FWIW I use four tools to test the integrity of
a disk drive ( SATA, IDE, USB ect ect ) on a
system. They are:
http://www.killdisk.com/This one I use to wipe a drive clean of everything.
It basically sets all the bits on a drive, from the
very first track/sector/byte/bit, to zero. It works
at the bios level so if it sees the drive at all
at least you know that works. Killdisk is a
free download.
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/Actually included in the Mageia repo. This tool
tells you the present set up of partitions on
a drive or sets them to what you need. Also,
again, a way to tell if the drive is there and
accessible. Gparted is a free application.
http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htmAn old and venerable disk test and repair program.
Like killdisk this works at the bios level.
If spinrite can see it, and test it, likely your
OS install system can see it. Spinrite costs $89.
http://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/I use Seagate and Maxtor drives exclusively. If
I run into a provable problem with one of those
drives, and it fails to pass the seatools testing,
then Seagate is very likely to accept my claim.
Seatools is usable on other drives. Seatools is
a free download.
There are other disk tools that can be downloaded
off the Internet like:
http://www.hitachigst.com/support/downloads/The Hitachi disk tool is a free download.
If all, or some, of these tools can't see your
drive it's probably DOA.
Posted: May 8th, '12, 01:40