Maxtor Diagnostic Tool

Alright, I've been having a lot of trouble lately with my computer. Won't load. Won't install windows. Won't do crap. So I thought maybe it was a hard drive issue.

I figured out that it's a Maxtor drive, but I can't run the diagnostics tools. I ran the bootable floppy, which just resulted in my getting to a screen like command prompt that said A:> Obviously expecting me to give it a command, however I've none to give it. So then I figured I'd boot from the Diagnostics .ISO. I burned it as an image, just as directed. When booted from disc, I got the lovely, oh so familiar message of "Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt: \WINDOWS\STSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM You can attempt to repair" blah blah. So either I'm not running these properly, or I don't have the right thing, or I simply just can't run them, in which case, I'm screwed.

Just so you all know what I've been doing.
I downloaded the tools from seatools or whatever it was called.
Made the floppy. Popped it in. Held F11 to bring up boot menu. Boot from Floppy. Said "Maxtor" in blue letters, appeared to be doing something, resulted in it going to a command prompt like thing with A:>. No idea what to type. Decided I'd try the CD Img. Inserted. F11. Boot from CD ROM. Recieved corrupt crap message.

What am I doing wrong?

 

seems to me you are doing it correctly....you might want to try the ubcd:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Ultimate_Boot_CD_Full_d4981.html

which is also a bootable cd and should have the maxtor tool on it..

 

Try this link for the floppy version. Seagate tools will work fine for Maxtor. You should get an interface as described in the guide. Do the LONG test.

 

This time for the diagnostic to test my drive. Not questioning the installation or the salvage of old one. I'm sticking in the old one again.