On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 5:38 AM, Andrew S. Baker <asbz...@gmail.com> wrote: > These days, all I use is CHKDSK. Lots of parameters to work with.
Isn't CHKDSK still basically just a read verification, even with /R? That is, all it does is try to read from every block on the disk? That counts for something, for sure, but it's limited. Not strictly addressing the OP's request, I've used badblocks and smartctl under Linux to glean insight into disk behaviors. Booted from CD, they work on a Windows-formatted disk. smartctl is an interface to the SMART stuff. The statistics reporting is interesting, especially if you do a before-and-after comparison with badblocks. You can also trigger one of several different SMART self-tests (which appears to be all some manufacturer-specific tools do). "badblocks -w" is a destructive write test. It writes a succession of patterns (0xFF, 0xAA, 0x55, 0x00) in passes, filling the disk with one pattern and reading it back before doing the next. This has uncovered bad disks for me. It's also cleared bad blocks on a disk, by allowing a relocation. "badblocks -n" is a non-destructive write test. For each block, it reads the contents, writes and compares patterns, then re-writes the original contents. Useful for proving a disk already in use. Add "-v -s" to any badblocks test to get verbose status info, i.e., progress indication. Whether any of this is worth it (disks are cheap) is left as an exercise for the reader. I agree with the idea that it's prolly not the disks that are bad in the OP's situation. -- Ben ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ --- To manage subscriptions click here: http://lyris.sunbelt-software.com/read/my_forums/ or send an email to listmana...@lyris.sunbeltsoftware.com with the body: unsubscribe ntsysadmin
