ÿI have enclosed a copy of protect.com, a Hard Disk write protect simulator,
please run it or any other you prefer before executing either of the short
test programs included. The author claims they are passive. Caution is
always prudent with a Hard Disk.

Also beware that performance test on hard drives generally push cheaper
drives and controllers to the edge. If you notice a drastic reduction in
transfer rate after executing a performance test park your heads (ignore
if yours are autoparking), get back to the DOS prompt, and turn off your
computer (not just reset), wait a couple of minutes to let everything
stop spinning, and power up again. Your performance will be restored.
Quirks develop in bios stored in RAM and occasionally the controller
may loose its place when making long reads (over 400k away) exceeding
DMA limits, while testing your disk.

Remember to write protect and nothing will penetrate your data.

One final thing that is not directly related to these test....
Interleave testers that reformat and test the interleave on Hard Disks
by using the BIOS test track (generally the last track) can cause great
performance problems if your controller stores its setup and operating
info here (i.e. number of cylinders, heads, write current, landing zone
 pre-comp, and so on). Some programs do not restore the data properly to
the BIOS cylinder. So if the controller ever needs to retrieve the data 
it may not be there or worse it may be very wrong!.

Remember to protect yourself and your Hard Disk.

              signed---a UTILITY freak....