README - WDDIAG PROGRAM SUMMARY: This program searches for and verifies the status of specific Western Digital drives. Also, if errors are found, it provides an option to return the drive to defect-free status. PROGRAM RUNNING TIME: For most computers WDDIAG takes 4-7 minutes to test one drive. On a slower older computer this time may increase. If the drive has defects that WDDIAG can repair, then the repair and rescan of the drive takes an additional 4-16 minutes. TO RUN THE PROGRAM: BACK UP DATA: Before running the program, it is recommended that users back up all data for all hard drives. The WDDIAG test does not overwrite any data on the drives and if used properly should not result in data loss, but the regular backing up of data is always recommended. STORE THE PROGRAM ON FLOPPY DRIVE: The program must be run from a floppy drive, so copy the file WDDIAG.EXE to a formatted bootable floppy diskette in A:. Running this program from the target hard drive while using certain operating systems can result in data loss and an inaccurate scan of the target drive. START THE PROGRAM: To start the program, type WDDIAG at the A:\ DOS prompt. TEST EACH DRIVE: Pick the 'Select Drive' option to see a list of all drives installed and the current status of each drive. For each drive that shows a status of 'TEST THE DRIVE', select the drive by using the up/down arrows until the desired drive is highlighted, then from the main menu pick the 'Test Drive' option to test the drive. The 'Test Drive' option will take several minutes to complete depending on the size of the drive and the speed of the computer). At the end of the test a status is displayed. Also, the status for all drives is always available by choosing the 'Select Drive' option from the main menu. If errors are detected during the 'Test Drive' option, the user will be given the option to attempt to repair the errors. Use the 'Select Drive' and 'Test Drive' and 'Repair Drive' options to select and test and repair each drive until the status for each drive is one of the following: "DRIVE HAS NO ERRORS" - The drive has passed the test and is error-free. "CONTACT WD TECH SUPPORT" - The drive has not passed the test and the user should contact WD Technical Support for additional information. "NON-WD DRIVE DETECTED" - The drive is not a WD drive and no additional testing is supported. Pick QUIT from the main menu to quit the test. At this point a message will inform you that the system should be reset to reinitialize the BIOS and hard drive(s). Hit CTL-ALT-DEL or cycle power to restart the system. When rebooting, remove the floppy diskette so the system boots to C: instead of A:. REPAIRING A DRIVE: In some cases the status of a drive will be set to 'Repair The Drive' following the Test Drive option. In this case the user should run the Repair Drive option and rescan the drive to verify that it has been returned to defect-free status. When repairing a drive, user data is not lost when sectors are relocated, but user data is lost when tracks are relocated. When relocating a sector, the data is read from the sector if possible and written to the new sector. However, in most cases if a sector needs to be relocated the data is not recoverable from the damaged sector and the new sector is filled with zeros. No additional data is lost during the relocation since the data was already unreadable. A warning message is displayed whenever tracks will be relocated. Tracks should only be relocated on a drive if the data for the drive has been backed up to another storage device since all data for the drive will have to be restored by the user after finishing with WDDIAG. Early-model WD drives are not repairable: AC140, AC160, AC280, AC2120, AC2170, AC2200 TO CONTACT WD: In some cases the user may be requested to contact Western Digital Technical Support. You may contact Western Digital Technical Support at (714) 932-4900 or (800) 568-9272 in the U.S., or (31) 20.446.7651 in Europe, or consult your drive manual for further information. Alternately, you may contact the OEM or its warranty service provider who can support your needs. MAIN MENU OPTIONS: The following menu options are available: Select Drive select drive and view status for all drives Test Drive test the selected drive Date Rate & Seek Tests display seek times and data transfer time View Test Results display results for last drive tested Print Test Results print results for last drive tested Log File Open/Close store results for all drives tested - WDDIAG.LOG Repair Drive repair errors found during the Test Drive option Write Zeros To Drive write zeros to the drive Enter & Print RMA Info enter and print RMA when returning a drive to WD Quit LOG FILE: The test results for all drives tested during the last run of WDDIAG are stored in the file WDDIAG.LOG. By default, the log file is created. It can be disabled using a command line option. It is also disabled if the test is run from a write-protected floppy. And it is disabled if the log file is being stored on a hard drive and the hard drive under test required a Set Parameters command (this avoids corrupting the data on the hard drive since the drive being tested may be the drive containing the log file, and the test drive may no longer be set to the parameters assigned by the BIOS). COPY OF LOG FILE IN MEMORY (SHOWN WITH MAIN MENU 'VIEW TEST RESULTS' OPTION): The copy of the log file that is shown on the screen only contains results from the last test. Every time a new test is selected from the main menu, the log file in memory is cleared. The log file on the disk captures the results from all the tests as they are run. LOG FILE OF ALL TESTS: The file HISTORY.LOG contains all of the previous WDDIAG.LOG files. The file HISTORY.LOG should be deleted periodically if WDDIAG is being run repeatedly to conserve disk space. COMMA FILE: The test results are stored in comma file WDDIAG.CS1. A new record is appended to the file each time a test is run. The comma file is disabled whenever the log file is disabled. A record has the following fields: A16 serial number A14 model N model id byte A16 firmware string A12 dcm string (will be 'UNKNOWN' if unknown) A14 build date (format MM-DD-YYYY) (01-01-1980 if unknown) N final error code N test complete (0 = incomplete, 1 = complete) A10 date (format MM/DD/YY) A10 time (format HH:MM:SS) COMMAND LINE OPTIONS: The following command line options are supported: -C Disables output to comma file WDDIAG.CS1. -DX Selects drive X (used with the -V option) X Baseport Drive 0 1F0 0 1 1F0 1 2 170 0 3 170 1 4 1E8 0 5 1E8 1 6 168 0 7 168 1 -H Disables appending of log file to the file HISTORY.LOG. -K Keeps the log file open even after a Set Parameters has been issued. THis option should only be used if the log file is being stored on a drive other than the test drive. -L Disables output to log file. This option takes priority over the -K option. -R Scan/repair/rescan the drive without showing the menu. The drive to be tested is specified with the -D option. -S Skip the rebooting of the system after a Set Parameters has been issued. THis option should only be used if the drive being tested is not one of the system drives. See additional info in the section titled Additional Program Info. -V Read Verify Entire Drive without showing the menu. The drive to be tested is specified with the -D option. For example, to run without menus and Read Verify drive 0 at baseport 170, type WDDIAG -V -D2 ADDITIONAL PROGRAM INFO: When the program exits to DOS there is a message explaining that the system needs to be reset. The Set Parameters command may change the setup of the drive and cause the system BIOS to access the drive incorrectly. So the reset is issued to be sure the drive is re-initialized by the BIOS. There is a command line option to disable the reset. This option can be specified if the user is sure that the drive being tested by WDDIAG is not one of the system drives accessed by the BIOS.