Date: Thu, 19 Dec 2002 23:30:57 +1100 From: George Georgakis Subject: Re: Crashed harddrive maybe caused by driver To: luv@luv.asn.au On 19/12/02 at 21:30 Frank Grant wrote: >I then shut down the machine and restarted. This time when rebooting it >came up with file errors. It could not automatically fix the errors so >it dropped me into command line mode. I then ran fsck and the file >system was corrupt. I then rebooted into windows and scandisk said the >same thing. HDD manufacturers frequently offer free diagnostic programs for download from their websites. These programs usually boot from floppy, though you may need Windows to create the floppy in the first place. I have not heard of Magnetic Data Technologies before now, so I can't comment on them. But Maxtor's PowerMax and sometimes the old Quantum QDPS.exe utility can be used across manufacturers. These utilities can test the drive for things such as SMART reporting, RAM buffer, hardware/connection/cable diagnostics, physical media integrity and even low-level formatting (though I've found that dd'ing /dev/zero across the whole drive is sufficient to "refresh" the drive in preparation for a new partition table). Eliminate the drive's hardware as the source of the problem before looking at any software issues. You can take heart that, since it's only 1 month since purchase, you shouldn't have a problem with a warranty replacement if necessary. - George Georgakis http://www.tripleg.net.au http://slackpack.tripleg.net.au All mail sent to this address will bounce. If you genuinely wish to contact me, address the message to "george" at this domain.