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Disk-Imaging Program Destroying Hard-Drives?
I read the following two posts on a PC maintenance discussion forum
and would very much appreciate any input and comments from this group. The poster is claiming that a certain manufacturer's disk-imaging software contains a bug that destroys computer hard-drives. I don't have the expertise to be able to make a reliable assessment of the poster's claims although they seem very unlikely to me. What I'd really like to know is whether there are any technical considerations or logical inconsistencies that make the poster's claim totally impossible. I realise that even if there are not, it doesn't prove his claim at all, but it would set my mind at rest if it could be positively disproved as I use the software myself. He claims to have filed bug reports with the company in question and that they "don't want to know". Suspecting that there may be some commercial motive for his observations, I've removed all references to the manufacturer of the program. Many thanks for your help. FIRST POST I never believed that a piece of software can destroy your hardware, namely your HDD, indirectly, by means of sustained mechanical movements. But reading the report on the bug in XXXX's backup program , I decided to make some tests. At the company where I work, I prepared 2 PCs with identical components, the affected HDDs being 60GB Western Digital model WD600AB-00BVA0. The first PC had a XXXX backup program installed and the second one had the suspect XXXX backup program. I scheduled a system backup every hour. Well, after one week of continuous running, guess what? The second PC HDD died of mechanical sustained movements of the reading arm. I'm service engineer so I could easily identify the cause of the death, especially after the sounds and also opened the HDD case. ============================================ SECOND POST I further investigated the matter and the destroyed Western Digital 60 GB HDD, made extra tests and a lot of electronic soldering and EEPROM flashing..and here are the new results. BEWARE! All the work described here involves advanced knowledge of electronic design, soldering, experience with loupe soldering and knowledge of EEPROM controllers reprogramming, it's NOT for newbies! Also you need adequate tools and equipment for doing it. I have all of these. More exactly: YOU DON'T NEED TO REFLASH THE EEPROM CONTROLLER of the HDD! Only to write the boot and start sector of the hdd for full function of the XXXX backup program. Details: I opened the HDD in almost laboratory conditions (temperature and dust conditions). I removed the HDD controller. I desoldered the EEPROM and copy its content. I did similar thing with the non-affected hdd. I compared the content of the both EEPROMS with a similar new hdd. The "destroyed" hdd had its content modified. The hdd coming from the tried and tested program was similar to the new hdd - in other words, NON-MODIFIED! I reflashed the modified EEPROM with the original content. I soldered back the EEPROM and the controller. I mounted the "destroyed hdd" in a hardware duplicator and fully erased it. I mounted again the cleaned restored ex-destroyed hdd and did a new clean install with Windows 2000. All worked. I installed the hardware test programs from WesternDigital and tested the disk. All was ok again! The disk was really saved from the dead! Conclusion: do the tests for yourself and enjoy the work! ============================== Thanks for your input, John |
#2
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"John Webster" wrote in message om... I read the following two posts on a PC maintenance discussion forum and would very much appreciate any input and comments from this group. snipped for brevity Although i'm sure it's possible that a drive could have failed after using some disk imaging software...it's not terribly likely the software is what caused the drive to die. I doubt if imaging a drive is going to put any more stress on it than defragging would. As far as the post where someone actually removed one of the chips on the harddrive controller, then reprogrammed it...I am rather skeptical. The post stated that he opened the drive in near laboratory conditions. The harddrive controller is normally exposed to the environment. You do not "open the drive" to get at the controller portion...so my guess is that the post was just a lot of bunk! |
#3
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Don't believe it. Software doesn't break hardware.
