Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics

Assessing the performance of a hard drive and diagnosing possible issues that may occur in its functioning is a highly specialized task that requires dedicated tools in order to get the job done properly.

Owners of Western Digital HDDs are fortunate enough to be able to use a program that is created particularly for these devices. It goes by the name of Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics and can be deployed for testing the drives and viewing SMART data from supported models.

Key Features

• Quick Test for SMART drive self-test


• Extended Test for thorough bad sector checks


• Write Zeros tool for data deletion

Specifications

• Price: FREE


• Publisher: Western Digital

The plain and simple interface of the utility allows you to quickly select and start examining any of the connected drives. The information provided by Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics includes model and serial numbers, drive capacity, and SMART current status.

If you want to run tests on the selected hard drive, you have three diagnostic modules to choose from. The 'Quick Test' activates a SMART drive self-test and checks the Data Lifeguard information on the drive, while the 'Extended Test' thoroughly scans for bad sectors through a full media scan. The 'Write Zeros' tool enables complete deletion of file system and data with two options for erasing the drive.

As a means of evaluating the hard drive functional parameters and investigating possible faults on the hardware part, Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostics puts up a decent performance. However, more advanced features would be welcomed since the program only performs two tests and provides a simple drive wiping tool.