testing hd's

[eric66]

can i ask which is the best software to test hds ?

[Old Hippie]

I dunno if it's the best, but HD Tune (http://www.hdtune.com/) is readily acceptable.

[Nenu]

What do you want to test for?

[eric66]

i am going to test it for errors i am going to buy new one to replace dead one. that death really affected my decision to test hds before using them :D don't know if there is software to do that

[eric66]

I dunno if it's the best, but HD Tune (http://www.hdtune.com/) is readily acceptable.
thx will try it :D

[Nenu]

HDTune doesnt test for errors, it tests the read speed, seek times and cpu use.

I use HDD regenerator to deep test.
It takes a long time to run so use a spare PC but it will rescue a disk if it can be rescued and will find any surface defects and map them out so they cant be written on.
If a disk fails to be rescued, its knackered.

A drive can have quite a lot of bad sectors and still remain perfectly usable.

[ryan_975]

To test for errors, go to the manufacturer's website and download the diagnostic utility they have available. You'll have to boot it from a CD-R or floppy to use it.


OR

You can download the Ultimate Boot CD. It comes with quite a variety of tools including manufacturer diagnostics tools for just about every hard drive made. Burn it to CD-R and boot it.