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Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive

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  Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Celejar <celejar@gmail.com> - 2020-10-20 19:20 +0200
    Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Reco <recoverym4n@enotuniq.net> - 2020-10-20 19:50 +0200
      Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Celejar <celejar@gmail.com> - 2020-10-21 03:20 +0200
        Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Reco <recoverym4n@enotuniq.net> - 2020-10-21 08:00 +0200
          Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2020-10-21 15:10 +0200
            Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Celejar <celejar@gmail.com> - 2020-10-21 17:10 +0200
          Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Celejar <celejar@gmail.com> - 2020-10-21 17:10 +0200
            Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2020-10-21 17:20 +0200
              Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Celejar <celejar@gmail.com> - 2020-10-21 19:00 +0200
                Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2020-10-21 19:10 +0200
                  Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Celejar <celejar@gmail.com> - 2020-10-21 19:50 +0200
                    Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2020-10-21 20:10 +0200
                      Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Celejar <celejar@gmail.com> - 2020-10-21 20:20 +0200
                        Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> - 2020-10-21 20:30 +0200
                      Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> - 2020-10-21 23:00 +0200
                        Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Celejar <celejar@gmail.com> - 2020-10-22 03:40 +0200
            Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive David <bouncingcats@gmail.com> - 2020-10-21 23:50 +0200
              Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive David <bouncingcats@gmail.com> - 2020-10-22 01:40 +0200
                Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Celejar <celejar@gmail.com> - 2020-10-23 14:40 +0200
              Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive David <bouncingcats@gmail.com> - 2020-10-22 03:40 +0200
              Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Celejar <celejar@gmail.com> - 2020-10-22 03:40 +0200
    Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Stefan Monnier <monnier@iro.umontreal.ca> - 2020-10-20 21:30 +0200
      Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Celejar <celejar@gmail.com> - 2020-10-21 02:40 +0200
    Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Curt <curty@free.fr> - 2020-10-22 15:50 +0200
      Re: Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive Celejar <celejar@gmail.com> - 2020-10-22 16:10 +0200

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#228032 — Running HGST's DFT utility from a flash drive

Hi,

I'm tearing my hair out trying to get HGST's Drive Fitness Test utility
to run:

https://www1.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT

HGST provides an ISO meant for burning to CD, and an IMG meant for
burning to floppy disk. I don't have writable CDs or a floppy drive, so
I'm trying to get the software to run off a USB flash drive. I've tried
so many different things and wasted so much time, but have still not
succeeded:

1) Copying the IMG straight to a flash drive:

"Non-System disk or disk error
Replace and press any key when ready"

2) Copying the ISO straight to a flash drive:

The system fails to boot from it, and tries other booting options.

3) Running isohybrid on the ISO image:

isohybrid: dft.iso: unexpected boot catalogue parameters

3) Getting an image out of the ISO with:

geteltorito dft-xxx.iso  > dft.img

and copying that to the flash drive:

(as per the suggestion here:

https://johnleach.co.uk/posts/2014/03/01/booting-thinkpad-firmware-updater-from-a-usb-key/
https://askubuntu.com/questions/859202/make-a-bootable-image-on-a-removable-flash-drive-of-lenovos-ssd-firmware-update )

"Non-system disk ..."

(FWIW, although 'isoinfo' says that the DFT ISO file does contain an El
Torito VD, the ISO image when mounted is not empty, as those posts say
theirs are.)

4) Booting from UBCD, burned to a flash drive, and then running DFT:

I get the same errors described here:

https://www.ultimatebootcd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2528

And so, I turn to the list for help: I don't have a really good
understanding of the boot process in general, and things like syslinux
and isohybrid in particular, but is there a general way to get a
bootable CD ISO image to boot off a flash drive? Alternatively, has
anyone managed to get HGST's DFT to run off a flash drive? Any
suggestions for what I should be doing here?

Thanks in advance,

Celejar

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#228033

On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 01:15:48PM -0400, Celejar wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm tearing my hair out trying to get HGST's Drive Fitness Test utility
> to run:
...
> I've tried so many different things and wasted so much time, but have
> still not succeeded:
> 
> 1) Copying the IMG straight to a flash drive:

Boot the thing via PXE. Syslinux can emulate a floppy from it's image
(memdisk module).

