Testing the memory of a flash drive using the H2testw utility. Testing flash drive memory using the H2testw utility Installing H2testw for Windows
H2testw is a small but very useful program for testing the “quality” and speed characteristics of any type of flash drive. The essence of the H2testw program is that it can write a test file to the flash drive you specify and then read it. This records the writing and reading speeds from this drive. In addition, if data loss or errors are detected during the writing or reading process, the program will notify you about it. This utility can provide information about how large the drive is being tested, how many MB of them are damaged and how many are in working condition. I will write about the algorithm itself below, and also give a transcript of the test results.
How to work with the English version of the program:
- Download the archive and run the file h2testw.exe, after which we select the language “English” (or “Russian” if you downloaded the Russian version, but more on that later).
- Next, select the disk to be tested “ Select target" and go to the point " Data volume».
- Here we select “ all available space" - to test the entire drive or " endless veryfy" and indicates the size of the file to be written in order to partially test the drive.
- Next, click “ Write+Verify" to run the write and read test, and if the flash drive has already been tested and there is a file on it, then only " Verify", which will perform a read operation and check the integrity of the previously written file.
- Next, an information window appears, in which we see general information about the desire to test the drive. We are shown the average write/read speed, time until the end of the operation, and the overall progress bar.
At the end of the operation, we can get results like this:
Test finished without errors.
You can now delete the test files *.h2w or verify them again.
Writing speed: 5.05 MByte/s
Reading speed: 11.4 MByte/s
Bad test result:
1.8 GByte OK (3954734 sectors)
5.8 GByte DATA LOST (12240850 sectors)
Details:2.9 GByte overwritten (6240208 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (2.8 GByte corrupted (6000642 sectors)
8 KByte aliased memory (16 sectors)
First error at offset: 0?0000000000003830
Expected: 0?358d089906064530
Found: 0?158d089906064530
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 2.53 MByte/s
Reading speed: 6.51 MByte/s
Now we see that when testing an 8 GB drive, errors were found; of this volume, only 1.8 GB (1.8 GByte OK) is available for normal recording, and the remaining 5.8 GB (5.8 GByte DATA LOST) cannot be used, since memory is damaged. Average speed for a given storage medium = 2.53 MByte/s, average read speed = 6.51 MByte/s
Another bad test result:
The media is likely to be defective.
0 KByte OK (0 sectors)
3.8 GByte DATA LOST (8030208 sectors)
Details:327.7 MByte overwritten (671296 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
3.5 GByte corrupted (7358912 sectors)
Good afternoon
I tried to find the Russian version of the h2testw program on the Internet, but it turned out that it does not physically exist. But on our portal you can download the English version and read detailed instructions in Russian. The program is quite simple, so it can be used without knowing English.
Update: Russian version added.
Download h2testw:
These files do not contain viruses or other malware, you can verify this on the VirusTotal scan results page ():
Instructions in Russian for the h2testw program:
1. Download and run the h2testw.exe file (link above).
2. First, select English, by default it is German and nothing is clear at all:
3. After that, click on the “Select target” button to select the disk (SD card, flash drive) to check:
5. Select a disk, SD card or flash drive:
6. Now click the "Write Verify" button and wait until the verification is completed:
The "Writing" and "Verifying" columns should contain the same number of megabytes (the entire size of the SD card or flash drive, if it was empty).
I recommend that you check all flash drives, SD cards and disks with this program after purchase, especially if you buy from China. Unfortunately, the level of fraud by the Chinese remains high. Very often they sell flash drives supposedly for 128 gigabytes, but in fact they are 4 or 8 gigabytes.
If you have any questions or require clarification, please
The free utility H2testw 1.4 does not require installation - it is designed for testing USB storage devices (flash drives, flash memory in a media player, any devices using flash memory, SD, XD memory cards, etc.) - it can also be used for testing hard drives and even online.
More details can be found on the website H2testw 1.4 – Gold Standard In Detecting USB Counterfeit Drives.
