Disk and PC diagnostics

  • Thread starter Thread starter Michael Culley
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Michael Culley

2 quick questions

Is there a better method of checking a HDD than using scandisk or is
scandisk enough?

Which programs are good for running a system check, such as memory testing?

Thanks,
Michael Culley
 
2 quick questions

Is there a better method of checking a HDD than using scandisk or is
scandisk enough?
Click to expand...

Your hard drive maker will most likely have a dos diagnostic program
for the drive if you need one.If not then the free,"Powermax" from
Maxtor,
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

Will test most drive makes.Do,"NOT" ever use the parts of the program
to do a low level format or you may screw the drive up!!!!



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WebWalker said:
You can download a free copy of the HD diagnostics program from them.
Click to expand...

Thanks for all the replies, I'll check them all out as I've got hold of the
machine I wanted to test. Alceryes, it is running XP but I guess I'm
interested in testing programs for all MS OSs.
 
2 quick questions
Your hard drive maker will most likely have a dos diagnostic program
for the drive if you need one.If not then the free,"Powermax" from
Maxtor,
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

Will test most drive makes.Do,"NOT" ever use the parts of the program
to do a low level format or you may screw the drive up!!!!
Click to expand...
It depends on whether you class all of the data being removed as "screwed
up". That's what the low-level format does (although it doesn't, strictly,
do a low-level format), and IME the llf from the right manufacturer works
fine for what it does. Sometimes you just want to get the drive in the
just-out-of-the-factory condition.

HTH.

CK
 
CK said:
It depends on whether you class all of the data being removed as "screwed
up". That's what the low-level format does (although it doesn't, strictly,
do a low-level format), and IME the llf from the right manufacturer works
fine for what it does. Sometimes you just want to get the drive in the
just-out-of-the-factory condition.
Click to expand...
My computer has a Maxtor drive, so I downloaded Powermax and gave it a shot.
I chose the 'long test' version, which took about 2 hours to run (250 GB
drive). After the scan it said 'passed'. My question: what did it do? A
surface scan?

HankG
 
DaveW said:
For RAM testing:

http://www.memtest86.com
Click to expand...

Thanks dave, this is a pretty good program. I was a bit concerned when the
download completed in 1 second :-) It confirmed that the problem with the
machine was the ram and that the new ram has no faults so it's solved my
problem.

Cheers,
Michael Culley
 
2 quick questions

Is there a better method of checking a HDD than using scandisk or is
scandisk enough?

Which programs are good for running a system check, such as memory testing?

Thanks,
Michael Culley
Click to expand...

You may want to look at SpinRite 6 at http://grc.com/

It's commerical, but not too dear.

YMMV
 
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