Hardware Diagnostics

[Trusted IT Solutions]

Originally Posted by PCX

Also, you will want to do this in Linux, not Windows.

Is Gsmartcontrol less effective at diagnosing a HDD if run within Windows?

[PCX]

Originally Posted by Trusted IT Solutions

Is Gsmartcontrol less effective at diagnosing a HDD if run within Windows?

No, but can you imagine plugging in a bunch of of virus infected hard drives into windows? I mean, you may be able to do it in Safe Mode, but why not have one Linux box dedicated to HDD diagnostics and then leave your Windows machine open for other things?

I don't know, it just never made any sense to do it in Windows. Here are some advantages.

- You do not have to worry about viruses
- Linux handles corrupted files system better, so no windows constantly popping up about formatting the drive.
- If the hard drive is failing, you can immediately backup their info without switching to another computer. Backing up information on Linux makes way more sense than doing it on Windows for many many reasons. Also, if the file system is corrupted, many times Linux can get to the data regardless of that, whereas Windows will choke on the drive many times and you will have to do a chkdsk on a failing hard drive. When it comes to failing hard drives, time is precious. With that said, I will not discredit the need for things like FABs, which is is windows based. But if the HDD is failing, you want to target their important information first, confirm its backed up and then get the rest with FABs if you need too. I do wish FABS had a version for Linux though.


Anyways, these are just a few reasons why you should do it in linux. Also, these are some of my trade secrets, I do not know of one tech is also doing HDD diagnostics like this . . . so enjoy it, I wont be going over this particular process again.

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

I use gsmartcontrol on my bench machine which is a linux host. Then if I need to do anything in Windows I have a Win 7 VM on the same box. Seems to be the best of both worlds. I had a thread on it here not too long ago.

[PCX]

Originally Posted by Slaters Kustum Machines

I use gsmartcontrol on my bench machine which is a linux host. Then if I need to do anything in Windows I have a Win 7 VM on the same box. Seems to be the best of both worlds. I had a thread on it here not too long ago.

Yep, another smart thing that most techs are not doing.

The biggest thing that techs are not doing is testing multiple HDDs at the same time on one machine so that they can run other tests like memtest on each clients machine.

[Trusted IT Solutions]

Originally Posted by PCX

No, but can you imagine plugging in a bunch of of virus infected hard drives into windows? I mean, you may be able to do it in Safe Mode, but why not have one Linux box dedicated to HDD diagnostics and then leave your Windows machine open for other things?

I don't know, it just never made any sense to do it in Windows. Here are some advantages.

- You do not have to worry about viruses
- Linux handles corrupted files system better, so no windows constantly popping up about formatting the drive.
- If the hard drive is failing, you can immediately backup their info without switching to another computer. Backing up information on Linux makes way more sense than doing it on Windows for many many reasons. Also, if the file system is corrupted, many times Linux can get to the data regardless of that, whereas Windows will choke on the drive many times and you will have to do a chkdsk on a failing hard drive. When it comes to failing hard drives, time is precious. With that said, I will not discredit the need for things like FABs, which is is windows based. But if the HDD is failing, you want to target their important information first, confirm its backed up and then get the rest with FABs if you need too. I do wish FABS had a version for Linux though.


Anyways, these are just a few reasons why you should do it in linux. Also, these are some of my trade secrets, I do not know of one tech is also doing HDD diagnostics like this . . . so enjoy it, I wont be going over this particular process again.

Thanks for the (privileged) info. The reason I ask is that I am a super noob when it comes to Linux. I guess now is as good a time as any to get serious about learning to use it. One last question...can a virus on a VM infect the host machine? I assume yes but I would like to confirm my suspicion. Thanks.

[SpeedWise]

If you do not know Linux and need a quick way to run gsmartcontrol, clonezilla, photorec, and much more then check out the Parted Magic live cd.

It is best to have a dedicated box, but live CDs are good if you do not have the resources.

[Trusted IT Solutions]

Originally Posted by SpeedWise

If you do not know Linux and need a quick way to run gsmartcontrol, clonezilla, photorec, and much more then check out the Parted Magic live cd.

It is best to have a dedicated box, but live CDs are good if you do not have the resources.

I was looking at the website for Gsmartcontrol earlier and saw that it is included in the Parted Magic disc. Good to know. Thanks.

[iisjman07]

Originally Posted by Trusted IT Solutions

can a virus on a VM infect the host machine? I assume yes but I would like to confirm my suspicion. Thanks.

At the time of writing, I don't believe there is any malware that can 'break out' of it's virtual machine and infect the host. There's definitely malware that can detect it's being run in a VM (such as conficker variants), but all they do is automatically terminate to try and prevent people studying them.

[Slaters Kustum Machines]

Originally Posted by Trusted IT Solutions

Thanks for the (privileged) info. The reason I ask is that I am a super noob when it comes to Linux. I guess now is as good a time as any to get serious about learning to use it. One last question...can a virus on a VM infect the host machine? I assume yes but I would like to confirm my suspicion. Thanks.

It could be possible if folder sharing is on your you set the network to host only, but pretty unlikely. Although too avoid this I use Ubuntu as my host on my bench machine to "almost" entirely avoid this as nothing is 100% secure unless you unplug the power cord, but you get the point. Plus with a VM once you have it setup you can create a "snapshot" which is basically a complete image that can be restored in seconds whether your VM gets infected or you just feel better reverting to a clean slate after every job.

[PCX]

Originally Posted by Slaters Kustum Machines

It could be possible if folder sharing is on your you set the network to host only, but pretty unlikely. Although too avoid this I use Ubuntu as my host on my bench machine to "almost" entirely avoid this as nothing is 100% secure unless you unplug the power cord, but you get the point. Plus with a VM once you have it setup you can create a "snapshot" which is basically a complete image that can be restored in seconds whether your VM gets infected or you just feel better reverting to a clean slate after every job.

Yeah, if you share folder with Windows, am certain you can infect the host. This is exactly why you should use Linux as the host. Snap shots as SKM suggested is the way to go if the the Windows side gets crapped up.