It is best to test a hard disk drive with the software supplied by the manufacturer. There are some commercial applications but we recommend using the drive manufacturers own software for this purpose. It is generally the only what to receive the correct error code.

If the data on the drive is important, we recommend you take the drive to a professional (like us) as using this software on a failing drive can push it over the edge. 

Hitachi / IBM - DFT “Drive Fitness Test”
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm
Works with all manufacturers

Western Digital “Data Lifeguard”
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp#dlgtools
Works with WD drives only

Maxtor “Powermax”
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm
Works with all manufacturers

Fujitsu “FJDT”
http://www.fel.fujitsu.com/home/drivers.asp?L=en&CID=1
Works with fujitsu models only

Samsung “hutil”
http://www.samsung.com/Products/Hard...ties/hutil.htm
Compatability unknown...

Seagate “Seatools”
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools
Works with Seagate drives only

Toshiba - N/A
There are no tools available for Toshiba, but you may be able to use IBM or Maxtor's drive tools as well as other third party programs