# need a program to scan usb hard drives for defects.

**URL:** <https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-program-to-scan-usb-hard-drives-for-defects/19550>\
**Category:** NYSpeed Off Topic\
**Created:** [November 1, 2006, 9:06am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-program-to-scan-usb-hard-drives-for-defects/19550 "2006-11-01T09:06:06Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![JustinH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JustinH](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/JustinH)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 9:06am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-program-to-scan-usb-hard-drives-for-defects/19550/1 "2006-11-01T09:06:06Z")

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Hey Guys.

I need a good program that will scan usb hard drives for defects quickly. The windows scandisk thing scans the disc in like two seconds and says its good. I doubt its doing anything but reading the smart log. If you do the search for bad sectors thing, it takes over an hour per drive. (200gb externals).

Anybody know of a free program that works better than windows scandisk and faster?

Thanks,  
J

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**Author:** ![Daddie](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/daddie/32/7621_2.png) [@Daddie](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Daddie)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 9:12am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-program-to-scan-usb-hard-drives-for-defects/19550/2 "2006-11-01T09:12:58Z")

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what OS, XP? Scandisk has a surface scan, that usually works pretty well.

I just use this dell/EMC array scanner, I don’t know of what else to use, sorry.

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**Author:** ![JustinH](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9fc29f/32.png) [@JustinH](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/JustinH)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 10:11am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-program-to-scan-usb-hard-drives-for-defects/19550/3 "2006-11-01T10:11:15Z")

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yep its for xp…

> [@Daddie](#):
>
> what OS, XP? Scandisk has a surface scan, that usually works pretty well.
> 
> I just use this dell/EMC array scanner, I don’t know of what else to use, sorry.

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**Author:** ![FightinMike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7bcc69/32.png) [@FightinMike](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/FightinMike)\
**Post date:** [November 1, 2006, 12:23pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/need-a-program-to-scan-usb-hard-drives-for-defects/19550/4 "2006-11-01T12:23:01Z")

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if you can _obtain_ Norton’s disk utility it will perfrom much more thorough scans. But for a 200gb drive expect it to take forever. Thats a lot of sectors to check individually.