SATA/PATA/IDE Drive to USB 2.0 Adapter Converter Cable, $8.63 us If you have, or would get, a USB adapter kit for the drives, then you can attach the drives to a USB port and run any of the previous commands on them to determine if the drives are worthy of using. General search results for 'Linux testdisk' 'Testdisk' is very powerful, but you should read the instructions before using it. Usually the default drive is '/dev/sda1', external drives usually show up as '/dev/sdb1', etc.Įxamples: (for help, run 'e2fsck -help' or 'e2fsck -h', or 'fsck -h', or 'man e2fsck' or 'man fsck') ' lsblk' will show hard drives and their partitions. The commands in blue are run from a console terminal prompt. 'e2fsprogs' should already be installed and is used by the Linux Mint system and Partition Manager Editors, and you could install 'e2fsck-static', 'e2tools', etc. You can also install from the Software Manager or Synaptic Package Manager (SPM) the smart monitor programs, 'smartmontools', and 'smart-notifier', 'gsmartcontrol', diskscan, testdisk, etc. Using a bootable disc or USB drive is better because the drive you want to check will not be mounted (not in use). For Ms Windows partitions, NTFS or Fat32, use a bootable program like 'Minitool Partition Wizard'. There is a bootable program called 'gParted Live' that you can create and use as well, along with many other bootable rescue disks.

One of the easiest and fastest methods is to boot a Live Linux Mint DVD or USB flash drive stick and run the 'Partition Manager Editor', right click the hard drive partition you want to check and select check, & apply. The only thing to be concerned about are drives that are older (4-5 years or greater), or if you are getting drive errors. You rarely, if ever, need to defragment a Linux hard drive, although you can. It is not necessary to use disk utilities in Linux or Linux Mint like it would be with MS Windows operating systems.

Testdisk linux mint