Re: How do I troubleshoot a bad hard drive?
From: Bruce J. Weiers (Bruce_J_Weiers_at_msn.com)
Date: 05/02/04
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Date: Sun, 2 May 2004 10:06:13 -0700
"Joe K" <"Joe K"@myhome.computer> wrote in message
news:40951817.1D632A02@myhome.computer...
> In a win XP someone removed the hard drive.I put it back in and now
> want to troubleshoot it.Initially the scandisk came up with sectors
> unreadable.
The hard drive manufacturer generally has diagnostic tools, some of
which can be used from a bootable DOS disk. You could get these from
the drive manufacturer's website.
Most drives can give you S.M.A.R.T. data about how far out of spec they
are.
PassMark's Disk Check utility
http://www.passmark.com/products/diskcheckup.htm
or the handy SpeedFan
http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php
are free-for-personal-use utilities, which will let you see this data.
The above utilities are for use in Windows. I know there are DOS
utilities, but I don't have a reference -- sorry.
There are few guidelines for interpreting the data, but if there are
large discrepancies between the "Value" of various variables and the
"Worst" value recorded, you are in trouble, and if any "critical"
"Worst" value has slipped below "Threshold" you are in serious trouble.
> I don't want to get into specifics because I am not at that
computer.
>
> Yesterday I put the computer on a complete diagnostic test.I will go
to
> office tomorrow.All I know there were many errors.
> I want to know how to troubleshoot.I have 2 identical computers but
> only have the OS disks for the first good computer.I am waiting for
the
> office to find the original OS disks for the broken computer.
> Can I use the diagnostic disk from 1st computer that I do have to
> troubleshoot the 2nd.
> I know that I should just reformat the disk,if possible and reinstall
> the Win XP OS.But this will be a learning process for me as I don't
know
> much about hard drives and trouble shooting
I am not sure what you mean by "OS disks", but if they really are
identical PCs, I would think their accompanying documentation, etc.,
would also be identical and, therefore, interchangeable.
The Microsoft key code, which you might need to completely reinstall XP
and is unique, is printed on a sticker afixed to the computer case.
You might want to consider that a new harddrive is fairly cheap, and
rather than waste a lot of time, just buying a new one for $60-80, and
installing the system on that might be more satisfactory than wasting
time on the old one, which may be having mechanical problems you cannot
fix.
If you are using an OEM restore set, most can cope with a new harddrive,
as long as you allow the restore set to handle the partitioning and
formatting of the new drive. You might consult the OEM documentation
and refrain from setting up the new drive with the drive manufacturer's
utility, before starting the OEM system restore.
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