Otherwise you should use Erase for complete removal and cleaning.

If after all this there are still red bads on the hard drive, use the command Remap, however, it is better to immediately think about buying a new hard drive.

MHDD is a multifunctional program for accurate diagnosis and repair of hard drives.
The program is completely free and provides great practicality and reliability of scanning.

MHDD performs a high-quality disk check for various damages, including bads and so-called soft bads.
One of the most important advantages of the program is that it works with the hard drive at a low level, directly through the IDE controller ports.

The main features of the application are as follows:

Accurate diagnostics of the mechanical surface of the disc.
. monitoring IDE controller registers.
. high-quality use of the HPA function (reducing the volume of the hard drive).
. adjusting the noise emitted by the hard drive.
. Error logging.
. the presence of a function for completely destroying data on the hard drive without the possibility of recovery.
. HDD testing under extreme conditions.
. possibility of simultaneous testing of several hard drives.
. working with a password system on disk.

MHDD

This article was written for those who are interested and taking their first steps in the field of hard drives and is dedicated to the MHDD program and working with it.
At the time of writing, the latest version of the program was 2.9.

First of all, it should be noted that the program is universal; it works with all drives with an ATA interface, regardless of manufacturer and model.

This is explained by the fact that any interaction of an ATA hard drive with the outside world occurs through a standard set of ports and using a specific set of commands defined in the ATA standard specification (when developing all versions of which, compatibility considerations were taken into account, and thus it becomes completely unimportant which version of the interface equipped with this particular drive, and even more so the manufacturer, because when developing the drive he certainly had to be guided by the ATA standard).

The program is capable of running under pure DOS, and directly from Windows (95/98/ME).
True, when working from Windows, there are some restrictions (they are mentioned in the documentation: in this case, the drive does not need to be defined in the BIOS, and the controller on which it is installed is best disabled in Windows).

And although this option is workable, I personally still prefer to work under pure DOS, since even if everything works stably in Windows, the speed indicators obtained may not correspond to reality.
And then, Windows is still Windows...

Maybe I’m paranoid, but in “Varez” matters I try to stay away from “Windows”.
And since we mentioned controllers, it must be said that the program allows you to work with drives installed on external ATA controllers, but not in all versions.
This feature was announced in version 2.8, but version 2.9 available on the website does not have this feature.

The utility can be launched from any non-write-protected media that has some space for recording temporary files and work logs (minimum 70 KB required, 20 MB recommended).

Do not use the program from the same disk that you are diagnosing and treating, if it happens that you have only one drive (you are restoring bad things on your own and only one, for example) - use the program from a floppy disk.

The hardware part is your test machine, the program is not occupied at all: it can be anything, with an ATA controller, up to 286 (the documentation says so, I haven’t tried it myself, since I only have 386 available, but in theory it should) .

After startup, if there is more than one drive in the system, we are prompted to select the one we want to work with.

A hint about the main commands of the program will be displayed on the screen.

Having initialized the selected drive by clicking, we get comprehensive information about it:

Model name; logical disk geometry (logical number of cylinders/heads/sectors per track);
- serial number; microcode version;
- number of blocks addressed via LBA;
- supported ATA functions and maximum supported mode; SMART status (whether it is enabled);
- security system status (hardware password enabled/disabled);
- full size of the hard drive; the result of passing the main tests.

Some of this information is displayed in the second line from the top on the screen and is visible during operation.

In addition, the status of the disk and its use at a given time is indicated by indicators in the very top line.

They carry the following information:

BUSY- the drive is busy and does not respond to commands;
WRFT- recording error;
DREQ- the drive wants to exchange data with the outside world;
ERR- an error occurred as a result of some operation.

When this bit lights up, look at the top right of the screen.
The type of the last error will be displayed there: (valid only when the “ERR” light is on):

AMNF- Address Mark Not Found - Addressing a specific sector failed.

The likely cause is damage to this sector, damage to its identification fields (this is mentioned here).
But immediately after turning on the drive, on the contrary, it indicates the absence of problems and reports the successful completion of internal diagnostics;

T0NF- Track 0 Not Found - zero track was not found;
ABRT- Abort, command rejected;
IDNF- Sector ID Not found;
UNCR- Uncorrectable Error - Error not corrected by ECC code.

There is probably a logical bad block in this place (this was discussed here).

In addition to these, two more indicators may light up at the top - P.W.D.- signaling the installed hardware password, and HPA- if the drive size was changed using the “HPA” command (usually used to hide bad blocks at the end of the disk).

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In the process of their work they will certainly wear out. Wear and tear can be manifested by slow computer performance and freezes. And all because unreadable sectors, or as they are also called BAD blocks, appear on the surface of the hard drive.

