Seagate SeaTools examines the physical surface of the disks in search of problems that may cause the disks to malfunction.
There aren't very many basic tests that you can run, but you can adjust the intensity of the tests according to your needs. Additionally, you can have all the information associated with the disk up on your screen (model number, series number, firmware version, SMART, etc...), or run an advanced test that could even erase certain information that you have stored.
Lastly, Seagate SeaTools also directly connects with some Microsoft system tools that come installed with Windows, but that you may never have even heard of, like the tool to eliminate malicious software, or the one that helps you manage hard drives.
Seatools Bootable For Mac
Seagate SeaTools for DOS is a free hard drive testing software that runs independent from your operating system. Seagate provide a iso file which needs to be burned to a CD. Considering that CD/DVD drives are fast disappearing, and most computers these days support booting of a USB drive, it makes life easier if the the iso get converted into USB bootable. It is actually easy to do it on a Mac using the following steps:
Seagate SeaTools is an official tool from the maker of Seagate hard drives, designed to help you identify possible problems in your machine's disk drives, or any other external drive that you may connect from time to time. Seagate SeaTools examines the physical surface of the disks in search of problems that may cause the disks to malfunction. The Seatools application did not resolve the issue, as expected. And investment wise, it is not worth it to send it off to a professional for recovery.
a) Download Seatools for DOS from Seagate site (http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/)
Seatools Mac Os X
b) Open the iso file downloaded. Simple double clicking should mount the file on your desktop. Open the mounted folder, and extract the SeaTools.ima to your desktop.
c) Rename SeaTools.ima to SeaTools.img (Accept the warning dialog box)
Seatools For Mac Os X
d) Insert a USB drive that you will use. Note that any data on this drive will be completely erased.
e) Start your terminal window and find the USB drive identifier:
. Make sure that you get the correct disk identifier. In my case it was /dev/disk1.
f) Unmount the usb disk folder using the following commands in your terminal window:
Seatools For Windows
g) Copy the contents of the SeaTools.img file to USB drive
That’s it. Your USB drive will now boot to SeaTools. One thing that I have observed with the SeaTools is that if you have set the drives to be discovered through AHCI mode in your bios, it might not always detect the drives. It is better to change the drive detection to IDE for it to work reliably.
Seatools Bootable
For those looking to use the same procedure on a Windows machine, this link should help your out:
http://blog.nowherelan.com/2013/04/04/boot-seatools-off-of-a-usb-drive/ . For Linux and BSD, the procedure should essentially remain the same as Mac in principle, although the disk identifier & unmounting commands might be different. dd should work on all.