First Time Users

HDtest is a powerfull tool that provides the user with a
great deal of flexibility in testing hard disks on a wide
variety of computer systems. In order to accomplish this
HDtest is dependent on some environment variables within the
computer system.

HDtest should be run in a stand alone environment. That
means all TSR's and disk cache programs should be removed
first.

The safest way to accomplish this is to format a DOS system
floppy, copy HDtest.exe to that floppy, re-boot the system
and run HDtest from the floppy.

HDtest will work with RLL and ST506 drives ONLY. It has not
been tested with ESDI drives on the XT or AT and WILL NOT
work with PS/2 ESDI drives.

The BIOS must be 100 percent compatibile with IBM's BIOS.

HDtest is dependent on the drive parameters to be correct.
If the drive parameters displayed at the bottom of the
screen are NOT correct the program will not function
correctly. You need to correct the drive parameters before
proceeding.

Since introduction of the orginal XT there have been many
new hard disk controllers. For that reason HDtest will
support the xt only through the BIOS. This means that you
will not be able to modify the drive parameters on the
xt.

The diagnostic cylinder is defined as the last cylinder on
the drive for the XT and AT and the next to last cylinder
for the PS/2. This cylinder is used to perform all writes.
If the drive parameters are incorrect you could destroy live
data on the drive.

You should read the entire documentation before executing HDtest.