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I have doubt that my hard disk is having problem since few days. I had Windows 7 installed earlier, which was working fine, soon it started giving BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death). I reinstalled Windows 7, but didn't work. I tried installing Win xp SP2, still failure. Somehow I am able to install Win 2000, which freezes after sometimes, but it runs fine in safe mode.

So, please suggest me a tool to analyse my hard disk and find out whether it is faulty and does it have any bad sectors or not. I have 5 partitions in hard disk. Please suggest such a tool that supports Win 2000. Other option is I have Ubuntu Live CD, I can run linux off that CD without any installation. So, if there is any linux utility, please suggest that as well.

Thanks in advance.

4 Answers 4

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You could try SpinRite which does a low level analysis and repair on the drive. It's fairly expensive so, but runs on it's own from it's own boot CD.

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Find out which company manufactured your hard drive, then download manufacture's diagnostic utility. If you can't find one from the manufacturer, then look for one from IBM / Hitachi, their utility will scan all hard drives.

I also highly recommend that you perform a memory test with your Ubuntu Live CD. Select "Memory Test" from the menu when you boot off the CD, this will initiate a MemTest86 scan.

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  • I have downloaded Seagate's seatools, though its written on their site that it supports Win 2000, it fails to install. I tried checking RAMs, it comes out clear with no problems.
    – user34513
    Feb 11, 2010 at 13:43
  • I was thinking you'd make a boot disk to initiate the HD scan with IBM utility. But if you can't do that, then I'd go with Dan's suggestion. Use the hard disk tools on Ultimate Boot CD.
    – Eric H
    Feb 11, 2010 at 17:25
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Take a look at the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows, it has several tools that will aid in testing the drive. Being that windows is freezing, or not installing, your best bet is going to run the tools from a CD, or floppy.

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I wrote a free program called Hard Disk Validator that should help you find out if your hard drive has reached its end of life.

It's best to first backup your data in case the disk is indeed dying on you. If your OS is not stable, you can boot WinPE from CD / DVD / USB and launch my program from there. you can find my program and all the necessary files here.

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