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FIXED DISK
DIAGNOSIC TESTS
Butterfly Test – The
Butterfly Test window wil read the first sector, the last
sector, the second sector, the second from last sector and
proceed to read inward with this pattern until the test reaches
the middle of the drive. The test will then start reading
outward using a reverse pattern.
The Butterfly Test
will cause the heads and electronics on the hard disk to work
vigorously. The increased activity will help in detecting
intermittent, alignment and electronic failures. This test
will do all the functions of a read test.
Screen
- Read Test
Read Test – The Read
Test window will read the hard disk in a sequential pattern.
This will test the read functionality of the hard disk and
detect bad sectors.
The Read Entire option
will read the entire hard disk. The Read Partial option will
read the selected area of the hard disk. Use the number keys
to select the Start Cylinder, End Cylinder, Start Head and
End Cylinder.
Write Test
– The Write Test window will write to the hard
disk in a sequential pattern. This will test the write functionality
of the hard disk and detect bad sectors.
The Write Entire option will write to the
entire hard disk. A warning message will be displayed. The
Write Partial option will write to the selected area of the
hard disk. Use the number keys to select the Start Cylinder,
End Cylinder, Start Head and End Head. Press Enter to execute.
A warning message will be displayed. Press Y (Yes) to write
to the selected area of the hard disk and destroy selected
data. Press N (No) to cancel operation. Be aware that this
is an extremely detailed, accurate, and time consuming test.
Safe Write Test –
This test will read the hard drive contents into system RAM
one portion at a time, perform a Write test on that portion
of the drive, restore the contents to the drive, and then
go to the next portion. Just as with the destructive write
test, there is a choice of Safe Write Entire or Safe Write
Partial. Be aware that data can still be lost if there is
a malfunction of the read or write heads.
Controller Test –
The Controller Test will test the hard disk controller for
MFM, RLL, ESDI and SCSI drives, which all have a separate
controller adapter card.
Four tests are run. Controller Diags is a
self test run by the controller on the drive. Write/Read Buffer
test will write to the controller buffer then read what was
written then compare the two. Recalibrate Drive will retract
all the heads of the drive. Reset Drive will reset all registers
on the controller.
Notes:
1. If the buffer on the fixed disk becomes filled with errors,
this test will clear the buffer for further testing.
2.
IDE/SATA drives have the controller built onto the drive and
mostly inaccessible to this test. The IDE/SATA
adapter card is tested but it contains only a line buffer
(amplifier), and passing the Controller Test does not confirm
that an IDE/SATA controller
is error-free.
For an overview
of FIXED DISK ERRORS - CLICK
HERE
Click on the following
links to find out more about using Micro-Scope
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drives.
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HARD DRIVES
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Click on the FEATURES link above for a full listing
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- Works on all Intel™ compatible computers.
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Platforms Supported - Micro-Scope runs on ANY PC with
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