Dignostics tool?

[Perpsoh]

Yesterday my system locked up while loading a program. So I pressed cntrl+alt+del, and it got stuck before giving me the options. I let it sit there for some time, before pressing the reset button. Now the computer starts to boot, and goes to the option menu to start normal, or safe mode or last good configuration. Any and all options I pick, the system will start the boot process, the microsoft loading bar will start scrolling, then a blue screen with some writting will flash for a second (not long enough to read it) and the boot starts over I can't even boot into safe mode to start a check disk. Fortunatly I have a second HDD that is a doop of my main drive. The only problem is I've resently got some data on there that isn't yet backed up. Anyone know some sort of dignostics tool I can load on the secondary drive (that is currently running the comp) that will check my other drive? Unfortunatly I don't have the OP system disc so I can't run the repair tool off the disc. Or does anyone know of another way to at least run the disk check before the OP boots? Thanks in advance for any help!

[mikeL]

Ultimate boot disk has a lot of tools used in checking hard drives, memory, and more.
If you want to run check disk, you can run it from your XP CD (If you have one) when the cd boots up it ask if you want to install windows, recover windows select recover (R) then when recovery console starts type in chkdsk -r

If check disk is good, and windows still has problems I would try memtest86 to check your ram, which is on the UBCD

[not important]

Go to Device manager-under Startup and Recovery click on "Settings"--Remove the tick from "Automatically Restart" the next time you get the Blue Screen it will stay open and you can tread the error.

[glc]

Diagnostics are generally not loaded on a hard drive - they are run from bootable media. The Ultimate Boot CD has diagnostics for almost all brands of hard drives, and several memory diagnostics.

www.ultimatebootcd.com

You should be able to access the "bad" drive while booted to the good one and copy the data you need.

[Perpsoh]

I'll try the Ultimate bootCD. I'll give an update after I play with that. Thanks.

[itsgt]

or you can go the manufacturer's website and download the diagnostics tools they offer. Seagate and maxtor offer a dos and windows version

[Perpsoh]

Well I don't think it's the harddrive. I think its just vista sucking I think I will just hook up the "main" drive, pick off the information that I need, then just clone the drive again from this one.

[glc]

I would not do that until you run diagnostics.

[Perpsoh]

Is that ultimate boot disc usable for windows vista? It says something about linux based. And the windows version says for XP, can't find any info on Vista.

[mikeL]

UBCD will work with Vista, I just loaded it on a laptop running vista. The Boot CD itself is linux based it is basically a Linux OS only loaded with diagnostic tools.

[glc]

All you need is CD burning software capable of creating a CD from an .ISO file. If you don't have any:

http://www.imgburn.com/

[Perpsoh]

Originally Posted by glc I would not do that until you run diagnostics.

why not, may I ask? just curious, and want to learn.

On an update note, i just hooked up the "crashed" HDD and booted my comp on the old "back up" HDD, and vista ran chkdisk on the crashed drive. It deleted and recovered a bunch of curupted files but I haven't switched it over yet to see if that fixed it.

[glc]

It deleted and recovered a bunch of curupted files

That's why - files don't just corrupt themselves, something has to cause it. A failing drive will do exactly that. If it's failing, it needs to be replaced. Any error code using diagnostics qualifies the drive for warranty replacement if it's still covered.

Faulty ram can cause that too. So can overclocking. The UBCD has ram diagnostics on it too.

[Perpsoh]

Well the chkdisk didn't fix what ever is wrong with the drive. It still boots, then flashes the blue screen and starts over.

what diagnostic tool do you recommend me using from UBCD? As of right now, I have the old drive hooked up on the IDE cable as the master, and the second drive is on sata, as my second drive, but my comp won't let me access it/use it without formating it, so I can't retrieve the data I need off it.

Could it be the drive has gone bad? its new so still under warrenty. I just installed 4 more gigs ram in the comp, but i'm not using it yet b/c i still have 32bit vista could that be what did it? And nothing is overclocked. It is all standard from the factory still.

Also, I downloaded UBCD as a zip, unziped it to a folder and it extracted all the files in the zip. Now, what do I need to do, to burn it onto a cd/dvd to get it to run as the boot disc? Or should i redownload it as an ISO, and use that software you were talking about?

I know this is a lot of questions, but my knowledge is hitting its end, and I appreciate your help with this glc !

[glc]

There should be an iso inside that zip - about 110mb. That is what you have to burn - and you burn it as an image, not as a file.

You use the hard drive diagnostics for your brand of drive.

[Perpsoh]

ok i ran the UBCD and ran the diag. for my HDD (WD) and it started, then said there was no drive to diagnose and gave me a command prompt. Did i miss a step, maybe a step to choose which drive to diagnose? Should I be running this with the bad drive as the primary boot drive?

[mikeL]

The Diagnostic will find all the drives for that manufacturer. Are both the drives the same, If so It should of found both then given you a choice which one to check.

If you ran the appropriate hard drive diagnostics, and it didn't find the drive I would, if the drive is still under warranty get a RMA number from the drives manufacture and get a replacement.

[glc]

Did you run version 5.04c? 4.15 won't detect SATA drives.

[Perpsoh]

Yea, I ran 4.15, i'll try the other one, thx glc. Also, I don't mind RMA'ing it if it defective, but how if there is any way, can I get the data I need off of it first?

[glc]

Put it into a working system and see if you can access it.

[Perpsoh]

Yea, I got it in a working comp, but in order to access it/open it, my system wants me to format it first.

[glc]

That means you need data recovery software. Here is the only free data recovery software that will have a chance of working:

http://www.pcinspector.de/file_recovery/uk/welcome.htm

[Perpsoh]

Yea I haven't gotten a chance to use that data recovery software, but I just got a message from windows saying the drive is failing, and too back up all the data right away. I disconnected it for now, and am going to try to get an RMA for it, then work on it tomorrow

[Perpsoh]

Well chkdisk ran a check on the bad drive again today when I started up my computer, and when i finally was logged in, I was able to access the drive, and it seemed to be working fine. I pulled off all the data I needed, then left for work with the computer running. When I got home, I had the message from windows again, saying the drive was once again, "failing". Is the drive actually "bad" or if I wiped it clean and reloaded/cloned it would it be ok?

[mikeL]

If it's still under warranty I would just RMA it. If not then you can try a zero fill utility it might fix the problem, however there is always that chance it will fail again maybe even worse.

I've zero filled a couple out of warranty drives, and they ran fine, but why take the chance.