Greetings,
        I am interested in testing hard drives for different kinds of
failure, due to a recent experience.

        I had a friend bring in his computer. His wife said that the
computer kept asking her to put in the recovery disk when she
tried to turn it on.
        I hooked the computer up, turned it on, and it booted with no
problems. I ran it overnight and did a thorough examination of
the hard drive (a Samsung 3.2G) with SpinRite, and I think I also
used the hard drive diagnostic from Ontrack, although I am not
sure.
        The tests showed that there were no errors on the hard drive,
and I sent the computer home with a clean bill of health. Now,
three weeks later, the computer is back with the same problem. Of
course, now that I have it here while it is not working, I can
see that it is not asking for a recovery disk, but the drive is
not being detected by the BIOS, and the resulting message says
"Disk Boot Failure, Insert system disk and press enter"
        I have tried enough different tests to be satisfied that the
problem is with the drive itself, since the computer will
recognize a working drive, and my workbench computer can't find
this drive when I connect it there.
        I'm assuming that since there were no bad sectors or problems
with this drive three weeks ago when it first had the problem,
that the disk itself is fine, and it must be the electronics or
controller on the drive that is not working. Is this what all of
you would conclude as well?

        Is there software that will test for this as well as testing the
surface of the drive? If there is, I would be interested in
knowing how well it has worked for you before I spend money on
it.


     Elizabeth Boston
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Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow; it empties today of
its strength.
          - Corrie Ten Boom

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