There is a built-in OSx Utility on every Mac that can easily test and in some cases even repair hard disk problems. Follow these steps Follow these steps Click on Finder > Applications and scroll down to “ Utilities ” and expand click on the icon to expand the selection.
Last updated: Apr. 12, 2018
Hard drives fail, and they eventually will. It doesn't matter whether your Mac is with a spinning hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD). Data shows that 22% of hard drives fail in their first four years.
Is there anything we can do to extend a hard drive's life? Plenty of. But, you never know when your Mac drive is going to fail or crash...and if that does happen, it's a disaster for all the files you've saved on that drive.
So, what can you do to prevent it?
Two things!
#1: check the drive health, and #2: backup the data on a regular basis. It may sound simple, but it takes time to well execute the two little tasks.
For data backup, we recommend Time Machine (the built-in app already exists on your Mac), and if you can, use a Mac drive clone software as a secondary backup solution. This is usually optional, but we recommend you do so just in case.
Today, we're going to show you six great tools to check Mac hard drive health, from speed test, disk verifying/monitoring/repairing, bad sector checking, we cover them all.
Let's get started.​
Kind Tip: We understand that your time is precious and it's unlikely that you'll be able to install all the 6 apps we recommend below. So, we've added a 'Best for' note under each app, hopefully, this helps get the right app for you 🙂​
1. Disk Utility
Best for: checkingwhether a disk is about to fail
Price: free
The first handy thing you can do is check the S.M.A.R.T. Status with the built-in Disk Utility on macOS. SMART (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology) is an internal monitoring system that is included in almost all Mac hard drives (HDDs and SSDs).
S.M.A.R.T helps you get a basic idea of the health of your Mac drive. How to identify? Just open Disk Utility. Highlight the hard disk name on the left, then check the status from the table (see above). If it shows 'Verified', that means your hard drive is not failing. Otherwise, you may need to replace it right away. If your budget allows, consider upgrading to an SSD.
Next, check disk errors with First Aid. If your Mac is with OS X El Capitan, macOS Sierra or latest High Sierra, select Macintosh HD on the left and click on First Aid. A new window will pop up asking you whether you'd like to run, just hit yes to continue.
Note: For OS X Yosemite or older versions, use the two buttons on the right corner 'Verify Disk' and 'Repair Disk' instead.
2. CleanMyMac
Best for: verifying and repairing startup disk on Mac
Price: free trial available ($39.95 to buy)
​Developed by MacPaw Inc., CleanMyMac 3 is mainly used to help make more room on your almost full hard drive (or SSD). The app deep scans and cleans your Mac system and can free up tons of disk space. To verify your Mac's startup disk, all you have to do is open the app, go to Maintenance > Verify Startup Disk and click 'Run'.
In addition, you can use CleanMyMac to do a number of other things like finding old & large files, clearing up Photos/iTunes junk, removing extensions, uninstalling Mac apps in batch, and more.
3. Stellar Drive Toolbox
Best for: checking Mac harddrive for bad sectors
Price: free trial available ($69 to buy)
Stellar Drive Toolbox is an all-in-one app includes a number of disk utilities (optimization, protection, sanitization, repair, and more) that help keep your Mac hard drive in good shape. Best of all, it can health check your Mac hard drive for bad sectors. What are sectors? They are basically blocks of space on a disk drive.
Bad sectors are blocks that are damaged thus cannot be read. Just open the app and navigate to the 'Drive Monitor' section and click the 'Continue' button to scan the disk. If it turns out the number of bad sectors is increasing, it's probably time to replace the Mac drive in case of accidental corruption or crash. Please note that the app currently doesn't work with Macs with flash storage (i.e. SSD).
4. Blackmagic Disk Speed Test
Best for: testing the read/write speed of your Mac drive
Price: free
If you feel your Mac hard drive (or solid state drive) is slow to respond, it's good practice to test its write/read speed and benchmark with the industry standard. You'll love this free app made by Blackmagic. It's an amazing yet simple-to-use app that allows you to quickly benchmark and certify your Mac drive performance.
After installing the application on your Mac, open it and next, click on the START button located in the center. Soon you'll see the numbers shown on two speedometer circles.Note: it's best to quit all other active apps before using Blackmagic Disk Speed test, this helps get more accurate data.
5. iStat Menus
Best for: monitoring the SMART status of a Mac disk
Price: free 7-day trial (subscription based later)
iStat Menus 6 is an advanced Mac system monitor for macOS menu bar. It can notify you of a wide range of events that you care, for example, usage of GPU, memory, disks, network, sensors, battery, power, and more. It's very convenient and handy and in this case, you can rely on the disk monitoring tools to monitor SMART status on your Mac hard drives or SSDs.
