Stress testing a hdd?

D

DrFreeze

Gawd
Joined
Feb 3, 2007
Messages
935
Hi guys, is there any way to stress test a HDD, much like memtest or orthos for memory/cpu?

The thing is, my dads system is slightly unstable, about once every one to four weeks, it will crash while sitting idle or doing light tasks. The crash also corrupts the systems registry (and thus i became an expert in resurrecting corrupted windows installs). The problem with the whole situation is that im not sure which component is to blame. Ive pretty much ruled out a software issue, since the system did exhibit some of the same system (harddrive data corruption) back when it was running linux.

Now i am trying to diagnose and pinpoint the point of failure, but since the crashes are so infrequent, its pretty hard to see what is causing them. So far i have ruled out the RAM, as the system passed a 12+ hours memtest run (12 consequetive passes) without any problem. I am currently doing an orthos run to stress the cpu

so is there any way for me to test the HDD? according to speedfans SMART readout, the drive is in excellent condition, although it does get hot in the small desktop case
 
Get the manufacturer of the HD, and download their HD tools.

Seagate, and Maxtor, too, I believe, is Seagate Seatools.
WD is WD Data Lifeguard

And so on...
 
oh forgot to mention that i already ran WD DLG, it passed their tests without problems, but those tests take less then half an hour, i was kind of looking for a way to stress a hdd for long times

but Orthos just failed after two hours of small FFTs, so suspicion is of the HDD and on the cpu, although im a tad puzzled, since the whole system runs stock under acceptable temperatures
 
DrFreeze said:
oh forgot to mention that i already ran WD DLG, it passed their tests without problems, but those tests take less then half an hour, i was kind of looking for a way to stress a hdd for long times

but Orthos just failed after two hours of small FFTs, so suspicion is of the HDD and on the cpu, although im a tad puzzled, since the whole system runs stock under acceptable temperatures
Click to expand...

Orthos doesn't stress hard drives.. ;)

As for stress testing, there are apps out there for sure, I just don't know them off the top of my head. Sorry..
 
thebeephaha said:
Orthos doesn't stress hard drives.. ;)

As for stress testing, there are apps out there for sure, I just don't know them off the top of my head. Sorry..
Click to expand...

i know orthos doesnt stress the HDD (duh) i just meant that the cpu just crashed, so it is now the main suspect
 
sisoft sisandra will do a general HD red/write error check that can be repeated indefinately without crashing the computer. And I might mention that it's freeware although if your system is part of a domain it'll only work for 21 days as it says it's part of a business network which is considered then a trial version. Tricky bastages =).

Well worth the money though, a very useful tool.

Adam
 
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