Sharing whole drives in Virtual PC

[iceman22]

I have some problems with my internal Hitachi PowerBook hard drive, and I was advised to use the fitness test software.

I have successfully booted the software in Virtual PC, only problem is that I need to test the internal HD, the only drives that come up in the fitness test software are the image I used for Virtual PC and the CD drive. The Virtual PC image and Virtual PC are on an external FireWire drive.

Are there any ways to share the entire internal HD in Virtual PC so I can test it? I don't have a Windows notebook to test on, removing the HD is a real pain for a 12" PowerBook.

 

[MisterMe]

I have some problems with my internal Hitachi PowerBook hard drive, and I was advised to use the fitness test software.

I have successfully booted the software in Virtual PC, only problem is that I need to test the internal HD, the only drives that come up in the fitness test software are the image I used for Virtual PC and the CD drive. The Virtual PC image and Virtual PC are on an external FireWire drive.

Are there any ways to share the entire internal HD in Virtual PC so I can test it? I don't have a Windows notebook to test on, removing the HD is a real pain for a 12" PowerBook.

Why in God's name would you want to use a Windows utility on a Mac hard disk?

 

[varmit]

Why in God's name would you want to use a Windows utility on a Mac hard disk?

I second this question, because that is really, really, really, not a good idea. Get DiskWarrior or Drive 10 if you want to use a disk utility for the Mac. I also suggest using the OS X's Disk Utility that is already on your computer. Navigte to "Applications > Utilities", and open up "Disk Utility". You can then use that to Repair Permissions, which you should do after doing any installations that ask for your password. You can also boot from your OS X disk, and choose from the menu at the top to use Disk Utility, and then your can do the buttons that are off to the right to "Verify Disk" and if need be, "Repair Disk", because you can't repair the main disk while its in use.

 

[Mechcozmo]

If it isn't OS X native, it will trash your disk. And if it includes "Norton" in its name, it could still trash your disk.

 

[iceman22]

Due to the drive being HFS+ it would probably cause problems anyway if I did get it to work.

The software just tests the drive, hence the name fitness test. It's not a disk repair tool.

My Hitachi drive maskes an intermittent loud noise, the only way to get it replaced is for it to be proved faulty, that is what the reseller advised me to do, otherwise I would go without my PowerBook for days, the loud noise isn't reproducable either...

 

[MisterMe]

Due to the drive being HFS+ it would probably cause problems anyway if I did get it to work.

The software just tests the drive, hence the name fitness test. It's not a disk repair tool.

My Hitachi drive maskes an intermittent loud noise, the only way to get it replaced is for it to be proved faulty, that is what the reseller advised me to do, otherwise I would go without my PowerBook for days, the loud noise isn't reproducable either...

Bad idea. If you have questions about your Mac drive, use Disk Utilities.

 

[iceman22]

Well... thanks for the help anyway. Repairing permissions or rebuilding the directory will not do a thing to determine the state of the drive, things like S.M.A.R.T. and self testing and the actual warranty...

Looks like the only way to test it is to back the whole thing up to be formatted to FAT32 for testing.

 

[Mechcozmo]

Well... thanks for the help anyway. Repairing permissions or rebuilding the directory will not do a thing to determine the state of the drive, things like S.M.A.R.T. and self testing and the actual warranty...

Looks like the only way to test it is to back the whole thing up to be formatted to FAT32 for testing.

You can't install OS X onto a FAT32 volume.

And why do you want to do this anyway? Check the SMART status... anything else is probably related to software (formatting, etc).

 

[iceman22]

Perhaps you've misunderswtood me.

I would be reformatting to FAT32 to run what I did in Virtual PC, run the Hitachi fitness test software which is a bootable DOS image, because I am having problems and it's the only way to test it. The Hitachi software will return one of four possible outcomes:

• Drive is defective
• Drive has been damaged by shock
• Drive will soon fail (S.M.A.R.T. flag set)
• Drive is operating properly and replacement is not necessary

It can do a string of Hitachi specific checks. It's a shame you can't test it on OS X, Hitachi drives are used in some PowerBooks by Apple anyway.

 

[Mechcozmo]

You won't be able to start up off of your disk thingy. It is designed for the x86 architecture, right? Your Mac uses the PowerPC architecture.

Still don't know why you would want to run it unless you were having issues....

 

[iceman22]

You won't be able to start up off of your disk thingy. It is designed for the x86 architecture, right? Your Mac uses the PowerPC architecture.

Which is why I booted the DOS Drive Fitness Test software in Virtual PC.

Still don't know why you would want to run it unless you were having issues....

My Hitachi drive maskes an intermittent loud noise, the only way to get it replaced is for it to be proved faulty, that is what the reseller advised me to do, otherwise I would go without my PowerBook for days, the loud noise isn't reproducable either...

That's an issue.

I think Hitachi/IBM are the people I should talk to. I don't think there are any drive tests of this nature, the best I can find is a surface scan with Drive 10.