Although it won't avoid your Mac drive from failing, you can use it as an indicator of potential disk problems before they occur.New update: unfortunately, iStatMenus won't work with Macs with flash storage (all models shipped in 2016 or later) due to the fact that Apple no longer allows third-party software tools to check the SMART status of an SSD.
6. CleanMyDrive
Best for: checking disk stats and cleaning hidden junk on external drives
Price: free
CleanMyDrive, the little brother of CleanMyMac, is another useful Mac disk health check app and it's totally free as well. The app is more like a lightweight drive manager for both internal Macintosh drive and external disks.
You can use it to check your hard drive status, e.g. a visual look of how your drive is used, how many junk files exist. If CleanMyDrive detects any hidden junks, you can use the app to clean them automatically within a few clicks. Note: the app works amazingly well with USB flash drives, SD memory cards, etc.
That's all that we wanted to share. Hope you have picked up some of these apps and good luck keeping your Mac drive in good shape.
One last thing: don't forget to make backups!
Chris is a computer geek for a decade. He loved talking to computers via codes, and now he finds it more interesting communicating with the real people. He now writes everything related to computer issues and loves helping people solve problems.
If you experience these issues on Mac, your disk may need recovery:
multiple apps quitting unexpectedly
corrupted files and access errors
external devices work improperly
your computer won’t start up
How do you know if your disk needs repair
If you can still turn your Mac on, check the startup disk with an app called CleanMyMac X. Open its Maintenance module and run 'Verify Startup Disk'. If you get the 'Disk needs repair' error, your disk needs immediate attention.
Don’t worry, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to replace it right away, there’s still a chance to fix it.
We’ll go over how to perform hard disk repair on Mac using software solutions. That’s only possible if your disk can be saved by means of Mac’s native app, Disk Utility. If it fails, the only alternative is backing up your data and getting a new disk.
Hard drive recovery using Disk Utility
Print this article or open it on any other device. You’ll lose access to it after you restart your Mac later.
Click on the Apple menu (top left corner), choose Restart.
When your Mac restarts, press Command + R and hold the keys until the Apple logo appears.
Select Disk Utility and click Continue.
In the sidebar, choose the disk you think needs repair.
Note, that if you are using FileVault to encrypt your disk, you must mount the disk first. To do it, click Mount at the top of the Disk Utility window. Then, enter your Mac account password in the dialog that appears.
Find First Aid and click on it.
At this point, there are two options.
Case 1. Disk Utility might tell you right away that your current startup disk is on the very edge of failing. Which means you need to promptly back up all your files and take your beloved Mac to the repair shop. That’s about all you can do.
How to back up your Mac
If you’ve never used Time Machine, you’ll need to configure it first:
Connect an external storage (AirPort Time Capsule, USB flash drive, portable hard drive, or else).
Go to System Preferences and click on Time Machine.
Click the Select Backup Disk button in the center of the window.
Choose the storage device you wish to back up your files to and click Use Disk.
That’s it! Your first backup will be started automatically in a couple of minutes. More detailed backup information is specified next to the Select Disk button. We recommend connecting your Mac to power cable before starting the backup.
If your Time Machine is already configured, you probably know what to do:
Click on the Time Machine status menu at the top right corner of the screen
Choose Back Up Now
Can’t see Time Machine among status menus? Then, open System Preferences > Time Machine and select the “Show Time Machine in menu bar” checkbox.
Case 2. If Disk Utility offers you to run diagnostics, simply click Run.
If it reports that the disk has been repaired, you’re free to close it all and live a happy life from now on. But, unfortunately, there can be other troublesome issues.
For example, Disk Utility may inform you that the underlying task reported failure. In this case, you can try to repair the disk again. If that fails, use our guide above to back up your files and then completely reformat the disk. You’ll need to remove all the info from it, reinstall the operating system and restore the data afterwards.
If you continue having issues with your disk and neither recovery option works, it may be physically damaged. Which means you should take it to your local Mac service, they will be happy to assist you at this point.
How to protect a disk from failure and keep Mac healthy
With the proper software tools you can monitor your Mac’s well-being and keep it speedy and sound for years.
There are two essentials to a good-working Mac: a clean drive and fast system. Both are covered by CleanMyMac X. It removes useless files from drive, monitors your Mac’s performance, and keeps your macOS running smoothly.
That’s about it with DIY Mac hard disk recovery. Hope this article helps, stay tuned!