need hard drive check disk

[vicvic]

hi all

I need to check a toshiba hard drive. It is MK8034gsx.

I have checked there website for the hard drive diagnostic tools. They don't seem to supply them.

Any idea where i can download a tool to check the hard drive. There is no operating system on the drive.

cheers thanks in advance

 

[Qdos]

You can run Microsofts Chkdsk utility on any drive which spins and whose controller and interface function, but if you want a detailed report then the very best software is probably Spinrite (many drives are cheaper to replace than a Spinrite licence though!)

 

[A320]

It's not free but I highly, highly recommend Spinrite - GRC|SpinRite 5.0 - one-of-a-kind hard disk utility

My laptop was taking forever to boot into XP, and the HD was making clicking noises (sure sign of imminent death).

Based on other's recommendations I used Spinrite, booted with it, let it do it's thing for a few hours, and when it was done, my HD clicks were actually gone (yes GONE!) and XP was booting in a normal amount of time.

That was about 5 months ago and my laptop hasn't been better. Just last week, a family member's laptop was experience huge lagging and tasking, after running several cleaners and diagnostics I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, sure enough, I ran Spinrite and voila, his laptop is back to normal.

I know, I know I probably sound like a commercial but I was simply floored with the consistent results.

It has a very primitive interface but very powerful software.

 

[A320]

Qdos, you beat me to it!

 

[Orpheous]

Download Hitachi Drive Fitness Test v4.15 b01 (12.16.2008) - CD Image (Direct Link)
or Seagate's Seatools
Fujitsu Diagnostics Tool is also pretty good : FJDT (Fujitsu ATA Diagnostic Tool) (Direct Link | English)

 

[Qdos]

Qdos, you beat me to it!

Yup, I'm sorry... LOL... and Spinrite6 has been out a few years too...

 

[vicvic]

Thanks guys

I managed to get the os installed. I am running windows diagnostics at the moment. The system is still infected. I think this is due to the fact that i had to put the cd repatriation disk to wipe the drive in when the computer was infected and the infection has done its normal action and attached itself the the disk.

I am going to give the hitachi one a go as i can dos ease the disk. This dos ease worked for the xp machine to reinstall clean.

Good thing is i got the os installed.

thanks guys for your help

 

[vicvic]

arrr

can't get the disk to boot.

god this is a nightmare

any ideas

im off to have some beer and bore my friends who are threatening to make ti shirts "i survived vic's virus infection"

 

[Orpheous]

There's an Avira boot sector (virus) removal tools available, but I'm not sure if it'll work on a drive without an OS installed... It's worth a shot as it's only a small download.
Have you attached the drive to another machine and checked it with a decent antivirus program (or 3) yet? If not, give it a try.
Failing that, build yourself an up to date UBCD 4 Win disc using an XP installation CD, and use the included security programs.

 

[Qdos]

Format the disk, because presumably any of your data that's important is backed up elsewhere and uninfected, yes? Then at least you can install without hassles - or slave the drive to another computer (with a fully updated anti-virus suite running!) to recover and disinfect any important material... then format it anyway!

 

[vicvic]

Thanks Orpheous telling me about avira boot sector tool. I will run it on the other 2 machines to make sure there clean.

How do you create an ubcd4 win disk? Can you give me more details.

Little rundown on the machine. I am in the process of reformatting again. ( I have done 2 other machines with this virus this is the first and most infected machine- doesn't scan with any av program). I stupidly place the reformat/ partition disk in the drive with the computer running and the virus places code on anything that it can - i forgot that i burnt the disk original on a friends computer and the disk wasn't closed off by the burn software.

qdos no data on the drive - i gave the computer to a friend data free, 3 months ago. But it was infected then but i thought the infection was the fact that i spilt water on the keyboard - long long story.

god i have learnt alot didn't know half what i do know


I am waiting for the drive to reformat at the moment. I have worked out the process. flash bios without harddrive installed- reinstall harddrive - reset bios reformat hard drive- flash bios ( might not have to this time) reinstall os . And pray to the computer god it works this time

