Summary :
Are you utilizing SSD now? Do you know your SSD performance? In fact, you can conduct a test via professional SSD testing software. This post will show you top 8 SSD health check tools. You can obtain detailed information about these tools in MiniTool.
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We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us. Select the original hard drive as the source disk and then choose the SSD as the destination disk. Check the SSD Alignment option to optimize the performance of the destination SSD. Then, click on Start Clone to begin HDD to SSD cloning. Intel Solid-State Drive Toolbox. If you're using an Intel SSD, their Solid-State Drive Toolbox is the tool.
As it known to all, SSD is taking the place of HDD with its high performance. Therefore, most people utilize SSD as their operating system drive. In fact, as for SSD VS HDD, SSD has more advantages. Though SSDs are fast and more preferable, they are quite fragile.
Based on that fact, you should run SSD health check tool or optimization programs occasionally. By doing so, you can maximize your SSD's performance and lifespan.
What Does an SSD Health Check Tool Do
Nowadays, there are many SSD testing programs on the market, and they boast different features for managing SSD. To be specific, what does an SSD health check tool do? Well, for most SSD health check tools, they can be used to test the SSD transfer speed, measure SSD performance, optimize SSD, etc. Some of them even allow you to erase SSD securely.
Given to that fact, you'd better read the software's description carefully to check if it contains the feature you need.
The following will give you more information about what an SSD health check tool performs.
Check SSD Health
The first thing that an SSD health check tool does is to tell you how healthy your SSD is. Some SSD health check tools will show you the current state of your SSD and give you a health status, such as Crystal Disk Info.
While others such as MiniTool Partition Wizard Free Edition can detect how many bad sectors on your SSD, which can indicates your SSD condition. In a word, you can check whether your SSD is in good health easily with these tools.
Optimize SSD Performance
Some SSD tools enable you to carry out garbage collection and other parameters, which can improve the performance of the drive.
Most SSD health check tools allow you to optimize or tune your SSD for different demands such as Intel SSD Toolbox, Samsung Magician, etc. However, you may notice that some utilizes may improve the drive's performance at the cost of losing some storage capacity.
Here is a step by step guide to measure disk performance for you.
Test SSD Speed
One of the basic features of SSD health check tools is SSD/Disk benchmark, which can measure your SSD performance by testing the SSD transfer speed. You will know whether the write/read data given by manufacturer is accurate after testing the speed of your SSD.
Besides, you will have a rough understanding of your SSD performance.
Secure Erase SSD
If an SSD includes sensitive information and needs to be wiped, erasing the data on the drive is a wise operation. The problem lies in that many SSD tools delete data by overwriting a drive for many times, causing accessing storage areas failure. For example, blocks can be marked as bad, or overprovisioning and wear leveling blocks.
While some SSD secure erase tools offer access to a hardware-based secure erase routine. During this process, SSD's controller ensures that all the storage including the areas that cannot be normally and directly accessed can be cleaned entirely.
There are many SSD health check tools available in the market. Which one should you pick? 8 best SSD testers are introduced in this post. You can take them as your reference.
8 Best SSD Health Check Tools
- MiniTool Partition Wizard
- Intel SSD Toolbox
- Samsung Magician
- Crystal Disk Info
- Smartmonotools
- Hard Disk Sentinel
- Toshiba SSD Utility
- SSD Life
Top 8 SSD Health Check Tools
MiniTool Partition Wizard
Ssd Disk Utility
MiniTool Partition Wizard is a powerful partition manager & SSD health check tool, which can help you format drive, recover missing data, analyze disk usage, migrate OS to SSD/HD, etc. The Disk Benchmark feature enables you to measure disk performance by using variable transfer sizes and test lengths for both sequential and random read/write speeds.
In addition, you can finish the whole operation in a few clicks. With this wonderful SSD benchmark tool, you can test any manufacturer' RAID controllers, storage controllers, hard drives and SSD drives. However, if the transfer size has a large span, the whole testing process may take you some time.
You can download MiniTool Partition Wizard by clicking the button below.
After downloading and installing MiniTool Partition Wizard, please follow the steps below to perform the disk benchmark operation.
Step 1: Click Launch Application to enter its main interface.
Step 2: Click on Disk Benchmark on the top of the main page.
Step 3: In the pop-up window, you can set HD/SSD disk testing parameters including testing drive, transfer size, queue number, cool down time, thread number, total length, and test mode according to your demand. After that, click on Start to execute the operation.
Step 4: Wait for the completion of operation. Different test settings can take you different time. After the operation finishes, you will get an intuitive table just as the below picture shown.
Just as you see, MiniTool Partition Wizard enables you to perform SSD benchmark with ease. Besides, you can view the results in a direct way. So, please don't hesitate to download it.
Intel SSD Toolbox
Intel SSD Toolbox is a piece of drive management software that enables you to supervise your drive health, estimate the remaining drive life, as well as S.M.A.R.T. attributes. It can run fast and full diagnostic scans to examine the read and write functionality of an Intel SSD.
