Sunday, July 25, 2010

How can I tell if my Hard Drive is faulty ?

Thebest way to test it is to use a piece of software called Drive Fitness Test, this is a DOS application that runs from a Boot Floppy or a Bootable CD.


You cannot use Windows to test the drive.


If you do a Google search for ibm drive fitness test 4.05.


This simple program will allow you to test an IDE or SCSI hard drive, you cannot test :-



SerialATA (SATA) hard drives
CD Roms or Writers
DVD Rom or Writers
Flopticals
ZIP drives.

If you test fails then it is almost a certainty that the drive is faulty.


However, you should unplug a faulty drive and test it with another hard drive just in case one of the following components are faulty :-



Power Supply
Power Supply's Molex that plugs into the rear of drive
IDE Cable
Motherboard Controller
Floppy drive controllers (can affect IDE for hard drives)

If the replacement drive passes reconnect the old drive and re-test just in case there was a loose connector.


If it still fails then it needs replacing.


Do not throw it away as you may still be able to read some or all of the data when you plug it into the PC as a secondary hard drive.


If you have any further questions then please visit oureBay shop: Highridge Computers Ltd.

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