Hard drive testing guide

LincLinc OwnerDetroit Icrontian
edited December 2011 in Science & Tech
Thrax has written a guide on hard drive diagnostics:
A dying hard drive can exhibit the same symptoms as bad memory or spyware, which is why it’s important to have the right tools to diagnose it. Within an hour of using such a tool, you’ll know whether or not it’s time to back up your data.

Comments

  • Michael George
    edited October 2008
    Hi, I downloaded the file and extract it and burnt it to CD. However, I didn't get the same display as the one you posted. It showed me A:// in RS DOS.
    My laptop is Toshiba 2410. Does this software work with any type of drive ?? Thank you.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited October 2008
    It's supposed to work with any type of drive, but some motherboards throw DFT through a loop. As an alternative, you can try running Seagate's SeaTools for DOS utility that also burns to and boots from a CD. Perform a full/extended scan from the program's menu.
  • Rochelle Lopyan
    edited November 2009
    DFT doesn't see my Hitachi SATA hard drives (2 drives in RAID1), in Toshiba Qosmio laptop. BIOS reports correct hard drives (200GB) but reports capacity incorrectly as 60GB (due to a hidden Toshiba partition that reports the size of the original hard drives, even though an Acronis backup was restored to the larger 200GB drive).

    Is it the controller the Toshiba laptop uses that is making the hard drives invisible to hard drive diagnostics? Do I need to remove the hard drives from the laptop and connect them to another computer via SATA->USB adapter in order to test them?
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2009
    It is very possible that the drive controller is causing the issue. :) You're absolutely right. Before trying a USB adapter, give Seagate's Seatools for DOS application a try. It performs the same function as DFT, but it can be friendlier to RAID and newer controllers.
  • vinay
    edited September 2011
    the DFT wrks fine till license and den gets struck at detecting IDE primary master..help me
  • alipies
    edited December 2011
    Hi Vinay

    I found that if I'm using a SATA drive, if I don't have a PATA device connected. it drive fitness locks up or freaks at some point. Once I connect the PATA, everything is fine
  • Adrian
    edited December 2011
    Hi, My computer is windows XP, When It's supposed to start booting up. It wont. It says windows XP, Shows the flag and the blue bars don't even cross the barrel. It just restarts like that. I tried this. Didn't gimme any error. What could it be?
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