How to test for the "health" of a portable hard drive?

[brannsiu]

I have a couple of portable hard drives that they are all 2.5 inch.

I often travel with them, and with storage bag, always handled with care.

I'd like to know if there are any way or any sign that shows a portable hard drive is failing or going to fail?

Should I test a hard drive from time to time with a special software or the software that comes with the hard drive?

 

[urbancamper]

Use 64bit or 32bit depending what your operating system is Crystal Disk info. It is a stand alone file. no need to install. Make sure the drive you want to check are attached and showing. It will give you the info you need.
https://osdn.net/projects/crystaldiskinfo/downloads/69917/CrystalDiskInfo7_7_0.exe/

You can also use Crystal disk Mark. It will tell you the speed of your drives.
https://osdn.net/projects/crystaldiskmark/downloads/68624/CrystalDiskMark6_0_1.exe/

 

[seagate_surfer]

brannsiu, you may also try SeaTools for testing the health of your drives. The more important question here is do you have the information backed up?

Basically you want:

3 copies of any data you don't want to lose
2 different mediums it's stored on (so 2 different drives in your computer, for example)
1 copy kept offsite, to prevent against disaster. Let's say an accident and one of the drives drops out of your bag.