On 14 Aug 2006 at 19:22, Carl Houseman wrote: > If you are unsuccessful when answering "yes" to all questions, then the hard > drive has probably gone bad, or there is there a cable/connection problem to > the drive, or there is a failure of the hard drive controller.
This is pretty simple to test and should be the first thing you do when you start getting strange behavious like this. 1) Remove drive from machine and determine manufacturer and model number 2) Goto manufacturers website and download their disk diag software for that particular model. Some manufacturers have software that will do ALL of their drives while other have different software for scsi vs. pata vs. sata vs. usb and for different models. Note, generally a full test of the drive will require removing it from an external usb/firewire enclosure and attaching it direct to an internal pc controller connection. 3) Run software and see what it reports This works about 90% of the time, the rest of the time you may need to check the drive with another diag software like IBM/Hitachi's DFT (disk fitness test) as it seems to work reliably with all manufacturers drives, however it will only give you a go/no go message for non IBM/Hitachi drives. In approx 1-2% of cases, the drive will pass both above tests but still be defective and fail catastrophically <shrug> shortly after testing, I've only seen this happen a handful of times thankfully, usually with Maxtor and Hitachi drives. Good luck -- Harondel J. Sibble Sibble Computer Consulting Creating solutions for the small business and home computer user. [EMAIL PROTECTED] (use pgp keyid 0x3AD5C11D) http://www.pdscc.com (604) 739-3709 (voice/fax) (604) 686-2253 (pager) -- ---------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, mailto: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Is your picture included in the Official Win-Home List Members Profiles Page? http://www.besteffort.com/winhome/Profiles.html If not, write to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
