Ariolic Disk Scanner for Windows

There's more than a little irony that this freeware is designed to scan and test your hard drive for errors, but proved to be a problem itself.

Ariolic Disk Scanner is a simple tool that helps you check the health of your hard drive. It scans your disk for bad sectors, which are often the first sign of a hard drive going bad. You don't need to install this software. You can run it directly from any portable drive like a USB or CD.

• Safe Read-Only Check: The scan does not change or damage your data.
• No Installation Needed: You can use this tool straight from a portable drive without installing it.
• Thorough Scanning: The software checks every part of your disk for errors.
• Clear Reports: After scanning, it shows a list of all the files that have problems.
• Supports Many File Systems: It works with all types of FAT and NTFS file systems.
• Works with Many Disks: It can check internal drives like ATA and SSD and external devices like USB drives and memory cards.

Ariolic Disk Scanner checks for read errors on any disk that Windows can see. It also shows you which specific files are affected by these errors. This tool is great for doing early checks on your disk to find problems before they cause data loss. It works with all kinds of drives, including internal hard drives and external devices like cameras and smartphones.

Ariolic Disk Scanner starts off well with a basic user interface and straightforward command buttons. A drop-down list lets you choose which hard drive to scan. The program reads your hard-drive sectors and displays them as green and red blocks. We clicked on the large, green Start Scan button and, lo and behold, nothing happened. Testers reported the same results regardless of which drive was selected. Even a reinstall didn't fix the issue. The Help file was useless, as it gives only a brief description of what the app does. Or what it's supposed to do.

Our first impression of Ariolic Disk Scanner was a positive one, but it quickly changed after trying to test it. We suggest you save the space this program takes up and find another way to check your PC.

• Version 1.7.0.10 fixed issues with scanning NTFS drives and improved file system detection.