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    Tool to check HD for warranty replacement?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by ColMaki, Sep 14, 2010.

  1. ColMaki

    ColMaki Notebook Consultant

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    I suspect in some weird sound from my hard drive. is there a tool that could reliably tell me whats the status of the hard drive so I could replace it if necessary within warranty? will warranty covers an HD that still works or only dead HD's?
     
  2. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

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    Download HDTune (link in my signature; either Pro or Free versions are fine) and open the Drive Health (SMART) tab and see if there are any irregularities in the SMART data. If so, that could indicate a faulty hard drive.
     
  3. vimvq1987

    vimvq1987 Notebook Consultant

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    Lenovo service centers only believe their ThinkVantage tool :(
     
  4. lead_org

    lead_org Purveyor of Truth

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    run the PC-Doctor DOS program

    Lenovo Support & downloads - PC Doctor for DOS bootable CD - ThinkPad

    the IBM tech support engineer needs to get an absolute confirmation on the hdd failure, i.e. error codes that are reported before they can send out the new hdd.

    This ensures that people don't claim warranty on hdd when there is only software issues (which occurs a lot of time).

    Lenovo directive to IBM is 'failure replacement', if something doesn't fail or fail due to user fault, then there is no replacement within warranty. I guess this gives Lenovo a cap on the cost of warranty repair.
     
  5. vinuneuro

    vinuneuro Notebook Virtuoso

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    HD Tune's smart status breakdown is a great tool for advanced failure notice imo. It gave me warning well before System Toolbox (PC-Doctor) did, and the drive did fail.

    My T400 came with the 160gb model of the Fujitsu hdd that failed in my T60. And hdtune gave the exact same failure mode on that one too with less than 20hrs on it. I called Tech Support and told them what was going on and what happened last time. They sent the replacement no questions asked even though it hadn't become terminal and PC-Doctor hadn't failed it yet.
     
  6. lead_org

    lead_org Purveyor of Truth

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    whether a tech support person takes other software failure warning seriously depend on their personal experiences, and how well you can articulate it to them.
     
  7. ColMaki

    ColMaki Notebook Consultant

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    that's what HD tune PRO shows me:

    [​IMG]

    I will run pc doctor later. It takes some time when they don't have a usb version..