Reco

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#228048

On Tue, 20 Oct 2020 20:46:20 +0300
Reco <recoverym4n@enotuniq.net> wrote:

> On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 01:15:48PM -0400, Celejar wrote:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > I'm tearing my hair out trying to get HGST's Drive Fitness Test utility
> > to run:
> ...
> > I've tried so many different things and wasted so much time, but have
> > still not succeeded:
> > 
> > 1) Copying the IMG straight to a flash drive:
> 
> Boot the thing via PXE. Syslinux can emulate a floppy from it's image
> (memdisk module).

I had started thinking about PXE after my initial post. I tried PXE
(from my OpenWrt router) - it was actually fairly easy to setup,
following the guide here:

https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/tftp.pxe-server

And the thing actually runs! But I get the same errors described here :(

https://www.ultimatebootcd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2528

To be more precise, here's what I get:

**********

HIMEM: DOS XMS Driver, Version 3.15 - 05/30/94
Extended Memory Specification (XMS) Version 3.0
Copyright (C) IBM Corp. 1988, 1994

ERROR: Unable to control A20 line!
	XMS Driver not installed.

IBM RAMDrive version 3.10 virtual disk C:
RAMDrive: Extended Memory Manager not present
HMA not available: Loading DOS low
Microsoft (R) Mouse Driver Version 8.20
Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp. 1983-1992.
Copyright (C) IBM Corp. 1992-1993.
Mouse driver installed
Loading DFT ...

Insert diskette for drive B: and press any key when ready

<keypress>

Error RAMDRIVE not found or wrong RAMDRIVE size.

Insert diskette for drive A: and press any key when ready

<keypress>

A:\DFT>

**********

and that's it. Is this just a limitation of memdisk's emulation? Any
further ideas?

Celejar

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#228056

	Hi.

On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 09:10:48PM -0400, Celejar wrote:
> On Tue, 20 Oct 2020 20:46:20 +0300
> Reco <recoverym4n@enotuniq.net> wrote:
> 
> > On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 01:15:48PM -0400, Celejar wrote:
> > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > I'm tearing my hair out trying to get HGST's Drive Fitness Test utility
> > > to run:
> > ...
> > > I've tried so many different things and wasted so much time, but have
> > > still not succeeded:
> > > 
> > > 1) Copying the IMG straight to a flash drive:
> > 
> > Boot the thing via PXE. Syslinux can emulate a floppy from it's image
> > (memdisk module).
> 
> I had started thinking about PXE after my initial post. I tried PXE
> (from my OpenWrt router) - it was actually fairly easy to setup,
> following the guide here:
> 
> https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/tftp.pxe-server
> 
> And the thing actually runs! But I get the same errors described here :(
> 
> https://www.ultimatebootcd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2528
> 
> To be more precise, here's what I get:
> 
> **********
> 
> HIMEM: DOS XMS Driver, Version 3.15 - 05/30/94
> Extended Memory Specification (XMS) Version 3.0
> Copyright (C) IBM Corp. 1988, 1994
> 
> ERROR: Unable to control A20 line!
> 	XMS Driver not installed.
> 
> IBM RAMDrive version 3.10 virtual disk C:
> RAMDrive: Extended Memory Manager not present
> HMA not available: Loading DOS low
> Microsoft (R) Mouse Driver Version 8.20
> Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp. 1983-1992.
> Copyright (C) IBM Corp. 1992-1993.
> Mouse driver installed
> Loading DFT ...
> 
> Insert diskette for drive B: and press any key when ready
> 
> <keypress>
> 
> Error RAMDRIVE not found or wrong RAMDRIVE size.
> 
> Insert diskette for drive A: and press any key when ready
> 
> <keypress>
> 
> A:\DFT>
> 
> **********
> 
> and that's it. Is this just a limitation of memdisk's emulation? Any
> further ideas?

Hm. Aren't you supposed to execute something from that A:\DFT directory?
I mean, it booted, successfully mapped memdisk to A:, all is left to
execute an appropriate .COM/.EXE.

