[Broni]

I think, it's always better to follow instructions.
ImgBurn said, use it.

[Advertisements]

Yes, you're right, I definitely should. ImgBurn does work

(although the guy did say "using your favorite image burning software"... never mind)

[Midnighter]

Yes, you're right, I definitely should. ImgBurn does work

(although the guy did say "using your favorite image burning software"... never mind)

[Broni]

2. Run hard drive diagnostics: http://www.tacktech....ay.cfm?ttid=287
Make sure, you select tool, which is appropriate for the brand of your hard drive.
Depending on the program, it'll create bootable floppy, or bootable CD.
If downloaded file is of .iso type, use ImgBurn: http://www.imgburn.com/ to burn .iso file to a CD, and make the CD bootable.

NOTE. If your hard drive is made by Toshiba, unfortunately, you're out of luck, because Toshiba doesn't provide any diagnostic tool.

ImgBurn makes burned CD bootable.

[Midnighter]

Ok, thank you for clearing that up for me.

I apologize for the stupid question but, another thing that kinda confuses me now that I'm on the memtest screen-- how do I determine how much passes I make? Is it the Pass --% part, the Test --%, or the Test #-- ? Also, where do I record the errors? Thanks.

[Broni]

Here:



There is no record. If errors found, it'll tell you.

[Broni]

http://shsc.info/Memtest86

Memtest runs indefinitely unless you stop it. It does however repeat the same tests over and over again. Memtest86+ contains a number of different tests which each take different approaches in trying to expose any errors in our memory. In the top right of your screen you can see the progress of each test in the lower of the two progress bars. The topmost progress bar shows the progress of a pass, each pass consists of all the tests in the memtest suite. Thus all tests are executed in one pass, so does that mean that no errors will show after the first pass if that pass didn't reveal any errors? Well no, there are several reasons why errors might only show up after a number of passes. Firstly as of this writing, the latest version of memtest also includes a test which uses random test patterns, each pass these patterns will of course be different. Secondly some types of errors simply don't show up until the system has been running for a while or are very critical on a certain timing condition, or other such conditions.

[Midnighter]

Okay, memtest has currently completed 9 passes and still, no errors are found. Maybe I should just leave it on overnight? No harm in doing a couple more passes right?

[Broni]

Not at all. Even better.

[edge2022]

Leave it overnight b/c you want to be 100% sure that RAM isn't an issue here. Once you do that, run hard drive diagnostics and come back with the results.

[Midnighter]

Alright, memtest is done... 37 passes, still no errors.

Moving on to the hard drive diagnostics, how do you know who is your hard drive manufacturer?
I'm trying to look for it in my System Info and stuff and found a couple of things:
Drive 0: SATA-0
Drive Details: *Drive ID = Samsung SP2504C
Not quite sure, but is this it?

[Broni]

Yep, Samsung.

[Midnighter]

Ok, after booting with the Disk Manager CD, I got this screen-- nothing like the directions screen in the website:

Samsung Disk Manager:

o Add New Hard Disk - Instructions on how to connect a new hard drive to your computer.
o Install Existing Hard Disk - Setup a hard drive already connected to you computer.
o Maintenance Options - Maintain your Disk Manager installation
o Utilities - Disk Manager hard drive utilities
o Hard Disk Info - View info about your hard disk drives

Edited by Midnighter, 22 June 2009 - 05:29 PM.

[Broni]

I'd rather suggest ES-Tool (The Drive Diagnostic Utility): http://www.tacktech....tid=287#samsung

[Midnighter]

Ah... I thought they were the same things.

[Midnighter]

Alright, first "Step" is done, Drive Diagnostic with the scans and stuff. The HDD has no error. Now it is asking me to do a Low Level Format 1 with options to either partially or entirely erase the drive, should I do this next step, or is there something we should do first?

Edited by Midnighter, 22 June 2009 - 07:10 PM.