Thanks for the advise about slaving the drive but i have learnt 1 leason to do with this infection. " mark everything that has been near the infected computer and don't let it enter a clean machine. I have been through about 40 disks cleaning 3 machines and 30 g + download updating them and download programs. ( on machine was xp took most of the download)

lets pray to the computer gods

cheers

 

[Orpheous]

hi vicvic,
you're welcome... you can find the tutorial on how to build UBCD4Win here.
Basically, you need to copy the files from a Windows XP SP1 (SP2 preferred) install disc to the hard drive on a working machine, install UBCD, run it and point UBCD to the XP directory. you can use that unclosed install disc to copy from.
During the build process, you can then choose which programs/features that you want access to, in your case I'd recommend all of the available security/antivirus programs & whatever else you want. When you start the build, the installer will download the definition updates for you and write them to the .iso file. All you do then is burn the .iso disc image to a blank DVD, insert it into your plagued machine, change the boot order in bios to "boot from CD/DVD drive" and reboot.

As a side note, I'm interested to know how you know that your drives are infected on such a low level. Do you have a virus name that is common to all drives? If so, what program detected it? If not, what problem/s are common to all?

 

[boohbah]

if its an external hardrive is it possible to get in the properties for the hardisk, then it will have a tools tab then check for errors this works with maxtor which frequently freaks me out, i dont panic like i used to i just have a permanent twitch!
Edit: sorry just read second page i see it aint external

 

[Orpheous]

I am waiting for the drive to reformat at the moment. I have worked out the process. flash bios without harddrive installed- reinstall harddrive - reset bios reformat hard drive- flash bios ( might not have to this time) reinstall os . And pray to the computer god it works this time

Thanks for the advise about slaving the drive but i have learnt 1 leason to do with this infection. " mark everything that has been near the infected computer and don't let it enter a clean machine. I have been through about 40 disks cleaning 3 machines and 30 g + download updating them and download programs. ( on machine was xp took most of the download)

You don't need to flash the bios unless there are hardware incompatibilities that are fixed with the new bios update. Bios flashing has nothing to do with viruses (virii?), or boot sector problems.

Why have you been through 40 disks? Once a CD/DVD has been burnt and the session has been closed, it is essentially write protected and you can re-use it without cross infecting other machines. If you are having problems burning boot discs, try slowing your burn speed down, or using blank DVD's instead of CD's in the case of OS's (as long as it's legal to reproduce or burn a copy)

 

[vicvic]

wow - I have the machine clean installed and running updates right now

Orpheous .

I did have to flash the bios. I couldn't access anything in bios until i did. (wouldn't recommend it .....scary)

I ended up pulling out battery and hard drive - flashing bios

reinsert hard drive - wrip the hard drive again.

flash bios again.

shut down machine - insert operating system disk

boot into disk.

This time it worked.

On the use of so many disks - had to 3 computer (7, vista and xp). I cross infected myself several times so i had to . What ever this infection is - Moves to fast and attaches it self to any disk placed in the drive. When I placed the partation disk into the drive while the machine was on it placed its code on the disk. So when i wiped the drive it still placed itself on the drive. Nasty

This arvo I will post the usb ( where i got the original infection) off to Avast. So they can do what they do with it.

Thank you for your help.

 

[Orpheous]

Bios updates can, and do go wrong, usually resulting in a permanently non-working motherboard... I'm glad yours worked ok for you

re: cross infection: Ouch! sounds nasty...
I fixed a friends pc once that had picked up 3 different viruses from an internet cafe infected usb stick. It added 94kb of code to every .exe file accessed while it was running, which, by the time I got to it meant he had a total of 1,800+ instances of 3 viruses.
I vaguely remember getting rid of it with a combination of UBCD4WIN, Avira Antivir, SuperAntiSpyware, MalwareBytes, HijackThis and safe mode. Once it was gone I promptly disabled autoplay on all removable media lol