Reco

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#228064

Reco wrote: 
> 	Hi.
> 
> On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 09:10:48PM -0400, Celejar wrote:
> > I had started thinking about PXE after my initial post. I tried PXE
> > (from my OpenWrt router) - it was actually fairly easy to setup,
> > following the guide here:
> > 
> > https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/tftp.pxe-server
> > 
> > And the thing actually runs! But I get the same errors described here :(
> > 
> > https://www.ultimatebootcd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2528
> > 
> > To be more precise, here's what I get:
> > 
> > **********
> > 
> > HIMEM: DOS XMS Driver, Version 3.15 - 05/30/94
> > Extended Memory Specification (XMS) Version 3.0
> > Copyright (C) IBM Corp. 1988, 1994
> > 
> > ERROR: Unable to control A20 line!
> > 	XMS Driver not installed.
> > 
> > IBM RAMDrive version 3.10 virtual disk C:
> > RAMDrive: Extended Memory Manager not present
> > HMA not available: Loading DOS low
> > Microsoft (R) Mouse Driver Version 8.20
> > Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp. 1983-1992.
> > Copyright (C) IBM Corp. 1992-1993.
> > Mouse driver installed
> > Loading DFT ...
> > 
> > Insert diskette for drive B: and press any key when ready
> > 
> > <keypress>
> > 
> > Error RAMDRIVE not found or wrong RAMDRIVE size.
> > 
> > Insert diskette for drive A: and press any key when ready
> > 
> > <keypress>
> > 
> > A:\DFT>
> > 
> > **********
> > 
> > and that's it. Is this just a limitation of memdisk's emulation? Any
> > further ideas?
> 
> Hm. Aren't you supposed to execute something from that A:\DFT directory?
> I mean, it booted, successfully mapped memdisk to A:, all is left to
> execute an appropriate .COM/.EXE.

As Reco says: that's a success. You're in a DOS command-line
environment.

New experience: I've never explained DOS commands in terms of
shell commands before; it's always been the other way around.

UNIX systems have a single root; DOS systems have a root on each
filesystem, and filesystems are identified by a letter followed
by a colon. Traditionally A: and B: are removable media and C:
is a hard disk, but it's not mandatory.

Change to a different filesystem root by typing the letter
followed by a colon

        c:

ls      dir         (you want /p for paginate)
cd      chdir       (later versions allow you to substitute cd)
fsck    chkdisk
reset   cls         clear screen
rm      del
cp      copy
cp -r   xcopy       

Go find the executable you need and run it by just typing its
name or its path. Remember the slashes are backwards.

-dsr-

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#228069

On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 09:04:12 -0400
Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:

> Reco wrote: 
> > 	Hi.
> > 
> > On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 09:10:48PM -0400, Celejar wrote:
> > > I had started thinking about PXE after my initial post. I tried PXE
> > > (from my OpenWrt router) - it was actually fairly easy to setup,
> > > following the guide here:
> > > 
> > > https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/tftp.pxe-server
> > > 
> > > And the thing actually runs! But I get the same errors described here :(
> > > 
> > > https://www.ultimatebootcd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2528
> > > 
> > > To be more precise, here's what I get:
> > > 
> > > **********
> > > 
> > > HIMEM: DOS XMS Driver, Version 3.15 - 05/30/94
> > > Extended Memory Specification (XMS) Version 3.0
> > > Copyright (C) IBM Corp. 1988, 1994
> > > 
> > > ERROR: Unable to control A20 line!
> > > 	XMS Driver not installed.
> > > 
> > > IBM RAMDrive version 3.10 virtual disk C:
> > > RAMDrive: Extended Memory Manager not present
> > > HMA not available: Loading DOS low
> > > Microsoft (R) Mouse Driver Version 8.20
> > > Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp. 1983-1992.
> > > Copyright (C) IBM Corp. 1992-1993.
> > > Mouse driver installed
> > > Loading DFT ...
> > > 
> > > Insert diskette for drive B: and press any key when ready
> > > 
> > > <keypress>
> > > 
> > > Error RAMDRIVE not found or wrong RAMDRIVE size.
> > > 
> > > Insert diskette for drive A: and press any key when ready
> > > 
> > > <keypress>
> > > 
> > > A:\DFT>
> > > 
> > > **********
> > > 
> > > and that's it. Is this just a limitation of memdisk's emulation? Any
> > > further ideas?
> > 
> > Hm. Aren't you supposed to execute something from that A:\DFT directory?
> > I mean, it booted, successfully mapped memdisk to A:, all is left to
> > execute an appropriate .COM/.EXE.
> 
> As Reco says: that's a success. You're in a DOS command-line
> environment.
> 
> New experience: I've never explained DOS commands in terms of
> shell commands before; it's always been the other way around.
> 
> UNIX systems have a single root; DOS systems have a root on each
> filesystem, and filesystems are identified by a letter followed
> by a colon. Traditionally A: and B: are removable media and C:
> is a hard disk, but it's not mandatory.

