Testing Hard Drives For Failure

[Carlosinfl]

I am having consistent lock ups on my system.

I have tested the following:

RAM w/ Memtest86
Replaced CPU
Replaced GPU
Tested Power Supply

This either leaves me with a bad board or a failing hard drive and I would think its the drive before the board. I noticed this system has a Western Digital S-ATA drive. It locks up and pretty much any OS I load on it.

Is there a way I can test the drive to see if its faulty?

 

[Herushan]

You can test if the hard drive is faulty with a live cd like the one found here: www.ultimatebootcd.com or you can find the drive manufacturers testing utility. Use one of the diagnostic tools to see if your drive is healthy. Good luck.

 

[Carlosinfl]

What exactly is on the live CD you recommended that allows me to test the drive? I checked Western Digital and they have a utility have it has poor OS support. Looks like you have to use a Microsoft OS in order to test a drive.

 

[Herushan]

The ultimatebootcd page has a list about half way down with HDD diagnostic tools and what drive they work on. The disk should be bootable so no operating system is needed I believe. I have not personally used it yet, but it just gives you access to a lot of programs from a single CD to test your system with. I guess you will be using the Data Lifeguard (Western Digital) program for your drive which is on the CD. Knoppix might have a program as well to test a drive too. Hope you find what you are looking for. Sorry I can't be of much more help.