Toshiba Hard Drive Diagnostic Tools

Toshiba computers come with a variety of diagnostic tools that can help you find out what is going on when your hard drive encounters problems. Different models may contain different tools, so to find out which items are installed on your Toshiba computer, look in the "TOSHIBA" folder in your programs list under the "Start" menu. Open the folder "Utilities." All Toshiba diagnostic and other utility tools are in this folder.

PC Diagnostic Tool

The Toshiba PC Diagnostic Tool will diagnose a wide variety of hardware problems, including issues with your hard drive. It won't help you fix these problems but you can run selective diagnostics to target your hard drive. The tool also shows you which hardware components you have connected and tell you if your computer is not recognizing a secondary hard drive. The PC Diagnostic Tool provides a printable report of items that fail the diagnostic test. You can use that information for further exploration in the Windows Device Manager or you can take the printout to a licensed repair technician along with your computer. This may help the technician find and fix the problem more quickly.

PC Health Monitor

The Toshiba PC Health Monitor's primary purpose is to provide Toshiba with data about how its computers are functioning via a data transmission feature. With data transmission disabled, the tool still provides you with real-time information about your hard drive status, power consumption and temperature. The interface gives you an instant visual readout of how these systems are functioning. Animated icons indicate whether your hard drive is active, plus its current condition and whether the internal system and CPU temperature is within acceptable parameters. From the welcome screen, you can click on any icon to gain more information. The hard disk drive sensor icon will give you a more detailed report on the drive's status and recommend backup options for data safety. The three-dimensional sensor will tell you whether the hard disk protection is engaged due to motion in the laptop that might endanger the hard drive.

Windows Device Manager

While not specific to Toshiba computers, every Toshiba running a Windows operating system includes the Windows device manager, which you can use to troubleshoot problems with your hard drive. You can either find the device manager in your control panel or link to it through the button provided on Toshiba's PC Diagnostic Tool. Double-click your hard drive in the Device Manager window and you will see a dialog box that tells you if the device is running properly or not. If not, the Windows Device Manager will offer a "Troubleshoot" or similar button that will walk you through steps to fix the problem. You can also update your hard drive's driver software through the Device Manager.