-image from downloadcenter.intel.com
Besides, it allows you to update firmware on a supported Intel SSD and improve the performance of an Intel SSD by making using of Trim feature. Then, you are able to obtain the best Intel SSD performance, power efficiency and endurance by checking and adjusting system settings.
With Intel SSD Toolbox, you can perform a secure erase of your secondary Intel SSD. That's all the features of Intel SSD Toolbox.
Samsung Magician
Compared with Intel SSD Toolbox, Samsung Magician is more complicated. That is because it looks more like a management suite than a simple application. Samsung Magician allows you to create profiles, adjust performance ratings, and set the maximum capacity and reliability.
-image from samsung.com
If you want to avoid any incompatibilities with operating system, you can either to update firmware or download the Magician. Actually, optimization and diagnostics are its basic features. What Samsung Magician offers through its RAID mode is the highlighted point.
Crucial Ssd Disk Utility
The RAID mode can use 1GB of your system's DRAM as cache for hot data or frequently-accessed data. In this way, the overall performance, especially the read speed will be improved.
More importantly, if you are not satisfied with the diagnostics results and your benchmarks, you can keep optimizing your Samsung SSD for your present OS through the OS optimization feature in Samsung Magician.
Crystal Disk Info
Crystal Disk Info is a piece of open software that can offer you the health and temperature information of your SSD or HDD. It is one of the free tools that have the capability to collect accurate data for both types of storage drives and work with drives from all manufacturers.
-image from crystalmark.info
At the same time, general information is also provided for you. Crystal Disk Info allows you to check firmware updates, port details, buffer size, read and write speeds, power consumption and S.M.A.R.T. information. You can test SSD speed through it with ease.
What's more, you can also use it to do some slight adjustments of power management and notifications. The only disadvantages of Crystal Disk Info are that it won't work on Linux-based systems and cannot execute firmware updates.
Smartmonotools
The Smartmonotools includes two utility programs (smartctl and smartd), which can help you control and monitor your hard drive. It offers you real time monitoring of your hard disk. What's more, it will analyze and inform you about possible disk degradation and failure.
Smartmonotools supports ATA/ATAPI/SATA-3 to -8 disks and SCSI disks and type devices. You can run this disk tool on Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, OS/2, Cygwin, QNX, eComStation, Windows and a Live CD.
Hard Disk Sentinel
Hard Disk Sentinel is a hard disk monitoring tool that supports Windows, Linux and Dos operating system. It is designed to find, diagnose and repair SSD issues. Disk Sentinel is also able to show you SSD health condition. It can scan either an internal or external SSD connected with USB or e-SATA and find potential issues. After that, it will generate reports with the possible fixes to repair the errors.
-image from hdsentinel.com
After you install Hard Disk Sentinel, it will run in the background and check the SSD health condition automatically. If it finds any error, it will inform you immediately. With this SSD monitoring tool, you can test the hard disk's transfer speed in real time.
By doing so, you will know your disk benchmark, potential hard disk failures, as well as performance degradations.
Toshiba SSD Utility
If you are using OCZ SSD now, Toshiba SSD Utility is possibly the best software that you can utilize regardless of your operating system. You can monitor your SSD in real time and obtain SSD information including SSD health, remaining life, storage space and overall performance very quickly via using Toshiba SSD Utility.
-image from toshiba.com
Additionally, it can also be used as a drive manager and optimization tool. You are able to switch between multiple modes based on your SSD or your rig's intended use such as gaming, workstation, video editing and so on. By using these preset modes, you can improve the drive's performance and increase its lifespan in various cases.
SSD Life
SSD Life mainly focuses on SSD health and remaining life instead of other metrics. It has great compatibility with major SSD manufacturers like Apple MacBook Air's own SSD. It allows you to run diagnostics for SSD health, lifespan and overall performance. SSD Life will tell you accurate results and any important flaws that can influence the remaining lifespan or read/write speeds.
-image from toshiba.com
However, the free trial version only lasts seven days and has limitations on some features. After the trial expiration date reaches, you need to pay for it for later-on using.
Conclusion
Now, all the contents about SSD health check tools have been told to you. It's your turn to make a choice. You can pick one according to your demand. If you pick MiniTool Partition Wizard, you can check SSD health by following the given steps in the post. While for other SSD health check
Ssd Disk Check Utility
tools, you should follow the on-screen steps to finish the operation.
If you have any doubt or advice to MiniTool software, please contact us by writing an email directly via [email protected].
SSD Health Check FAQ
There are 5 signs indicate that your SSD is failing.
- There are errors involving bad blocks.
- Files cannot be read or written.
- The file system needs to be repaired.
- Your computer frequently crashes.
- Your drive becomes read-only.
If these signs appear, it indicates that your SSD is failing and you need to take some measure.
Why do you need SSD cloning freeware?
We all know that compared to traditional HDDs you get an excellent user experience when running Windows or gaming on solid-state drives (SSDs). Reinstalling Windows on your new SSD can be a time-consuming process full of frustration as you have to search the internet for all the programs you had originally and reinstall them one by one.
