HDD Tests

rationalthinking

rationalthinking

New Member
What are some tests I can do to see if my HDD is dunzo?

I can't load windows, so i bought another copy and tried to install....
During installation, Windows Setup could not find a driver to install on.
 
What type of drives are you referring to? EIDE or Serial ATA? On most older boards the need for a driver floppy for the Windows installer to load drivers for that make and model board is required. Otherwise the installer won't even detect a sata drive installed.

Newer boards now see far more sata support that provides the information needed for the installer to see the drives installed. Vista now has it's own drivers since the trend is towards sata with most new boards out seeing only one ide channel.
 
PC eye said:
What type of drives are you referring to? EIDE or Serial ATA? On most older boards the need for a driver floppy for the Windows installer to load drivers for that make and model board is required. Otherwise the installer won't even detect a sata drive installed.

Newer boards now see far more sata support that provides the information needed for the installer to see the drives installed. Vista now has it's own drivers since the trend is towards sata with most new boards out seeing only one ide channel.
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it is a SATA

40GB SATA 1.5Gb/s Ultra ATA/100 hard drive - 5,400 RPM, 2.5in form factor, 9.5mm thick, 434415-001B
 
any advice?

40GB SATA 1.5Gb/s Ultra ATA/100 hard drive - 5,400 RPM, 2.5in form factor, 9.5mm thick, 434415-001B

why isn't windows recognizing any driver?
 
For that make and model board you will have to look at the software disk that comes along with the board or go to the manufacturer's support site for the drivers needed if you are trying to install XP or an older version of Windows. The Socket 939 build I just recently replaced required a driver disk for that AMD board while the AM2 for the new one now is use saw XP go right on.

On either build the Vista installer on the other hand readily detected the two sata drives used there and now used on the new build. One question here is in regards to the Shuttle model listed in your sig that points at a far more recent system that should see support for sata already since the board is a Socket 755 Core 2 Duo/Extreme model if the same as seen at http://www.ewaggle.com/Shuttle_SD32G2B_p/sd32g2b.htm

Is this the system you are talking about seen at the link there? If that is then it may be a simple need to enable the sata controllers in the bios setup for that model if disabled.
 
PC eye said:
For that make and model board you will have to look at the software disk that comes along with the board or go to the manufacturer's support site for the drivers needed if you are trying to install XP or an older version of Windows. The Socket 939 build I just recently replaced required a driver disk for that AMD board while the AM2 for the new one now is use saw XP go right on.

On either build the Vista installer on the other hand readily detected the two sata drives used there and now used on the new build. One question here is in regards to the Shuttle model listed in your sig that points at a far more recent system that should see support for sata already since the board is a Socket 755 Core 2 Duo/Extreme model if the same as seen at http://www.ewaggle.com/Shuttle_SD32G2B_p/sd32g2b.htm

Is this the system you are talking about seen at the link there? If that is then it may be a simple need to enable the sata controllers in the bios setup for that model if disabled.
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it is an laptop.. no clue what my make and model number is for the board...
the laptop is listed in my sig

the situation is, i fired up the laptop one day and i get a message (no operating system found)

so.. i bought a copy of vista... while i was running through it, it couldn't find a driver for me to install to.
 
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That was the first thought when you didn't specify whether this was on a desktop or laptop. It sounds like the master boot information was missing or corrupted if that was originally XP preinstalled. That would be drive not driver to clarify that a little. The laptop should have the sata controller drivers as part of the system recovery process.

You could trying removing and then reinstalling the drive itself to make sute the contacts are good and the drive is in correct in case it was jarred just enough. HP has a video for this seen at http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...en&cc=us&dlc=&product=3224052&rule=45066&lang=

You will note that the links for downloads for 2000, XP, Vista, and the 64bit edtions of both XP and Vista are seen on the download page. The HP information on missing operating system in particular is found at http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...s&lc=en&dlc=en&product=3224052&dlc=en&lang=en

Missing Operating System
This error message may appear for one or more of the following reasons:
  • The notebook BIOS does not detect the hard drive.
  • The hard drive is physically damaged.
  • The Windows Master Boot Record (MBR) located on the hard drive is corrupted.
  • The partition or section of the hard drive containing the Windows MBR is no longer active.
Use one of the following steps to resolve the error:
HP includes a Hard Drive Self Test feature described there as well along with repair instructions for the mbr. Another thing is that HP also has a security feature on their drives that can block the Vista installer. Or you have a problem with the drive itself and why the feature for the self test should be tried.
 
did the self test in setup several times...

1 time it did not even identify my HDD to boot from.. just CD-Rom

tried to run it 4-5 times, it froze every time and never completed... :(
 
when i tried to run the tests several times just now..

it said no test available....
no IDE found....

and when a test is available... it freezes when i start the test.
 
Something sounds goofed there. If the drive is still good then you have to start looking at things like the ide controller and possible board fault as well as where the drive plugs in. Another way of seeing if the drive is readable is booting with the live for cd version of GParted since that will show the partition information on the drive itself if working.

The failing tests however seem to point at a failed drive. Too bad you couldn't borrow another drive to throw in just to run the test on that. If a drive known to be good still saw problems then you would have to start looking at other things.
 
this is my old drives specs

40GB SATA 1.5Gb/s Ultra ATA/100 hard drive - 5,400 RPM, 2.5in form factor, 9.5mm thick, 434415-001B

it is for an HP Pavilion dv6000

can someone help out and find me a good one that is 60GB @ 7200RPMs
 
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PC eye said:
That's from looking for desktop models all the time. :P But it shows how the prices on larger drives have come down. Unfortunately newegg doesn't have any 7,200rpm 2.5" WD models to look over. You would have to shop around some. The 3 Seagate models(2 80gb -1 100gb) can be looked over at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...0+50001305+1035907918+1035507776&name=Seagate

I won't advise any Hitachi model since many have their complaints on that brand.
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what about an 60GB @ 5400RPM then...

im not paying that much for a 80gb HDD
 
That would be strictly upto you there. You have to decide how much you want to spend along with how much drive space you will need. If you plan to install a good number of programs or simply accumilate a large number of files in folders you create then you may a larger drive. For the only occasional light use you may never need more.
 
Get a 5400 rpm, the high speed drives aren't great in laptops, they go bad quickly due to the parts being moved around so often. 5400 is still adequate, the difference is barely noticeable either way.
 
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