Stress Test a Hard Disk/Motherboard

[(Shovel)]

Spec:
Abit KD7g (VIA KT400) Motherboard
AMD Duron 1.3Ghz
638 MB DDR266
Seagate Barracuda IV 40GB HD


Ello all,

My girlfriend Jo is having some problems with her computer again, having reinstalled the other week after it all went pear shaped.

We're worried that the hard disk could be on the way out - lots of things 'just breaking', Norton AV, Internet Explorer now. All of them unprompted. The original reinstall came as a result of a corrupted file. There's also a possibility that it could be the motherboard - it used to cause crashes when trying to access the Floppy Disk drive until we removed it [the FD].

Anyway, since the bottom line of this could mean spending money, we want to establish what's going on.

Can anyone recommend any hard disk stress testers that would highlight "problems", or alternatively confirm that it's all fine?

Similarly, can anyone recommend a similar tool for a motherboard? Again trying to hunt out the source of the problem before we even start thinking about which parts may/may not need returning etc.

Thanks.

 

[Testin da Cable]

sandra? it does lots of things. there's also something called HDtach but they are shit because regular mortals can't run it

 

[Sibanac]

If you get errors on the hd, do the test again with same hd on difrent computer and difrent hd on problem computer (make sure there isnt anything you want to keep on the hd)

I once got a new hd because all diagnostic tools told me it was broken, turned out to be the ide controller .


heard good things about toolstar*test, but costs a fortune

 

[(Shovel)]

Originally posted by Sibanac
I once got a new hd because all diagnostic tools told me it was broken, turned out to be the ide controller .

Aye, that's the worry, given that the Floppy disk issue could have been motherboard related too - and there was some faffing with RAM as well when we first installed... hmmm, the more I list the more the mobo could be to blame really! However, we do need to be sure.