Specialist disk clone software can save your time by copying everything from the old drive to the new one. This includes all of the system files, preferences, programs, and everything in-between. Typically, you will need SSD cloning software in the following two situations:
● Specialist HDD to SSD cloning software. In order to take advantage of a new SSD and enjoy the speed it can offer you, you may clone a large HDD to a smaller SSD with the cloning software.
● Specialist SSD to SSD cloning software. Your old SSD now has no more space to store new files, so you buy a new larger one. In this case, you may clone SSD to a larger SSD to transfer all your data.
Whether you want to migrate your HDD to an SSD or transfer an old SSD to a new one, you will always prefer to save time by using a quick and easy method that ensures your new SSD functions correctly.
AOMEI Backupper is specialist disk cloning software that can meet all your demands. It is easy-to-use and keeps your data intact during the cloning process, thus saving your time and effort compared to reinstalling the system and all your applications.
Best free SSD cloning software for Windows
AOMEI Backupper Standard Edition, developed for Windows 10/8.1/8/7/Vista/XP, is the best SSD cloning software for free that is perfect for transferring data from one disk to another. It has many professional functions:
Disk Clone: it allows you to clone the entire hard drive including all the volumes on it. With it, you can easily migrate HDDs to smaller SSDs or clone SSDs to larger ones.
Partition Clone: it enables you to copy a selected partition, such as clone NTFS drive.
SSD Alignment: it can help to improve the performance of the destination SSD and prolong its lifespan.
You will also be attracted by its following features:
Easy-to-use interface: you can easily complete the cloning job with AOMEI Backupper's straightforward GUI.
VSS technology: the cloning process will run in the background so you can continue to use the computer during the process.
Intelligent clone: by default, this software only copies used sectors, which is also the key to clone larger drive to smaller drive.
Secure boot: if you are cloning the system drive, you can boot from the cloned SSD successfully after cloning.
What's more, for non-system disks, if your source disk and destination disk have different partition structures, you can still use free AOMEI Backupper to clone the disks without having to convert the disk partition structure beforehand as it allows you to copy MBR data disks to GPT data disks (and vice versa).
As for system disks, it allows you to clone between the same partition style, for instance, MBR to MBR, or GPT to GPT. To clone system disk between different partition styles, like copy MBR disk to GPT disk, or GPT to MBR, please upgrade to higher versions.
How to clone a hard drive to an SSD with free SSD cloning software?
You need but a few clicks to clone a hard drive to an SSD with AOMEI Backupper. First, make sure your new SSD has correctly connected to the computer. AOMEI Backupper supports most of the popular brands of solid-state drives, including Samsung, Sandisk, Kingston, PNY, WD, etc. Then, follow the instructions below:
Preparations:
Download the specialist disk cloning freeware and install it.
Download Freeware
Win 10/8.1/8/7/XP
Secure Download
Connect the target SSD. If your computer has only one drive bay, use an USB to SATA adapter.
Files on the target disk will be overwritten after cloning. If there's any important data on it, use the software to make a backup at first.
1. Click on the Clone button and select Disk Clone in the next window.
If you want to clone dynamic disk, please upgrade to advanced edition and use Partition Clone to copy each dynamic volume on it.
2. Select the original hard drive as the source disk and then choose the SSD as the destination disk.
3. Check the SSD Alignment option to optimize the performance of the destination SSD. Then, click on Start Clone to begin HDD to SSD cloning.
Sector By Sector Clone - if you want to clone every sector (including unused or bad sectors) on the old hard drive to your SSD, tick this option.
Edit Partitions - If you are upgrading your SSD to a larger one, you should choose it and use 'Add unused space to all partitions' to avoid the larger drive having unallocated space after cloning. The feature is only available in Professional or higher editions).
System Clone - If you only want to transfer the OS and applications to the SSD rather than the entire drive, you can upgrade to advanced editions to enjoy the feature.
4. Now leave the process to complete. While you are waiting you can continue to use the PC as normal. Once the process completes, click Finish.
How to boot from the cloned SSD drive?
Cloning is not the ultimate goal. To boot from the cloned disk, you still need to change boot order in BIOS, or replace the old drive with SSD directly.
◉ To change boot priority, restart your PC and press the required key (like 'F2', 'Del' or 'F12') to enter BIOS. At the 'Boot' tab, select the SSD drive as the first boot device. Finally, press 'F10' to save changes and exit.
◉ To replace the old hard drive with SSD directly, shut down your PC and remove all external devices and connections first. Then, open the case cover, take out the old hard drive and install the new SSD in the same place. You'll need screwdrivers in the practical operations. It is suggested to take a picture in advance to help you revert cable connections if you're not familiar with such things.
Conclusion
If you are looking for the best free SSD cloning software for Windows 10/8/7, AOMEI Backupper Standard Edition can be an ideal choice. It enables you to easily transfer data to your SSD and it acts as a comprehensive backup manager as well.
AOMEI Backupper provides the ability to perform system backups, disk backups, partition backups, and file backups. Its amazing restoration features allow you to recover your unbootable PC either by creating rescue media or by using the AOMEI PXE boot tool.