Thanks - I've used DOS before, and I'm somewhat familiar with its basic
use.

> Change to a different filesystem root by typing the letter
> followed by a colon
> 
>         c:
> 
> ls      dir         (you want /p for paginate)
> cd      chdir       (later versions allow you to substitute cd)
> fsck    chkdisk
> reset   cls         clear screen
> rm      del
> cp      copy
> cp -r   xcopy       
> 
> Go find the executable you need and run it by just typing its
> name or its path. Remember the slashes are backwards.

Thanks, but as I've described in more detail in my email to Reco, none
of the executables in either A: or B: work, and according to the
manual, none of them should need to be executed manually - the thing is
supposed to continue from its initial menu screen to its actual
operation, but instead it's bailing with the errors shown.

Thank you again,

Celejar

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#228068

On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 08:55:20 +0300
Reco <recoverym4n@enotuniq.net> wrote:

> 	Hi.
> 
> On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 09:10:48PM -0400, Celejar wrote:
> > On Tue, 20 Oct 2020 20:46:20 +0300
> > Reco <recoverym4n@enotuniq.net> wrote:
> > 
> > > On Tue, Oct 20, 2020 at 01:15:48PM -0400, Celejar wrote:
> > > > Hi,
> > > > 
> > > > I'm tearing my hair out trying to get HGST's Drive Fitness Test utility
> > > > to run:
> > > ...
> > > > I've tried so many different things and wasted so much time, but have
> > > > still not succeeded:
> > > > 
> > > > 1) Copying the IMG straight to a flash drive:
> > > 
> > > Boot the thing via PXE. Syslinux can emulate a floppy from it's image
> > > (memdisk module).
> > 
> > I had started thinking about PXE after my initial post. I tried PXE
> > (from my OpenWrt router) - it was actually fairly easy to setup,
> > following the guide here:
> > 
> > https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/services/tftp.pxe-server
> > 
> > And the thing actually runs! But I get the same errors described here :(
> > 
> > https://www.ultimatebootcd.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2528
> > 
> > To be more precise, here's what I get:
> > 
> > **********
> > 
> > HIMEM: DOS XMS Driver, Version 3.15 - 05/30/94
> > Extended Memory Specification (XMS) Version 3.0
> > Copyright (C) IBM Corp. 1988, 1994
> > 
> > ERROR: Unable to control A20 line!
> > 	XMS Driver not installed.
> > 
> > IBM RAMDrive version 3.10 virtual disk C:
> > RAMDrive: Extended Memory Manager not present
> > HMA not available: Loading DOS low
> > Microsoft (R) Mouse Driver Version 8.20
> > Copyright (C) Microsoft Corp. 1983-1992.
> > Copyright (C) IBM Corp. 1992-1993.
> > Mouse driver installed
> > Loading DFT ...
> > 
> > Insert diskette for drive B: and press any key when ready
> > 
> > <keypress>
> > 
> > Error RAMDRIVE not found or wrong RAMDRIVE size.
> > 
> > Insert diskette for drive A: and press any key when ready
> > 
> > <keypress>
> > 
> > A:\DFT>
> > 
> > **********
> > 
> > and that's it. Is this just a limitation of memdisk's emulation? Any
> > further ideas?
> 
> Hm. Aren't you supposed to execute something from that A:\DFT directory?
> I mean, it booted, successfully mapped memdisk to A:, all is left to
> execute an appropriate .COM/.EXE.

