HDDGURU: Laptop and Desktop Hard Disk Drives, Tests, Software, Firmware, Tools, Data Recovery, HDD Repair

Partition Find and Mount

Partition Find and Mount allows you to recover deleted partitions. What's special in this program is that it allows you to mount lost partitions right into the system, so the operating system sees that lost partition like a good one.

This software also has the possibility to create and mount images of the entire hard drive or separate partitions.

New version of HDDSCAN is out. Added SMART support and IDE Features control for some USB/FireWire hard drives. SMART attributes names are updated. Some bugs were fixed as well.

HDDScan is a freeware program for low-level HDD diagnostics, it supports IDE/SATA/SCSI hard disk drives, RAID arrays, external USB/Firewire hard disks, flash cards.

The program can scan the surface, view SMART attributes, adjust AAM, APM (Power Management), etc.

New version of HDDSCAN is out. There are a lot of improvements in the version 2.7. Now it is possible to pause the scanning, view defect lists and start/stop spindle on SCSI drives, control AAM, APM, SMART by using command line parameters. Also the possibility to send e-mails has been implemented. Some little issues have been fixed.

HDDScan is a freeware program for low-level HDD diagnostics, it supports IDE/SATA/SCSI hard disk drives, RAID arrays, external USB/Firewire hard disks, flash cards.

The program can scan the surface, view SMART attributes, adjust AAM, APM (Power Management), etc.

New version of HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool 2.36 is out. "Seek Error" is fixed, also improved compatibility with some USB devices.

This freeware Low Level Format utility will erase, Low-Level Format and re-certify a SATA, IDE or SCSI hard disk drive with any size of up to 281 474 976 710 655 bytes. Will work with USB and FIREWIRE external drive enclosures. Low-level formatting of Flash Cards is supported too. Low Level Format Tool will clear partitions, MBR, and every bit of user data. The program utilizes Ultra-DMA transfers when possible.

New version of HDD Wipe Tool 2.35 is out. "Seek Error" is fixed, also improved compatibility with some USB devices.

This freeware HDD Wipe utility will erase and re-certify a SATA, IDE or SCSI hard disk drive with any size of up to 281 474 976 710 655 bytes. Will work with USB and FIREWIRE external drive enclosures. Low-level erasing of Flash Cards is supported too. HDD Wipe Tool will clear partitions, MBR, and every bit of user data. The program utilizes Ultra-DMA transfers when possible.

New version of HDDSCAN is out. In this version 2.6 nice speed graphs are added along with other bugfixes and additions. SMART attributes now will be automatically saved into smart.txt.

HDDScan is a freeware program for low-level HDD diagnostics, it supports IDE/SATA/SCSI hard disk drives, RAID arrays, external USB/Firewire hard disks, flash cards.

The program can scan the surface, view SMART attributes, adjust AAM, APM (Power Management), etc.

Hard drive firmware update utility (Bootable CD ISO)

This utility, on the bootable CD, will then examine your system, detect all 2.5/1.8 inch hard drives installed, and then check the firmware revision of the drive. If required, it will prompt you to run the appropriate firmware update program for your drive.

Head Stack Replacement: Questions and Answers

Articles

Nowadays, when computer industry is developing way too rapidly, manufacturers are literally “forced” to keep up to date — which can sometimes lead to putting “raw” (unfinished) devices on the market. This tendency makes a definite negative impact on product’s quality. Unfortunately, a hard disk drive industry itself is not an exception. With huge sales volume and poor quality, hard drives are eventually “making friends with troubles” (e.g. when the system is unable to detect the drive and so on)... There are cases when drive starts clicking or makes raspy or hissing noises — in 70% cases it means a “dead” head or preamplifier. In this case a surgery — head stack replacement or preamplifier re-soldering is needed.

Magic Boot Disk v2.0 is an MS-DOS boot disk which contains some very usefull stuff, such as patched FORMAT.COM, fixed FDISK.EXE, USB Mass Storage drivers for MHDD and more.

USBASPI V2.20 MS-DOS Driver

USBASPI V2.20 MS-DOS Driver

USBASPI is a MS-DOS driver makes it possible to access your USB device under MS-DOS.

Supports USB (OHCI/UHCI) and High Speed USB (EHCI) external Mass Storage devices such as hard disk drives, CD/DVD-ROM, flash disks and flash cards attached via card-readers.

