Hard Drive Diagnostics and Repair

[mygreenihc]

Hey Guys,

What recommendations does anyone have for hard drive diagnostic and repair software. I am responsible for about 450 pc's and some of them cannot be re-imaged very easily. There are times that it is very beneficial to be able to diagnose and repair a drive, even if the repair will only run it long enough to create an image of the drive. Chkdsk is about all that I have for diagnostics and I would like to upgrade.

Thanks,
Brad

Oh, by the way, this is my first post!

 

[Paperdoc]

For diagnostics only, both Seagate and Western Digital make available on their websites free software. In Seagate's case, since they also run Maxtor, the software will operate on both brand names, I believe.

In each case there are several versions. Some can run as apps under Windows. Some must be installed on a removable drive that you boot from. In those latter cases, the boot disk loads and runs its own version of DOS under which the diagnostic tools can be run. The only problem here is that some of these run from a FLOPPY drive, and you may not have one on all systems, nor even be able to plug one in if the mobo has no floppy port. But you may be able to get a version of each that is burned to a CD-ROM disk you can boot and run from.

These are very good tools for diagnostics and for a few maintenance tools. But for real repair tools, I hope others who have done those things can give you good recommendations.