HDD diagnostic via usb

4

4on4off

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 10, 2012
Posts
141
Hello,

Just a quick question.

My son has a laptop that appears to have crapped out. I am thinking it is the motherboard as it will boot once every 20 attempts or so.

I was wanting to run a diagnostic on the hard drive though and since it will not boot I was wondering if it is possible to perform a diagnostic test in some manner having his hard drive hooked to another pc via usb?

I have it hooked to my pc currently and running a malware scan on it at the moment.

It is a compaq presario CQ62 with a Hitachi hard drive.

I am thinking I can't do this but thought I would ask.

4
 
Hi 4,

That is indeed possible. There is a Windows version of Seagate's SeaTools program that can test HDDs connected via USB to the computer. The official usage guide can be found here: How to use SeaTools for Windows

Regards,
Stephen
 
Sweet! Thanks for the heads up on that. It passed the short test but running the long now.

I think that lends credibility to my guess of the motherboard. I would rather it was the HDD.

Oh Well.....

Thanks for the input.

4
 
You must be back on the "fix family computers cycle". First your niece's computer and now your son's.
 
It sucks for him that his mother board appears to have failed but on the other hand it is kind of cool because I get to show him how do a few things. Luckily it is a laptop he bought off of a friend of his for only 100$.

With him having graduated last year and working I don't get to see him as much as I would like so in strange way I am happy his laptop took a turn for the worse.

The weird thing is just before I got a call from my sister about my niece's laptop, my brother had left me a message about is desktop having what sounded like the fbi ransomware virus. He managed to restore it to an earlier time before I was awake and called him back. That appears to have circumvented his issue but I wonder if it really did or it is laying in wait for a chance to bounce back.

I was a little disappointed because that is the second time someone had that particular issue and resolved it the same way before I got a chance to face off with it.

In between the family issues a co worker called as well with his laptop being on the fritz with similar child related game downloading issues. That one was something not quite as pesky as my niece's you helped me with. I was able to get it back in good working order. It probably could have used a deeper look using tools I am not skilled at using yet, but he is happy so I am happy.

4
 
Quality family time is always a winner, especially when it results in both helping and teaching.

Although it would result in fewer call from family and friends seeking your help, it would be beneficial to them if you persuaded them to use a standard/limited user account, particularly for those click-happy folks who don't watch for the extras when installing something. More info here: Using a Standard/Limited User Account.
 

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