I should have been a bit more precise - when the thing boots, some
software is started, and I get the menu described on p. 7 of the User's
Guide:

https://www1.hgst.com/hdd/support/downloads/Dft32_User_Guide_415.pdf

According to the manual, after I make the menu selection, "DFT will
load automatically and present you with the License Agreement as shown
below: ..." but this is where the thing bails and drops me to the
screen above.

I poked around a bit, but was unable to get anything to run:

'dir' shows two files: DFT-V300.EXE and LOADDFT.EXE. The latter
returns: "Error: Missing parameter." The former returns:

PKSFX (R) FAST! Self Extract Utility Version 2.50 03-01-1999
Copr. 1989-1999 PKWARE Inc. All Rights Reserved. Registered Version
PKSFX Reg. U.S. Pat. and Tm. Off.

Searching EXE: A:/DFT/DFT-V300.EXE
	Inflating: CleanDsk.PID
	Inflating: CleanMBR.PID
	Inflating: DFT.EXE
PXSFX: (E50) Disk Full, file: *

A:\DFT>

I switched to disk B: 'dir' shows four files: the two in A:, and
CLEANDSK.PID and CLEANMBR.PID. Running DFT-v300 gives the same error
(after warnings about overwriting the two *.PID files), and running
LOADDFT also gives the same error as above.

I understand that no one here can be expected to support this
ridiculously crufty proprietary closed source software. I'm just
wondering whether there's any FLOSS solution to emulate the actual
environment the thing expects closely enough for it to work.

Thanks,
Celejar

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#228070

Celejar wrote: 
> On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 08:55:20 +0300
> Reco <recoverym4n@enotuniq.net> wrote:
> 
> According to the manual, after I make the menu selection, "DFT will
> load automatically and present you with the License Agreement as shown
> below: ..." but this is where the thing bails and drops me to the
> screen above.
> 
> I poked around a bit, but was unable to get anything to run:
> 
> 'dir' shows two files: DFT-V300.EXE and LOADDFT.EXE. The latter
> returns: "Error: Missing parameter." The former returns:
> 
> PKSFX (R) FAST! Self Extract Utility Version 2.50 03-01-1999
> Copr. 1989-1999 PKWARE Inc. All Rights Reserved. Registered Version
> PKSFX Reg. U.S. Pat. and Tm. Off.
> 
> Searching EXE: A:/DFT/DFT-V300.EXE
> 	Inflating: CleanDsk.PID
> 	Inflating: CleanMBR.PID
> 	Inflating: DFT.EXE
> PXSFX: (E50) Disk Full, file: *
> 
> A:\DFT>
> 
> I switched to disk B: 'dir' shows four files: the two in A:, and
> CLEANDSK.PID and CLEANMBR.PID. Running DFT-v300 gives the same error
> (after warnings about overwriting the two *.PID files), and running
> LOADDFT also gives the same error as above.

Suggestion: mount the image as a loopback on your Linux system,
extract the DFT.EXE (the DFT-V300.EXE is almost certainly a ZIP
file that unzip can process), and then run it in a FreeDos boot.

http://www.freedos.org/

-dsr-

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#228073

On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 11:15:40 -0400
Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:

