What is Reddit's opinion of HDAT2?

From 3.5 billion Reddit comments

They're screwed up locally too?

Other than being stored in a corrupted sector, you've got me.

Check your drive for errors using whatever built-in tools your operating system has. Then, download Hiren's Boot CD and run HDAT2.

sure you can through usb, esata, or firewire. However, I would suggest you look a little harder for a laptop hard drive. There should be some well priced ones out there.

Also, depending on how badly your hard drive failed, if you just have a few bad sectors then you may try reallocating them with http://www.hdat2.com/ and reinstall the operating system.

I personally only trust chkdsk to detect errors, not to fix them or recover data. If chkdsk says you've got a bad sector, you've probably got a bad sector.

Me personally, I don't trust disk checking tools from their manufacturer. I've read enough posts where someone said they ran WD's/Seagate's tools that said a drive was perfect which then failed shortly thereafter.

If you're worried about a bad drive, there's two tools I use to check things out:

• https://www.smartmontools.org - This one uses the SMART monitoring system that's built into all drives to see how the mechanics of the drive are functioning.

• http://www.hdat2.com/ - And this is an extremely thorough form of chkdsk. I've used it before to recover drives that Windows won't even recognize. It can be a bit of a pain to use because it will not run under windows/dos, you have to build a boot disk for it, but it works and works well.

Thanks for mentioning there is another boot CD -- Sleuthkit. I never used it because it is command line. Sleuthkit, Helix 2008 CD and HDAT2 CD have disk_stat command preinstalled. I used HDAT2 several times because it is graphical and user friendly. http://www.hdat2.com/ HDAT2 did not detect a HPA.

Isn't the disk_stat command only for HPA? "disk_sreset: This tool will temporarily remove a HPA if one exists. After the disk is reset, the HPA will return. disk_stat: This tool will show if an HPA exists." http://wiki.sleuthkit.org/index.php?title=TSK_Tool_Overview

The list of tools in sleuthkit does not include cloning software.

I will ask /u/sloshnmosh to read your comments and respond since he performed the dd on flashblu and Asus 1005HA netbook.

Thanks for being willing to look at my data. Would you like me to ship one of my micro SD cards that I posted on that active@disk editor dumped? Or do you want me to ask /u/sloshnmosh to ship you flashblu flashdrive and/or Asus 1005HA netbook? I will pay for the shipping. The hard drive cannot be removed as I glued the screws in my Asus netbook to prevent interdiction and implant.

Yes and no. Why, cause i can't really tell in what state is the disk does it sound weird etc.. The problem you experienced goes from board to power supply(in your case adapter) battery life - electrical shocks to the disk(well this is rare but always possibility) i could suggest you run HDAT http://www.hdat2.com/ to check the disk for bad sectors, if the disk is damaged it will take hours if not will finish fast approx 50 minutes - you wont loose any data just check the small manual on how to run it(and you need to burn it on the cd and run at boot)

nope, it's not normal. If I were you I would blow out the heat sink and fan with a compressor (if you have one) just to be sure. Then run http://www.memtest86.com/ until it reports the test is complete and passed. If your ram turns out to be good and you didn't have huge dust bunnies flying out of your fan, then I would restore the operating system because it is most likely the cause of the issue. However, before you restore it you might want to check to make sure the hard drive isn't failing with a program like (http://www.hdat2.com/).

Also, there are some other potential causes that involve failing bga chipsets which can cause freezing and/or no post.

Honestly, I think registry cleaning tools get a bad rap. I've never had a problem with the one built into cCleaner. Always make a backup before cleaning, anyway.

That said, OP should do the tests you suggested first. If it's slow in Ubuntu, too, then he's probably definitely looking at hardware failure. I'd guess Hard Drive as well as they seem most prone to failure (especially given they're the only moving part other than fans and opti. drives.

But if it's fine otherwise, I humbly disagree that registry cleaners are entirely bad. I think if OP believes it's related to something he put back into the registry, and the computer runs fine in safe mode and ubuntu, he or she should give the one in CCleaner a whirl.

However, if that's what OP did when they said "Tried. No Success" then I think the next step is to run hardware diagnostics. Particularly the hard drive.

I really like HDAT2 for hard drive testing, but since Version 4.5.3 the good tests have been disabled. If your computer has a floppy drive or if you have a USB floppy laying around for some reason, you can get a boot disk creator for HDAT 4.5.3 at http://www.hdat2.com/

Anyone have any suggestions for a good HDD diagnostic I can replace HDAT with? I need something as accurate as possible. I'd prefer to not simply rely on built-in SMART tests.

Yeah, that's a legit message.

As others have said, first and foremost backup any important data you have. There's no good way to tell how soon it might crash, or even if it will at all, but no point risking it if you have important data.

Next, you might try running something to try to repair your drive. I used to use HDD Regenerator all the time when I worked as a tech. It's expensive, but I'm telling you it works like black magic repairing bad sectors. I'm not affiliated with them in any way, I've just had it fix drives in much worse shape than yours probably is.

If you don't want to spend the cash on HDD Regen, you might try http://www.hdat2.com/. I have never used it, but I'm told that it is a freeware alternative, so maybe it works too.