DiskFresh 1.0

Overview

DiskFresh is a disk tool to help refresh hard drives to make them more accessible and reliable going forward. The software does this by changing its data stored in each sector by performing a read and write process. This refreshes the hard drive signal according to the developers.

The process of checking and refreshing the hard drive also provides early indicators of problems with damaged or bad sectors on the drive being located.

One upside with DiskFresh is that it can perform this scanning and read / write process during a normal business day rather than needing to perform the maintenance in the evening or at night. This makes it easier to get started without being required to wait until later.

Installation

The installation went without a hitch. There is the option presented prior to closing the installer whether to schedule to run the software every quarter as part of semi-regular system maintenance.

There was no malicious software included with the distribution.

DiskFresh requires Windows XP, 2003, Vista, 7, 8 or 2012.

Interface

The initial interface only takes up part of the desktop. It displays all the available drives and also the RAW physical drives at the bottom of the list which is quite unusual. Each drive gets a line of information including file system type (FAT32, NTFS, etc.), total space and available space.

There are button controls are the bottom of the main window for Refresh Selected, Pause, Stop, Get Commercial License, and Help, with check boxes which can be checked for Read Only Mode and Make Report.

Once one or more drives have been selected, it is possible to initiate a refresh by clicking on the Refresh Selected button.

Pros

• Refresh hard drives that may be under-used
• Reads and writes data to each sector on a drive to get the drive back to full use
• Can detect problems with the hard drive like bad or damaged sectors which could further indicate problems
• Low resources and disk usage required to perform the refresh process which does not interfere with daily work usage
• Can run in the background with the need for a systems administrator to manage it

Cons

• Not entirely clear if the process of reading and writing to every sector on a drive will actually extend the useful life or a hard drive. However, it cannot hurt to try.

Alternatives

HDD Regenerator and SpinRite are also worth looking into.

Conclusion

DiskFresh is a simple disk utility that can “refresh” a hard drive by performing simple read and write processes to every sector on the drive to test it and “refresh” it. Jury is out on whether this actually helps the hard drive.