HD Tune Download and Install for Windows 10
Your hard drive has a limited lifespan, so it’s a good idea to keep an eye on its status and identify any issues that may cause HDD failure.
Benchmarking tools are excellent for this role. You can use them to run stress tests on your disks and discover any weak spots.
Some dedicated applications are elaborate enough to give you recommendations. Others reply with a score, post it online, and show you how your HDD fairs against others.
If you’re looking for an easier hard drive testing program, take a look at HD Tune.
What is HD Tune?
HD Tune is a lightweight and intuitive application designed for Windows computers only. It runs reading tests on your HDD and checks it for errors that prevent your computer from working at full capacity.
One of the program’s key features is its support for both SSDs and HDDs as well as internal and external drives, including USB sticks and memory card readers.
You just have to pick a disk before starting a benchmark. But not all features may be available for use due to disk manufacturing limitations.
What’s more, HD Tune reads the current disk temp, shows it on an icon in the Windows notifications area, and lets you know when the hard drive reaches a critical temperature level.
How to download HD Tune
You can download HD Tune from the official website. It works with all OS editions from Windows 2000 to Windows 10.
However, it’s essential to distinguish between HD Tune, which is an older, obsolete but free version, and HD Tune Pro, which is newer, up to date but not free. Both are compatible with Windows 10, though.
Furthermore, you can test HD Tune during a 15-day free trial, at the end of which you can either purchase the full version or uninstall the app and switch to the free version with fewer options.
If you’re interested in an HD Tune portable version, you can download it from Softpedia.
It’s fast and easy to install HD Tune or HD Tune Pro on your computer. After accepting the license agreement, you can modify the default installation folder and create desktop shortcuts.
How to use HD Tune
- Click the dropdown menu to select a disk. You can check out its current temperature on the right side and on the systray icon.
- In the Benchmark section, click Start to run a reading test. You can view the minimum and maximum transfer rate.
- Go to the Info area to view features supported by the disk, such as S.M.A.R.T. attributes, power management, and security mode.
- Head over to the Health section to view the status of S.M.A.R.T. attributes.
- Select the Error Scan tab and click Start to check your disk for damaged blocks.
It’s possible to copy the information or take a screenshot and save everything as files.
You can also control the benchmark test speed, accuracy, and block size from the Options > Benchmark section.
And, if you want to change the temperature unit from Celsius to Fahrenheit, you can do this from Options > Temperature.
More importantly, you can specify the critical temperature that HD Tune will draw your attention to if the level is reached by your disk.
Unfortunately, you can’t set critical temperature indicators for multiple disks at the same time.
Compared to the free version, HD Tune Pro brings support for writing benchmarks, detailed drive information, folder usage, secure data wipe, and others. You can check out all features on the download page (link above).
Conclusion
It shouldn’t be a surprise that other disk benchmarking utilities like HWMonitor or Cinebench are more powerful.
But HD Tune is completely free to use, which is a huge benefit for a lot of users. Meanwhile, HD Tune Pro provides you with some cool HDD testing features that don’t require any previous experience.
It offers a simple and efficient method for running quick benchmarks on your HDDs and SSDs, verify damaged blocks, and get live temperature readings, especially if it’s too high.
