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What software for DOS/9x can test whether data can be written across an entire disk without errors?

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First post, by Kahenraz

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What software is available that can write to an entire disk and verify that the data can be read back correctly? The use case is to test for errors that may exist with drive controllers when handling disks larger than what existed at the time.

This would be similar to tools that write to a flash drive and then verify the data to check for fake flash drives where data is written in a circular manner that overwrites itself.

This is specific to DOS and Windows 9x and not the media itself which is already known to be good. The purpose is to test whether the drive controller and drivers are working correctly on these older operating systems.

Reply 2 of 12, by Caluser2000

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If the hardware is known to be good why even bother?

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Reply 3 of 12, by Kahenraz

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Because I don't know if there is an issue writing past certain disk size milestones like 8GB.

Reply 4 of 12, by darry

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Why not fill the disk with identical files of, for example, 500MB each and then run scandisk and/or chkdsk and, for added assurance, run a checksum on each of the said files ?

Reply 5 of 12, by Jo22

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HDTune has a surface check..

Older versions may run on Win9x+KernelEx.

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Reply 6 of 12, by cyclone3d

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Format (drive letter) /u

Edit:
If you want to fill the drive, you can always combine a bunch of files into a single file... Rinse / repeat until the drive is full.
https://www.online-tech-tips.com/free-softwar … ine-text-files/

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Reply 7 of 12, by Caluser2000

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I thought stuff like this was done a few decades ago?

There's a glitch in the matrix.
A founding member of the 286 appreciation society.
Apparently 32-bit is dead and nobody likes P4s.
Of course, as always, I'm open to correction...😉

Reply 8 of 12, by cyclone3d

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I don't know of any software that fills a drive and then tests the ability to read the data back... At least not for DOS / Win9x.

If the controller properly detects the drive and it is able to be partitioned and formatted then it really should be fine.

For stuff past a certain size is what LBA is for. That is pretty much dependant on the BIOS of the motherboard or controller card.

I would love to see a case or cases where the drive is detected and formats properly but the controller, which is known to not be faulty, has an issue writing/reading past a certain point on a partition.

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Reply 9 of 12, by weedeewee

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I don't know of any software that has the same functionality like the h2test/h2testw program that currently exists to test for fake USB/SSD/flash/... drives on plain DOS.

All the other suggestions that are listed up to here are pretty much useless in that regard.

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Reply 10 of 12, by Kahenraz

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h2test/h2testw was exactly what I was thinking but for DOS.

Reply 12 of 12, by Jo22

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cyclone3d wrote on 2021-08-18, 06:08:

I don't know of any software that fills a drive and then tests the ability to read the data back... At least not for DOS / Win9x.

This reminds me of Defrag or Compress from DOS.
It moves around all kinds of data (read/write).
But it's not a diagnostic utility. That would be CheckIt rather.

I'm not sure if it is helpful, but there are programs for DOS/Windows that create a file that grows and grows until the whole HDD partition is used up.
- CCleaner (Win only)
- "Bigfile", Wipefree and Wipefile: https://www.uwe-sieber.de/util_e.html

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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