You can download H2testw 1.4 for free from the link: http://www.heise.de/ct/Redaktion/bo/downloads/h2testw_1.4.zip (213 KB).
The ZIP archive contains three files:
- h2testw.exe– testing utility H2testw 1.4;
- liesmich.txt- description in German;
- readme.txt– description in English.
You can test a flash drive with the existing information, but the filled area will not be overwritten - files and boot sectors will be saved during testing. But in this case, the occupied part of the flash drive will not be tested in recording mode.
At the same time, the author does not guarantee complete preservation of information on the medium as a result of unforeseen circumstances. In the description, for complete testing, it is recommended to save the files on the flash drive and format the flash drive before testing.
The flash memory testing process itself can be divided into 2 stages:
- Filling the entire free space of the tested disk with information (files, the size and number of files is selected by the H2testw utility itself depending on the free space of the disk being tested), while the actual writing speed is measured.
- Reading the recorded information from the disk under test, while measuring the actual reading speed and the reliability of the information, i.e. We check with the information that was previously offered for recording.
This test allows you to determine:
- Real speed of reading/writing information of the tested flash memory.
- The true volume of the storage medium being checked.
In order to perform a memory test, you need to complete the following steps:
1) connect a flash drive or a device with built-in flash memory, or a hard drive accessible to the computer.
2) make sure (as noted above) that there are no files on the disk under test. If there is any information on the disk under test, then it must be temporarily transferred to another disk.
3) download the Russian version of the utility h2testw you can, for example, .
4) run the utility (running with administrator rights is not required).
5) set the utility settings.
Picture 1
Main menu of the utility H2testw:
“Deutsch” or “English” – select a language convenient for you, for example, English.
In the Target field:
“Select target” – select the device being tested (you can select any logical drive of the computer).
“Refresh” – you can update the program data if the disk has already been tested before and there are still files with test results on this disk.
In the "Data volume" field:
Select “all available space” – we test the entire volume of the flash drive (you can enable the “only” option to set part of the volume).
“endless veryfy” – do not mark it (otherwise the test will be repeated endlessly).
6) to start the test, press the “Write+Verify” button (the “Verify” button is active when there is a record of the previous test - you can run the reading test).
After start, the utility window will display information about the progress of the testing process:
Figure 2
h2testw testing process
- information about the current speed of writing/reading information
- information about the remaining time until the end of testing
- graphic indicator of the verification process
- during the verification process, the text field is filled with information about the test results
7) at the end of the tests, we can get the following results:
Figure 3
A positive test result is the message: Testfinishedwithouterrors ( The test completed without errors).
An example of a utility testing resultH2testw
Test finished without errors.
You can now delete the test files *.h2w or verify them again.
Writing speed: 3.04 MByte/s
Reading speed: 14.3 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4
As you can see from the results, the test was successful. Average disk write speed = 3.04 MByte/s, average read speed = 14.3 MByte/s.
ANDmoreoneoption:
1.8 GByte OK (3954734 sectors)
5.8 GByte DATA LOST (12240850 sectors)
Details:2.9 GByte overwritten (6240208 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (2.8 GByte corrupted (6000642 sectors)
8 KByte aliased memory (16 sectors)
First error at offset: 0?0000000000003830
Expected: 0?358d089906064530
Found: 0?158d089906064530
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 1.58 MByte/s
Reading speed: 5.56 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4
And in this case, we tested memory with a declared capacity of 8GB, but only 2 GB (1.8 GByte OK) is available for normal use, the remaining 6GB (5.8 GByte DATA LOST) cannot be used. Average speed for this storage medium = 1.58 MByte/s, average read speed = 5.56 MByte/s
I addmoreinformation:
The media is likely to be defective.