> Celejar wrote: 
> > On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 08:55:20 +0300
> > Reco <recoverym4n@enotuniq.net> wrote:
> > 
> > According to the manual, after I make the menu selection, "DFT will
> > load automatically and present you with the License Agreement as shown
> > below: ..." but this is where the thing bails and drops me to the
> > screen above.
> > 
> > I poked around a bit, but was unable to get anything to run:
> > 
> > 'dir' shows two files: DFT-V300.EXE and LOADDFT.EXE. The latter
> > returns: "Error: Missing parameter." The former returns:
> > 
> > PKSFX (R) FAST! Self Extract Utility Version 2.50 03-01-1999
> > Copr. 1989-1999 PKWARE Inc. All Rights Reserved. Registered Version
> > PKSFX Reg. U.S. Pat. and Tm. Off.
> > 
> > Searching EXE: A:/DFT/DFT-V300.EXE
> > 	Inflating: CleanDsk.PID
> > 	Inflating: CleanMBR.PID
> > 	Inflating: DFT.EXE
> > PXSFX: (E50) Disk Full, file: *
> > 
> > A:\DFT>
> > 
> > I switched to disk B: 'dir' shows four files: the two in A:, and
> > CLEANDSK.PID and CLEANMBR.PID. Running DFT-v300 gives the same error
> > (after warnings about overwriting the two *.PID files), and running
> > LOADDFT also gives the same error as above.
> 
> Suggestion: mount the image as a loopback on your Linux system,
> extract the DFT.EXE (the DFT-V300.EXE is almost certainly a ZIP
> file that unzip can process), and then run it in a FreeDos boot.
> 
> http://www.freedos.org/

Thanks much! We're almost there (perhaps). I followed the instructions
here:

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Flashing_BIOS_from_Linux#Using_a_FreeDOS-provided_Disk_Image_+_USB_stick_on_Linux

and made a FreeDos installer USB stick and put DFT on it. It actually
runs (although it skips the opening menu that comes up when booting the
disk image itself (via PXE or the UBCD image)), but it fails to find
any disks on the system :(. I don't know if that's a problem with
the way I'm running it, or some problem with my system configuration
(UEFI / BIOS, etc.) I tried changing the SATA controller mode from RAID
to IDE, but it didn't help.

I tried running DFT.EXE two different ways: the way you suggested, by
extracting it from DFT-V300.EXE on my Debian system and putting it
manually onto the FreeDos USB drive, and by putting DFT-V300.EXE on the
FreeDos drive and running it from within FreeDos to extract DFT.EXE. I
got the same result of no disk found both ways. Note that I'm pretty
sure that the disk is alive - I've been waiting to actually start
using it until I can run some checks on it, but it does respond
properly to S.M.A.R.T. queries.

Thanks again. Any further suggestions?

Celejar

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#228074

Celejar wrote: 
> On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 11:15:40 -0400
> https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Flashing_BIOS_from_Linux#Using_a_FreeDOS-provided_Disk_Image_+_USB_stick_on_Linux
> 
> and made a FreeDos installer USB stick and put DFT on it. It actually
> runs (although it skips the opening menu that comes up when booting the
> disk image itself (via PXE or the UBCD image)), but it fails to find
> any disks on the system :(. I don't know if that's a problem with
> the way I'm running it, or some problem with my system configuration
> (UEFI / BIOS, etc.) I tried changing the SATA controller mode from RAID
> to IDE, but it didn't help.

A disk behind a weird SATA controller that sometimes thinks it's
a RAID controller? That's going to be problematic.

> extracting it from DFT-V300.EXE on my Debian system and putting it
> manually onto the FreeDos USB drive, and by putting DFT-V300.EXE on the
> FreeDos drive and running it from within FreeDos to extract DFT.EXE. I
> got the same result of no disk found both ways. Note that I'm pretty
> sure that the disk is alive - I've been waiting to actually start
> using it until I can run some checks on it, but it does respond
> properly to S.M.A.R.T. queries.
> 
> Thanks again. Any further suggestions?

Let's go back to: what are you trying to accomplish? Do you have
a new disk that you're trying to qualify in some way, or an old
disk that may have failed and you want to send in for warranty
replacement, or what?

-dsr-

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#228077

On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 13:00:11 -0400
Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:

> Celejar wrote: 
> > On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 11:15:40 -0400
> > https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Flashing_BIOS_from_Linux#Using_a_FreeDOS-provided_Disk_Image_+_USB_stick_on_Linux
> > 
> > and made a FreeDos installer USB stick and put DFT on it. It actually
> > runs (although it skips the opening menu that comes up when booting the
> > disk image itself (via PXE or the UBCD image)), but it fails to find
> > any disks on the system :(. I don't know if that's a problem with
> > the way I'm running it, or some problem with my system configuration
> > (UEFI / BIOS, etc.) I tried changing the SATA controller mode from RAID
> > to IDE, but it didn't help.
> 
> A disk behind a weird SATA controller that sometimes thinks it's
> a RAID controller? That's going to be problematic.

