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Offline Chris_

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Hard drive diagnostic tools
« on: April 08, 2011, 08:48:48 AM »
Does anyone have a reliable hard drive diagnostic tool (preferrably a bootable ISO) that they have used successfully?  I have a hard drive that I need to prove is bad before sending it back to the manufacturer for a replacement unit.

The laptops at work have Hitachi SATA drives in them.  I have a copy of the newest Hitachi Drive Fitness Test, but it hangs on startup and nobody here can seem to get it to work on a laptop.  It seems to work fine with the desktop machines, though.  We've tried previous versions of the HDFT with no luck.
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Offline Thor

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Re: Hard drive diagnostic tools
« Reply #1 on: April 08, 2011, 11:46:18 AM »
Quote from: chris_ on April 08, 2011, 08:48:48 AM
Does anyone have a reliable hard drive diagnostic tool (preferrably a bootable ISO) that they have used successfully?  I have a hard drive that I need to prove is bad before sending it back to the manufacturer for a replacement unit.

The laptops at work have Hitachi SATA drives in them.  I have a copy of the newest Hitachi Drive Fitness Test, but it hangs on startup and nobody here can seem to get it to work on a laptop.  It seems to work fine with the desktop machines, though.  We've tried previous versions of the HDFT with no luck.

Just a thought, but what about hooking up the laptop hard drive as a secondary (tertiary or other) drive to the desktop?? I've done that in the past.
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Offline Chris_

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Re: Hard drive diagnostic tools
« Reply #2 on: April 08, 2011, 11:49:01 AM »
Someone else tried that... it didn't work.

I'm using Seagate's SeaTools.  I overlooked it earlier because I didn't expect it to work with a Hitachi drive.  As expected, I'm seeing dozens of errors with this disk.
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Offline Eupher

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Re: Hard drive diagnostic tools
« Reply #3 on: April 11, 2011, 01:36:49 PM »
Quote from: chris_ on April 08, 2011, 11:49:01 AM
Someone else tried that... it didn't work.

I'm using Seagate's SeaTools.  I overlooked it earlier because I didn't expect it to work with a Hitachi drive.  As expected, I'm seeing dozens of errors with this disk.

yeah, it was an Hitachi drive that died recently in my desktop machine.

Bastids.  :bird:
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Offline Thor

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Re: Hard drive diagnostic tools
« Reply #4 on: April 11, 2011, 02:56:40 PM »
Quote from: Eupher on April 11, 2011, 01:36:49 PM
yeah, it was an Hitachi drive that died recently in my desktop machine.

Bastids.  :bird:

They only have a certain working life!! Beyond that, it's all luck & the generosity of the Computer Gods.
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Offline Eupher

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Re: Hard drive diagnostic tools
« Reply #5 on: April 11, 2011, 03:11:25 PM »
Quote from: Thor on April 11, 2011, 02:56:40 PM
They only have a certain working life!! Beyond that, it's all luck & the generosity of the Computer Gods.

Yeah, I realize that. Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF).

I remember reading something like 100,000 hours was considered normal.

Let's see. There are 8,760 hours in a year. That freakin' hard drive was only a little over 3 years old. That's a little over 24K hours - call it an even 30K hours before the damn thing died.

Hitachi -- Piece Of Shit hard drive. Gimme a WD (though that one will die too, but usually when it's brand new -- not afterwards after it's been "broken in."
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Offline Thor

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Re: Hard drive diagnostic tools
« Reply #6 on: April 11, 2011, 03:18:24 PM »
Quote from: Eupher on April 11, 2011, 03:11:25 PM
Yeah, I realize that. Mean Time Before Failure (MTBF).

I remember reading something like 100,000 hours was considered normal.

Let's see. There are 8,760 hours in a year. That freakin' hard drive was only a little over 3 years old. That's a little over 24K hours - call it an even 30K hours before the damn thing died.

Hitachi -- Piece Of Shit hard drive. Gimme a WD (though that one will die too, but usually when it's brand new -- not afterwards after it's been "broken in."


I've had my share of WD drives fail even though they are my favorite brand. I had one lock up on me after being stored. That kind of aggravated me.
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Offline Janice

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Re: Hard drive diagnostic tools
« Reply #7 on: April 17, 2011, 03:08:01 AM »
SpinRite is a hdd diag tool that has worked quite well for me over the years. :)
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Offline namvet

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Re: Hard drive diagnostic tools
« Reply #8 on: April 17, 2011, 08:34:10 AM »
mine simply said no HD can be found.
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Offline Chris_

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Re: Hard drive diagnostic tools
« Reply #9 on: April 17, 2011, 11:46:41 AM »
Quote from: namvet on April 17, 2011, 08:34:10 AM
mine simply said no HD can be found.

Then it's REALLY broken.  Or it's not plugged in.
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Offline CG6468

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Re: Hard drive diagnostic tools
« Reply #10 on: April 17, 2011, 11:50:26 AM »
Quote from: chris_ on April 17, 2011, 11:46:41 AM
Then it's REALLY broken.  Or it's not plugged in.

Maybe it's super efficient and state of the art+++. Maybe it runs on air.  :naughty:
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Offline Chris_

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Re: Hard drive diagnostic tools
« Reply #11 on: April 17, 2011, 12:29:51 PM »
You could simply have a bad cable, although I have yet to see a SATA cable go bad.  If you're using an IDE ribbon cable I'd replace it with a new one.  They're only a couple bucks if you don't have a spare lying around.
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Offline namvet

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Re: Hard drive diagnostic tools
« Reply #12 on: April 17, 2011, 12:42:52 PM »
Quote from: chris_ on April 17, 2011, 11:46:41 AM
Then it's REALLY broken.  Or it's not plugged in.

yep. mine was toast. fortunately I had the recovery CD's. I fixed it myself. its windows XP home which i like

usually they don't unplug themselves. they need someones help there.
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