Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics - DLGDIAG for Windows

PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:

This MODULE of the Data Lifeguard Tools program searches for and verifies the status of specific Western Digital drives. By accessing the Data Lifeguard formation stored on the hard drive, the program is able to quickly and efficiently verify the status of the drive. If any errors are logged or found, it provides an option to return the drive to defect-free status through an extended test or repair option. DLGDIAG for Windows runs under Win9x/Me/NT/W2K/XP and offers several options for verifying the defect-free status of your hard drive.

QUICK TEST: The Quick Test is designed to intelligently gather and verify all of the Data Lifeguard information contained on the drive. The Quick Test can determine with a high level of confidence that a drive is defect-free in a short amount of time. For maximum confidence, the Extended Test is recommended. The Quick Test option may not be available on earlier IDE drives, SCSI drives and external drives.

EXTENDED TEST: For most computers the DLGDIAG Extended Test takes 30 minutes to an hour to test one drive. Larger drives take longer to test. The performance of the computer also affects the test time. If a bad sector is detected under Win9x/Me environments, the test may stop responding for a few minutes and then continue. This is not a destructive test unless users select repair function when bad sectors are detected.

WRITE ZEROS: This option can be used to erase operating systems and file systems. The QUICK ERASE writes zeros to the first and last million of sectors and the FULL ERASE writes zeros to the entire drive and may take hours to complete depending on the drive size and system performance.

VIEW TEST RESULTS: The current test results can be displayed with this function. Test results will be overwritten once a new test is started.

TO RUN THE PROGRAM:

BACK UP DATA:

Before running DLGDIAG, it is recommended that users back up all data for all hard drives. This utility may write to the drive during the re-certification process. As with all utilities that write to a drive, it is recommended that you back up your data before proceeding.

TO TEST EACH DRIVE:

Double click on one of the physical drives in the list to see the test menu. Select a test and click on Start button to start the test. At the end of the test a status is displayed. For the EXTENDED TEST, if bad sectors are detected, a repair option will be provided to fix any correctable errors. However, data stored in the bad sectors will be lost, thus this function must be used very cautiously. WD also offers a DOS version of DLGDIAG, which provides a better repair function. It can be downloaded from WD web site and used to repair certain errors that are not correctable under Windows environment.

The SMART status is queried and displayed when the program starts. The SMART status can be PASS, FAIL or Not Available. Click on the SMART status column to see detailed SMART disk information.

TO UNINSTALL THE PROGRAM:

DLGDIAG can be removed using Add/Remove programs feature in the Control Panel.

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 support.wdc.com or at (800) 275-4932 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.