We all love a deal. But what if the 2TB hard drive you just bought only holds 50GB? It happens, folks. There’s a free tool you can use to check if what you bought is what you got. Do this with every drive you buy!
This is a game-changing application designed for Windows users. In an era where purchasing memory cards and external drives online carries the risk of receiving counterfeit products that don’t match their advertised specifications, ValiDrive steps in as a safeguard.
This software offers a 576-region spot-check tool, capable of assessing the readability, writability and genuine storage capacity of any USB storage drive. Whether it’s a compact thumb drive, a memory card or an external hard drive, ValiDrive ensures you get what you pay for.
How to use ValiDrive
The first thing you need to do is download ValiDrive to your Windows PC. Sorry Apple fans, this is only for Windows PCs at the moment. You can get the program on this page by clicking the Download now button.
Now that you have the file saved to your PC, open it. A User Account Control button will appear. Click Yes to run the tool.
Now, connect the flash drive to your PC’s USB port. NOTE: If the drive was connected before you opened ValiDrive, you must remove and reinsert it so ValiDrive recognizes it correctly.
ValiDrive will now display the drive’s declared size. Click Validate THIS drive to start the verification process. When the test is finished, you’ll see a map with four potential results that are color-coded in green, blue, yellow and red. They represent:
- Validated – The region’s original data was read, random noise data was written, then read, and the original data was replaced. At no time was any error reported, and the presence of storage underneath the tested location was fully verified. ValiDrive notes that fact in green.
- Read Error – During either of the two read operations – reading the drive’s original data or reading the random noise test data – the drive reported that it could not successfully perform the read. Since this prevents the validation of storage at that location, ValiDrive notes that fact with blue.
- Write Error – During either of the two write operations – writing the random noise test data or replacing the drive’s original data – the drive reported that it could not successfully perform the write. Since this prevents the validation of storage at that location, ValiDrive notes that fact in yellow.
- No Storage – The region’s original data was read, then random noise data was written. But despite no errors, the test data that was then read back did not match what was written. Therefore, at that tested location, the drive is not storing data nor indicating any error. ValiDrive notes that fact in red.
Click the Close button to exit the map. The next screen shows a detailed report summarizing the drive’s access time statistics. It also supplies more information about ValiDrive’s interaction with the drive.