"John Webster" wrote in message om... I read the following two posts on a PC maintenance discussion forum and would very much appreciate any input and comments from this group. The poster is claiming that a certain manufacturer's disk-imaging software contains a bug that destroys computer hard-drives. I don't have the expertise to be able to make a reliable assessment of the poster's claims although they seem very unlikely to me. What I'd really like to know is whether there are any technical considerations or logical inconsistencies that make the poster's claim totally impossible. I realise that even if there are not, it doesn't prove his claim at all, but it would set my mind at rest if it could be positively disproved as I use the software myself. He claims to have filed bug reports with the company in question and that they "don't want to know". Suspecting that there may be some commercial motive for his observations, I've removed all references to the manufacturer of the program. Many thanks for your help. FIRST POST I never believed that a piece of software can destroy your hardware, namely your HDD, indirectly, by means of sustained mechanical movements. But reading the report on the bug in XXXX's backup program , I decided to make some tests. At the company where I work, I prepared 2 PCs with identical components, the affected HDDs being 60GB Western Digital model WD600AB-00BVA0. The first PC had a XXXX backup program installed and the second one had the suspect XXXX backup program. I scheduled a system backup every hour. Well, after one week of continuous running, guess what? The second PC HDD died of mechanical sustained movements of the reading arm. I'm service engineer so I could easily identify the cause of the death, especially after the sounds and also opened the HDD case. ============================================ SECOND POST I further investigated the matter and the destroyed Western Digital 60 GB HDD, made extra tests and a lot of electronic soldering and EEPROM flashing..and here are the new results. BEWARE! All the work described here involves advanced knowledge of electronic design, soldering, experience with loupe soldering and knowledge of EEPROM controllers reprogramming, it's NOT for newbies! Also you need adequate tools and equipment for doing it. I have all of these. More exactly: YOU DON'T NEED TO REFLASH THE EEPROM CONTROLLER of the HDD! Only to write the boot and start sector of the hdd for full function of the XXXX backup program. Details: I opened the HDD in almost laboratory conditions (temperature and dust conditions). I removed the HDD controller. I desoldered the EEPROM and copy its content. I did similar thing with the non-affected hdd. I compared the content of the both EEPROMS with a similar new hdd. The "destroyed" hdd had its content modified. The hdd coming from the tried and tested program was similar to the new hdd - in other words, NON-MODIFIED! I reflashed the modified EEPROM with the original content. I soldered back the EEPROM and the controller. I mounted the "destroyed hdd" in a hardware duplicator and fully erased it. I mounted again the cleaned restored ex-destroyed hdd and did a new clean install with Windows 2000. All worked. I installed the hardware test programs from WesternDigital and tested the disk. All was ok again! The disk was really saved from the dead! Conclusion: do the tests for yourself and enjoy the work! ============================== Thanks for your input, John |
#4
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"justme" writes:
Don't believe it. Software doesn't break hardware. I've seen (poorly designed) sytems that could be damanged with firmware programed to invoke hardware states that a hardware guy didn't plan for.... -- Todd H. http://www.toddh.net/ |
#5
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On Thu, 8 Jan 2004 18:39:56 -0600, "philo" wrote:
"John Webster" wrote in message . com... I read the following two posts on a PC maintenance discussion forum and would very much appreciate any input and comments from this group. snipped for brevity Although i'm sure it's possible that a drive could have failed after using some disk imaging software...it's not terribly likely the software is what caused the drive to die. I doubt if imaging a drive is going to put any more stress on it than defragging would. As far as the post where someone actually removed one of the chips on the harddrive controller, then reprogrammed it...I am rather skeptical. The post stated that he opened the drive in near laboratory conditions. The harddrive controller is normally exposed to the environment. You do not "open the drive" to get at the controller portion...so my guess is that the post was just a lot of bunk! I was thinking the same thing... the PROM is not inside the main platter compartment but on the PCB... seems like fiction to me. |
#6
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#7
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.....
Many thanks for all the informative replies. The poster claims that the WD hard drive is an April 2001 model in which "You need to take apart the printed circuit board in order to access the EEPROM of the controller". Does that answer your point, Philo, that "the harddrive controller is normally exposed to the environment" or is that something completely different? John I have a few WD harddrives here...although the controller would have to be removed to get at the "chips"... it is not hermetically sealed...so it could be done in any normally clean and static free environment... however...i just realized something...and that is WD provides a utility that you can run from a floppy which lets you program the drive for dma 33, 66 or 100 so actually, by using that utility i have actually programmed the eprom if the person who made that post was intelligent enough to know how to remove an eprom and figure out how to re-program it "on the bench" he should have been smart enough to realize that you do *not* have to remove the eprom to reprogram it... |
#8
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The guy is full of crap. I posted an in-depth debunking over at
http://www.pchardwareforum.com/showt...677#post145600 - way too many inconsistencies in the story. |
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