0 KByte OK (0 sectors)
3.8 GByte DATA LOST (8030208 sectors)
Details:327.7 MByte overwritten (671296 sectors)
0 KByte slightly changed (< 8 bit/sector, 0 sectors)
3.5 GByte corrupted (7358912 sectors)
327.7 MByte aliased memory (671296 sectors)
First error at offset: 0x00000000000000000
Expected: 0x0000000000000000
Found: 0x000000000ffff000
H2testw version 1.3
Writing speed: 2.09 MByte/s
Reading speed: 0.98 MByte/s
H2testw v1.4
In this case, we tested the micro SD flash card that came with the player. As can be seen from the test result, the card is not suitable for normal use at all.
Upon completion of the tests, you can press the button OK close a window H2testw/Progress and then by clicking on the cross in the upper right corner of the main window H2testw, - close the utility itself.
In conclusion, to satisfy your curiosity, I present a picture that shows screenshots of the properties of the tested flash drive, the recorded file against the background of an open flash drive window in My Computer.
Figure 4
From the above screenshot you can see that one file of 960 MB in size with a .h2w extension was written to the flash drive. Can be written to a larger disk (flash drive) using the utility H2testw many similar files of varying sizes. At the end of testing, delete all these files.
H2testw is a free program that can detect the presence of errors when writing and reading data from a specific medium and determine the “fair” speed of these processes. Most often it is used to test new flash drives to ensure compliance with the declared data transfer speed and to identify faults. But no one bothers you to check internal drives using it. Fortunately, H2testw supports any file system and works equally well with both HDD and SSD.
By default, the program interface is displayed in German, so the first thing you need to do is switch to "English" in the main window. H2testw, unfortunately, has not been translated into Russian. After selecting the language, you need to select the media to be tested using the "Select target" key and specify the volume to be tested. The accuracy of the analysis and its duration directly depend on the selected volume. In general, we recommend running a scan of all free space, provided that you have enough time. Please note that during the process of checking the write/read speed, the program will actually write files to the selected media. Moreover, upon completion of work they are not deleted automatically. So don’t forget to manually delete all files with the .h2w extension from the tested media (usually there are three of them).
In addition to information about the data transfer speed and the duration of the testing process, in the results window H2testw will display all errors found or report the absence of any.
Key Features and Functions
- the ability to determine the speed of reading/writing data on the selected media;
- simple interface consisting of one window;
- ability to work with USB drives and “internal” disks of any type (SDD / HDD);
- the ability to independently select the volume of the analyzed space;
- searching for errors in the operation of the drive;
- work in portable mode (without prior installation on a computer);
- support for any file systems;
- the ability to copy the results to the clipboard.
H2testw is a free utility for testing various types of media. With H2testw you can test not only your flash drives, but also SD cards and even drives – both hard and network drives.
Important Features
To scan correctly and obtain accurate information about the device, developers recommend testing only empty USB drives. If there is any information on a flash drive or disk, it is recommended to delete it and format the media itself. Of course, no one requires you to permanently delete the information stored there - if, for example, there is something important on a flash drive, simply copy the information to another location, and then format the removable drive.
About the testing process
H2testw will allow you to find out the real speed of reading and writing information, which may differ significantly from what the manufacturers indicate on the packaging. In addition, you can also determine the volume of the device being tested. The testing itself is divided into two stages. In the first, the utility will fill the scanned media to capacity with files to determine the write speed, and in the second, it will determine the read speed by “reading” the recorded information.
About practicality
The program does not require installation, so it can be stored both locally and on removable drives and launched at any time. To start scanning, you need to connect the required device to your computer and launch the software. After this, select the media that you will scan in the program window and specify its size. At the end of the test, H2testw will display all the results and show a list of errors, if any. Do not forget to delete files from the device that were written there by the utility, since it does not clear them on its own.
Briefly
- the program does not require installation on the system;
- supports any file systems;
- makes it possible to determine the speed of writing and reading data;
- performs additional search for errors in the operation of the device;
- allows you to independently select the scanned space;
- forces you to manually delete files from the utility that remain on the drive after scanning;
- translated into Russian by "enthusiasts".