ATA/ATAPI-8 revision 2b — AT Attachment — 8 ATA/ATAPI Command Set (January 10, 2006)

ATA/ATAPI-8 revision 2b — AT Attachment — 8 ATA/ATAPI Command Set (January 10, 2006, draft)

The set of AT Attachment standards consists of this standard and the ATA implementation standards described in ATA8-AAM. The AT Attachment ATA Command Set (ATA8-ACS) specifies the command set host systems use to access storage devices. It provides a common command set for systems manufacturers, system integrators, software suppliers, and suppliers of intelligent storage devices.

ATA/ATAPI-7 — the seventh revision of the ATA standard released in 2003

This is the seventh ATA/ATAPI standard. Released in 2003.

The application environment for the AT Attachment Interface is any host system that has storage devices contained within the processor enclosure.

Volume 1 defines the register delivered commands used by devices implementing the standard.

Volume 2 defines the connectors and cables for physical interconnection between host and storage device, the electrical and logical characteristics of the interconnecting signals, and the protocols for the transporting commands, data, and status over the interface for the parallel interface.

Volume 3 defines the connectors and cables for physical interconnection between host and storage device, the electrical and logical characteristics of the interconnecting signals, and the protocols for the transporting commands, data, and status over the interface for the serial interface.

ATA/ATAPI-6 — the sixth revision of the ATA standard released in 2001

This is the sixth ATA/ATAPI standard. Released in 2001.

This standard defines the connectors and cables for physical interconnection between host and storage device, as well as the electrical and logical characteristics of the interconnecting signals. It also defines the operational registers within the storage device, and the commands and protocols for the operation of the storage device.

ATA/ATAPI-5 — the fifth revision of the ATA standard released in 2000

This is the fifth ATA/ATAPI standard. Released in 2000.

This standard defines the connectors and cables for physical interconnection between host and storage device, as well as, the electrical and logical characteristics of the interconnecting signals. It also defines the operational registers within the storage device, and the commands and protocols for the operation of the storage device.

ATA/ATAPI-2 — the second revision of the ATA standard released in 1996

This is the second ATA/ATAPI standard. Released in 1996.

This standard defines the AT Attachment Interface and integrated interfaces between devices and host processors. It provides a common point of attachment for systems manufacturers, system integrators, and suppliers of intelligent devices.

ATA/ATAPI-1 — the first ATA standard released in 1994

This is the first ATA/ATAPI standard. Released in 1994.

The standard defines the AT Attachment Interface. The standard defines an integrated bus interface between disk drives and host processors. It provides a common point of attachment for systems manufacturers, system integrators, and suppliers of intelligent peripherals.

HDDScan is a freeware program for low-level HDD diagnostics, it supports IDE/SATA/SCSI hard disk drives, RAID arrays, external USB/Firewire hard disks, flash cards.

The program can scan the surface, view SMART attributes, adjust AAM, APM (Power Management), etc.

IBM/HITACHI Drive Feature Tool

IBM/HITACHI Drive Feature Tool

IBM/Hitachi Drive Feature Tool is a DOS-bootable tool for changing various ATA features. The Feature Tool allows you to control some of the features of IBM/Hitachi Deskstar and Travelstar high performance ATA hard disk drives and supports 48-bit addressing, so it will work with the new large capacity drives.

Choosing a 2.5" laptop hard drive. A point of view of a data recovery specialist

Articles

Nowadays, more and more users prefer a compact and inexpensive notebook to a desktop PC. There is a vast choice of notebooks of different types on the market, from simple laptops based on Intel Celeron processors, up to powerful mobile stations based on AMD 64-bit processors. An average laptop carries one hard drive of 20 to 120 GB; there are also two-HDD portable systems, but they are rare. The purpose of this article is to help to make a right choice from the whole variety of existing notebook hard disk drives which user can find on the market.

Victoria is a freeware program for low-level HDD diagnostics.

Victoria supports these interfaces: IDE and Serial ATA.

MHDD is the most popular freeware program for low-level HDD diagnostics.

MHDD supports these interfaces: IDE, Serial ATA, SCSI. Also there is a possibility to access an USB storage, there are drivers for emulation (USB->SCSI).

This software can make precise diagnostic of the mechanical part of a drive, view SMART attributes, perform Low-level format, bad sector repair, different tests and tens of other functions.

Seagate RS-232 adapter schematic