Suggest HDD tester?

Having another odd thing or two happen after an OS reinstall, I'm thinking there may be some hardware problems lurking in the woodpile...

While it could be memory, I want to check the HDD first. It would be nice to check in non-destructively, although that's not a really big issue since it's a fresh install, with just a few addons (AVG, SpyBot, Mozillas, OOo), so...

Suggestions, anyone?

 

Try an Ultimate Boot CD: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

 

The HDD manufacture has free utility to test HDD
Usually a retail HDD, for a warranty replacement you would have to run thier utility to get RMA, If your HDD fails, a number is provided at the end of HDD diagnostic.

 

Hi Short,

Computer can not be expected to test anything correctly with bad memory. Test Mem first.

Good Luck, Jim

 

Anything? Not even memory? Dang...

 

Yah, I wasn't thinking on that, since there isn't a MFR CD with the system... you're right. I d/l'ed the Seagate testing, which says (up to the "long test") that it's okay. Hmmmm....

 

Nice set of stuff. I'm fixin' to try it, right now (well... after lonche, anyway). Thanks!

 

No problem.

 

I ran several of the tests, including multiple CPU and mem tests - no problems showed up. Earlier the Seagate HDD tests all went through okay. I dunno... I'd be a whole lot happier if it had failed something - or not come back with screwy stuff when I loaded OpenOffice (boot error declaring that uhhhh let's see what was its name? ntoskrnl.exe was corrupt, but has been okay subsequently through several reboots).

I reckon I'll just go ahead and finish loading base stuff and using it some, and make sure backup happens when warranted.

Thanks for the ideas - everyone.

 

Naah - it's a 160GB (which in my opinion is bad enough as far as overstuffing the five-pound bag goes...) and, fwiw it DID pass all the non-destructive tests. I'd be a whole lot happier if it hadn't choked on the reboot after (during?) the OOo install and come up with that msg about ntoskrnl.exe being corrupt and then booted happily ever since (three or four times, I guess)... I think I just might see if there's a good way to leave it running all the tests overnight or for the weekend. I'm mystified (not like that's hard to do, huh?).