To check your hard drive for bad sectors, bad blocks, there is a very good and free program called MHDD. With its help, you can not only find bad sectors, but also try to fix them (reassign them).

How to use the MHDD program?

First, we need to write the MHDD boot image onto a flash drive, since the program runs under DOS.

We insert the flash drive into the USB connector of the computer or laptop and, or known to you, write down the downloaded MHDD image, thereby creating a bootable flash drive.

After the flash drive is written, you need to first set the hard drive operating mode with ACHI to IDE. If this is not done, then MHDD will not see your hard drive.

If you did everything correctly and booted from a flash drive, then you will see a window like this:

MHDD Initial Boot Window

In it you need to press “Enter”, after which the main window of the MHDD program will appear:

Select a hard drive by entering the corresponding number

Type the number and press “Enter”.

To display a window with hard drive scan settings, click F4 on keyboard.

Scan settings

Here, use the arrows to go down to the “Remap” line, press “Enter” and select “On”. With this we enabled the reassignment of bad sectors. So that MHDD not only finds them, but also marks them as unused.

Now press again F4 After which the hard drive itself will start checking for bad sectors.

The check lasts from 20 minutes to 4 hours, depending on the volume and speed of the hard drive. A 1TB disk is scanned for about 2-3 hours.

The window on the right displays the test results. Sectors with a response time of 500MS or more (brown and red) are considered to be bad, and the more of them, the worse. UNC (red crosses) are bads - unreadable sectors.

Check results - BAD sectors

Since the option was enabled at the beginning of the scan Remap- reassigning BAD sides from the reserve area, it is possible that after a complete check of the hard drive with the MHDD program, the bads will be removed and the hard drive will work for some time.

If, at the end of the check, there is not a single sector below 150MS (green) at the top right, this means that the surface of your hard drive is in perfect order and there are no BAD sectors on it.

Now you know how easy it is to use MHDD and how to use it to check your hard drive for bad sectors and bad blocks.

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MHDD is a program known for its power, designed to interact with drives at low levels. The program was created fourteen years ago by Dmitry Postrigan and since then it has become much easier to use MHDD.

MHDD is capable of scanning the surface of a drive that has an IDE interface in CHS mode. The creator dreamed of personal diagnostic equipment that would inspire confidence in users.

Today, the capabilities of the MHDD program are not limited to diagnostics. When using the MHDD utility, you can:

Read;
Write arbitrary sectors;
Manage the SMART system, the password system, the system that controls the noise characteristics;
You can even change the drive format.

On the website http://www.ihdd.ru you can find a copy of MHDD. You can download the program for use in different forms: archived and as a floppy disk with a self-extracting function.

Log/mhdd.log— the main log file created when the installed program is launched for the first time. Your future actions will be recorded on it.

So that the MHDD program reads information from some element located on the drive, you need to send a BIOS request. And the BIOS begins searching for the ports of the required drive, checks the data, and exchanges it with the drive. Then the data is returned to the operating system.

You cannot run MHDD from a drive located on an IDE cable, to which the drive under test will be connected. Data corruption will occur on both sides. Therefore the program does not interact with PRIMARY. If you need to unblock the PRIMARY channel, you need to run MHDD, exit, edit the MHDD.CFG file. (command term with the ENABLEPRIMARY key).

The program imposes certain requirements for the operation of the software:

To the processor: Intel Pentium or the latest developments in the world of computers;
RAM of at least 4 megabytes;
MSDOS must be at least version 6.22;
Boot device required (USB, HDD, CDROM, FDD).

Requirements for IDE/SATA controllers:

Must have integration into the northbridge; PCI UDMA have automatic detection; certain RAID controllers are supported; UDMA/RAID controllers are present in the form of a microcircuit.
Requirements for drives: IDE or Serial ATA, the volume of which exceeds 600 megabytes, but does not exceed 8388607 terabytes; SCSI drive having a sector size limited to 512 and 528 bytes.
The drive being tested must be switched to MASTER mode.
You can scan a device if the process is supervised by ID or EID commands (the F2 key is responsible). Type SCAN, press ENTER (F4 key). You can change settings in the menu.
You can view the attributes by pressing SMART ATT (F8 key). You can find out the number of remapped sectors. A value greater than 50 should be alarming. You can look at the attribute showing temperature values. UDMA CRC error rate will show how many errors there are when data is transmitted over the cable.
The HPA team is able to limit the storage volume.
The PWD command locks the drive by setting a password.
Using the AAM command, you can adjust the noise characteristics.
CONFIG allows you to change the configuration.

If you want to see help on using MHDD, dedicated to all program commands, press F1. If this program does not help, try the Victoria program to analyze the disk.

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