It’s a little more difficult to use than other programs because it doesn’t have a regular graphical user interface. However, because it’s a bootable program, it also means it works regardless of what operating system is installed.
More About Samsung HUTIL
While Samsung HUTIL can scan Samsung drives only, it will actually still load and find any non-Samsung drives, but it won’t be able to run any diagnostics on them. You can run Samsung HUTIL from a CD or floppy disk by downloading Hutil210_ISO.rar or Hutil210.rar, respectively, from the download page. In addition to a surface scan test, Samsung HUTIL can also erase all the files on the disk using the Write Zero data sanitization method.
Using Samsung HUTIL
The Samsung HUTIL program files are held in a RAR file, which means you’ll need an archive extractor like 7-Zip to open them. If you use 7-Zip to open Samsung HUTIL, it’s as easy as right-clicking the RAR file and choosing 7-Zip > Extract files, and then choosing a folder to put them in. If you need help burning the ISO file to a disc, which is very different than burning other types of files to discs, see our How to Burn an ISO Image File tutorial. No matter which download you choose, the one intended for a CD or the one for a floppy disk, you’ll need to change the boot order in BIOS to run the program. See How to Boot From a CD for more on that.
Thoughts on Samsung HUTIL
Samsung HUTIL isn’t the easiest program to use but it’s not that hard, either. Plus, it’s really nice that it works with any operating system. However, the obvious disadvantage is that it only supports Samsung hard drives. If you use a different brand of hard drive but you still need a hard drive tester, there are several others to pick from, like Seagate SeaTools, HDDScan, and Windows Drive Fitness Test. We do like that you can use Samsung HUTIL to erase the contents of a drive. While the method of data sanitization isn’t the most secure, it’s still a nice feature to include. It means you can make the program double as both a Samsung HDD testing tool and a data destruction program.
