Is there a Utility for this feature?
Is there a utility I can run on my Windows 98 box that will determine if it's hard drive is going out?
Any suggestions would be appreciated greatly....
Thanks,
itsmevic
Your expedited responses are much appreciated....
Any suggestions would be appreciated greatly....
Thanks,
itsmevic
Your expedited responses are much appreciated....
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yeah sure, u can either look in Device Manager or can Download this utility and install it,
EVEREST Home Edition:
http://www.lavalys.com/products/download.php?pid=1&lang=en&pageid=3
it will give u a list of all the hardware attached to ur system, note down the correct
version and make of ur required device and go ahead :)
EVEREST Home Edition:
http://www.lavalys.com/products/download.php?pid=1&lang=en&pageid=3
it will give u a list of all the hardware attached to ur system, note down the correct
version and make of ur required device and go ahead :)
Hey Vic..
Most hard drives will make a sound prior to dying. (Not 100%) But, this sound is a definite indication of hard drive failure. We call this 'head slap' in the industry. This is caused by the heads that are reading the platters either slapping on the platters themselves, or just repositioning over a specific sector that may be bad. When you hear this slapping noise, you had best get a very good backup, and run the utilities that Shehary mentions above. Every hard drive manufacturer has these utilities. They return a specific error code which you will use when applying for an RMA (warranty return)
FE
Most hard drives will make a sound prior to dying. (Not 100%) But, this sound is a definite indication of hard drive failure. We call this 'head slap' in the industry. This is caused by the heads that are reading the platters either slapping on the platters themselves, or just repositioning over a specific sector that may be bad. When you hear this slapping noise, you had best get a very good backup, and run the utilities that Shehary mentions above. Every hard drive manufacturer has these utilities. They return a specific error code which you will use when applying for an RMA (warranty return)
FE
try adenix smart explorer (free) - it works on win95 and up on drives that support SMART - for those that don't, use the manufacturers diags.
if you set the file 'check.exe' in the program dir to run at boot, or on a regular schedule for permanently-on PC's, then it will alert you when smart status changes.
A.
if you set the file 'check.exe' in the program dir to run at boot, or on a regular schedule for permanently-on PC's, then it will alert you when smart status changes.
A.
You can run SFC in the run box; if it finds errors on a regular basis, it is a sign your HDD is in a bad shape; if you get more errors each time, it is time for a replacement.
Sorry, The above should read : use scandisk or chkdsk (in dos)
Your hard drive has to be SMART enabled, and your BIOS also has to have SMART enabled to allow monitoring of your hard drive. You are not warned about the possibility of impending sudden failure, but what the monitoring does is notice if there is a slow and steady decline in the efficiency of the hard drive when being read or written to.
You can chack if your hard drive supports SMART by downloading and installing an excellent all-round and free reporting program named Everest. Download the Home Edition from here:
http://www.lavalys.com/index.php?page=product&view=1&subpage=5
http://www.lavalys.hu/downloads/everesthome110.exe (installer file)
Run it and go to the "Computer > Sensor" section in the left pane. You will see feedback of your processor temperature, fan speed, power, etc if your system has these hardware feedback sensors.
Now go to the "Storage" section further down. If you see SMART, then click on it.
Under "Device Description" it will list your drives. Click on each and see if they are Smart-enabled. If so, you will see in the pane below some readouts for the different tests that are compared. If you see "Always OK" against them, then the drive has been read from and written to OK up to now. Anything else should be a warning that should be investigated.
Run the hard drive diagnostics suggested above to double-ckeck everything also.
You can chack if your hard drive supports SMART by downloading and installing an excellent all-round and free reporting program named Everest. Download the Home Edition from here:
http://www.lavalys.com/index.php?page=product&view=1&subpage=5
http://www.lavalys.hu/downloads/everesthome110.exe (installer file)
Run it and go to the "Computer > Sensor" section in the left pane. You will see feedback of your processor temperature, fan speed, power, etc if your system has these hardware feedback sensors.
Now go to the "Storage" section further down. If you see SMART, then click on it.
Under "Device Description" it will list your drives. Click on each and see if they are Smart-enabled. If so, you will see in the pane below some readouts for the different tests that are compared. If you see "Always OK" against them, then the drive has been read from and written to OK up to now. Anything else should be a warning that should be investigated.
Run the hard drive diagnostics suggested above to double-ckeck everything also.
Sorry, the results will show either:
Always passing
or
Value is Normal
Not "Always OK" as I said above. I was going from memory there, always a bad thing to do.
Always passing
or
Value is Normal
Not "Always OK" as I said above. I was going from memory there, always a bad thing to do.
Aha, I see. I misunderstood the question slightly. I assumed that "...will determine if it's hard drive is GOING out" meant a utility to notify of ongoing depreciation rather than one to determine if it has already "GONE out" ;-)
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