Drive Fitness Tool?

ocexpress · 03-12-2006, 09:18 PM

Hello I am so happy to find this forum and I have been searching and reading for a couple of days in order to find how to proceed. It all started with the blue screen of death and an error message which I'm sorry that I didn't write down, but it looked like greek to me. I had been anticipating returning the computer to factory settings and I tried to restart the computer but it got stuck on searching for boot drive, so I went ahead and put the boot disk for the computer in and started all over. Oh, it is a Compaq Presario 3045US, which up until this past week has been great. Now, the computer seems unstable with an occasional blue screen that appears and goes away without crashing the system. It has been suggested that I run the drive fitness test on the Hitachi DK23ea hard drive. I sucessfully downloaded the program to the cd but that's as far as I can get. I apparently do not have the proper program to open the program. Can you tell me how to proceed or perhaps if I am totally on the wrong path with my diagnostics? I would really appreciate it.

**linderman** · 03-13-2006, 05:10 AM

Most likely the drive fitness test utility runs in DOS and as such they like to "boot" into DOS your current boot order found in the bios would need to be changed to boot from the cd-rom drive as the first boot option >>>> right now I'll bet your boot order is set-like this

1st= floppy
2nd= hard drive (boot drive)
3rd= cd-rom drive

you need to change your boot order to this:

1st= cd-rom drive
2nd= hard drive (boot drive)

you can either enter the bios and modify your boot order until you have completed the drive fitnes test or you can return to the Hitachi web site and download the floppy disk version of the drive fitness diagnostic utility instead of the cd-rom version

most diagnostic utilities are now offering the cd-rom version because many new computers are not building with floppy drives anymore >>>> gosh; I would be lost without mine !!

ocexpress · 03-13-2006, 08:23 AM

Thanks Joe,
Yes I have one of those laptops that do not have a floppy drive. I can not get the fitness disk to boot the computer. It is set to look at cd first for boot, then the hard drive. So far two days without the blue screen appearing, so that's good. I am retired and getting ready to travel in my motorhome for awhile and am hoping to figure out what needs to happen to fix it before I'm in the middle of nowhere, which is of course when it will act up again...lol.
Carolyn

**linderman** · 03-13-2006, 12:14 PM

ahhh i think i understand the problem here now ???? you donwloaded the CD image for drive fitness ???? correct ??????

then you copied it to a blank CD rom disk ???????

you must burn it to a disk >>>>> double click on the cd-image download and it should bring up your burning program >>>> at which time it will burn the ISO image to a cd-rom disk making it a bootable disk ??????

let me know how much of this gibrish you understand

ocexpress · 03-13-2006, 01:54 PM

Oh shoot, that makes perfect sense. I do not have a burning program, like Nero. I only have used this drive for music files which I burn with windows media. So I should buy a cd burning program...hmm.??

**linderman** · 03-15-2006, 05:28 AM

if you have a cd rom drive capable of burning >>>> there are free burning programs if needed

http://www.cdburnerxp.se/features.php

ocexpress · 03-16-2006, 07:34 PM

Hey thanks, just what I needed. I also loaded your recommended PC Wizard and found that my hard drive runs at about 135 degrees or 56C that seems very hot to me. What do you think?

03-12-2006, 09:18 PM	#1 (permalink)
ocexpress Registered User Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 5 OS: xp	Drive Fitness Tool? Hello I am so happy to find this forum and I have been searching and reading for a couple of days in order to find how to proceed. It all started with the blue screen of death and an error message which I'm sorry that I didn't write down, but it looked like greek to me. I had been anticipating returning the computer to factory settings and I tried to restart the computer but it got stuck on searching for boot drive, so I went ahead and put the boot disk for the computer in and started all over. Oh, it is a Compaq Presario 3045US, which up until this past week has been great. Now, the computer seems unstable with an occasional blue screen that appears and goes away without crashing the system. It has been suggested that I run the drive fitness test on the Hitachi DK23ea hard drive. I sucessfully downloaded the program to the cd but that's as far as I can get. I apparently do not have the proper program to open the program. Can you tell me how to proceed or perhaps if I am totally on the wrong path with my diagnostics? I would really appreciate it.

03-13-2006, 05:10 AM	#2 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,437 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	Most likely the drive fitness test utility runs in DOS and as such they like to "boot" into DOS your current boot order found in the bios would need to be changed to boot from the cd-rom drive as the first boot option >>>> right now I'll bet your boot order is set-like this 1st= floppy 2nd= hard drive (boot drive) 3rd= cd-rom drive you need to change your boot order to this: 1st= cd-rom drive 2nd= hard drive (boot drive) you can either enter the bios and modify your boot order until you have completed the drive fitnes test or you can return to the Hitachi web site and download the floppy disk version of the drive fitness diagnostic utility instead of the cd-rom version most diagnostic utilities are now offering the cd-rom version because many new computers are not building with floppy drives anymore >>>> gosh; I would be lost without mine !! __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial Last edited by linderman; 03-13-2006 at 05:12 AM.

03-13-2006, 12:14 PM	#4 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,437 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	ahhh i think i understand the problem here now ???? you donwloaded the CD image for drive fitness ???? correct ?????? then you copied it to a blank CD rom disk ??????? you must burn it to a disk >>>>> double click on the cd-image download and it should bring up your burning program >>>> at which time it will burn the ISO image to a cd-rom disk making it a bootable disk ?????? let me know how much of this gibrish you understand __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

03-15-2006, 05:28 AM	#6 (permalink)
linderman Moderator, Hardware Team Join Date: May 2005 Posts: 20,437 OS: win 2000 pro / Win XP pro My System	if you have a cd rom drive capable of burning >>>> there are free burning programs if needed http://www.cdburnerxp.se/features.php __________________ I still know nothing and I respect that fact, striving to improve and, along the way, help anyone that comes from the place that I used to be! Power Supply Selection LEARN TO BACK-UP YOUR DATA FREE & EASY YouTube - Runtime Software DriveImage XML tutorial

03-13-2006, 08:23 AM	#3 (permalink)
ocexpress Registered User Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 5 OS: xp	Thanks Joe, Yes I have one of those laptops that do not have a floppy drive. I can not get the fitness disk to boot the computer. It is set to look at cd first for boot, then the hard drive. So far two days without the blue screen appearing, so that's good. I am retired and getting ready to travel in my motorhome for awhile and am hoping to figure out what needs to happen to fix it before I'm in the middle of nowhere, which is of course when it will act up again...lol. Carolyn

03-13-2006, 01:54 PM	#5 (permalink)
ocexpress Registered User Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 5 OS: xp	Oh shoot, that makes perfect sense. I do not have a burning program, like Nero. I only have used this drive for music files which I burn with windows media. So I should buy a cd burning program...hmm.??

03-16-2006, 07:34 PM	#7 (permalink)
ocexpress Registered User Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 5 OS: xp	Hey thanks, just what I needed. I also loaded your recommended PC Wizard and found that my hard drive runs at about 135 degrees or 56C that seems very hot to me. What do you think?