Some Toshiba laptops include the Toshiba Hard Drive Recovery Utility, which is stored in a special partition on the hard disk drive, along with the system files. This utility can be used for the ‘recovery’ of the hard disk drive to its original factory state (in terms of contents). I use the HD Tune Pro hard drive utility to measure their speed and drive health. They seem to be a cool running drive, at least in my application. Toshiba hard drives are quite an underrated brand, in my opinion. Two year warranty is acceptable and is competitive with other brand, I would prefer three year warranty of course.
Although Toshiba external hard drives are pre-formatted and ready for use right out of the box, there are instances where formatting a portable or desktop hard drive is necessary. For small businesses, a Toshiba external hard drive can be useful in several different professions to create backups of content such as business files, databases, images and presentations. They also can be used to transfer content from one computer to another. When you format a Toshiba hard drive, you make it compatible with your computer to transfer content.
Pre-Installed ToolsIf you haven't made any changes to your Toshiba's operating system or installed software, then you'll still have all the Toshiba-branded software included. This can include diagnostic tools and even repair tools. To check for pre-installed software, open your Start Menu and type 'Toshiba.'
Any Toshiba-branded program will show up. If you're using Windows 7, all programs will be located in the 'Toshiba' folder in the Start Menu.PC Health MonitorThe Toshiba PC Health Monitor is designed to assess the overall health of your machine, not just your hard drive. In terms of hard drive maintenance, the PC Health Monitor provides a status update on your hard drive and, if enabled, a 3D sensor to monitor the mechanical health of your hard drive. Windows Diagnostic ToolToshiba's Windows Diagnostic Tool may be already installed on older laptops.
It's designed for testing IDE & SATA hard drives when you suspect a problem with your hard drive. You install and run it in Windows like any other program. There are two diagnostic modes: a quick test, which takes a few minutes and does random read/write tests, and the comprehensive test, which can take up to an hour and a half and does a surface scan.DOS Diagnostic ToolOn older laptops, like Windows XP or Windows 95, if you want to test your hard drive without booting up Windows – or perhaps because you can't boot Windows – try Toshiba's DOS Diagnostic Tool, if it's already installed on your laptop. As with the Windows diagnostic tool, you can do a quick or comprehensive test.Non-Toshiba ToolsIf you're not finding what you need from Toshiba, you might try another solution. You can use the native Windows feature Check Disk, available under your hard drive's Tools tab.
HDDScan is a free, third-party solution to check for disk errors on your Windows computer, regardless of manufacturer.