This is an HP Z440 workstation. I don't know much about these things,
but this is apparently standard HP design:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02961221#AbT1
http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04823811 (p. 108)

> > extracting it from DFT-V300.EXE on my Debian system and putting it
> > manually onto the FreeDos USB drive, and by putting DFT-V300.EXE on the
> > FreeDos drive and running it from within FreeDos to extract DFT.EXE. I
> > got the same result of no disk found both ways. Note that I'm pretty
> > sure that the disk is alive - I've been waiting to actually start
> > using it until I can run some checks on it, but it does respond
> > properly to S.M.A.R.T. queries.
> > 
> > Thanks again. Any further suggestions?
> 
> Let's go back to: what are you trying to accomplish? Do you have
> a new disk that you're trying to qualify in some way, or an old
> disk that may have failed and you want to send in for warranty
> replacement, or what?

A "refurbished" HGST Ultrastar, almost certainly a server pull,
purchased on eBay. Originally, I just wanted to verify the health of
the disk, and to do so "by the book" (I can always just run badblocks
and call it a day), but now I'm intrigued, I suppose, by the
challenge ;/

Celejar

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#228079

Celejar wrote: 
> On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 13:00:11 -0400
> Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:
> 
> > Celejar wrote: 
> > > On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 11:15:40 -0400
> > > https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Flashing_BIOS_from_Linux#Using_a_FreeDOS-provided_Disk_Image_+_USB_stick_on_Linux
> > > 
> > > and made a FreeDos installer USB stick and put DFT on it. It actually
> > > runs (although it skips the opening menu that comes up when booting the
> > > disk image itself (via PXE or the UBCD image)), but it fails to find
> > > any disks on the system :(. I don't know if that's a problem with
> > > the way I'm running it, or some problem with my system configuration
> > > (UEFI / BIOS, etc.) I tried changing the SATA controller mode from RAID
> > > to IDE, but it didn't help.
> > 
> > A disk behind a weird SATA controller that sometimes thinks it's
> > a RAID controller? That's going to be problematic.
> 
> This is an HP Z440 workstation. I don't know much about these things,
> but this is apparently standard HP design:
> 
> https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02961221#AbT1
> http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04823811 (p. 108)

OK, it's an Intel FakeRaid. This will work optimally with Debian
in AHCI mode. 

But I suspect that we now know why the DFT utility can't see it:
because DOS can't see it, because DOS doesn't have any SATA
support. The best that can be done is providing a virtualized
interface, and that won't let you interrogate the disk.

> > Let's go back to: what are you trying to accomplish? Do you have
> > a new disk that you're trying to qualify in some way, or an old
> > disk that may have failed and you want to send in for warranty
> > replacement, or what?
> 
> A "refurbished" HGST Ultrastar, almost certainly a server pull,
> purchased on eBay. Originally, I just wanted to verify the health of
> the disk, and to do so "by the book" (I can always just run badblocks
> and call it a day), but now I'm intrigued, I suppose, by the
> challenge ;/

I think you've come to the end of this road. Do run badblocks
and check it out that way. And have smartctl run a long test.

-dsr-

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#228080

On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 14:06:55 -0400
Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:

> Celejar wrote: 
> > On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 13:00:11 -0400
> > Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:
> > 
> > > Celejar wrote: 
> > > > On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 11:15:40 -0400
> > > > https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Flashing_BIOS_from_Linux#Using_a_FreeDOS-provided_Disk_Image_+_USB_stick_on_Linux
> > > > 
> > > > and made a FreeDos installer USB stick and put DFT on it. It actually
> > > > runs (although it skips the opening menu that comes up when booting the
> > > > disk image itself (via PXE or the UBCD image)), but it fails to find
> > > > any disks on the system :(. I don't know if that's a problem with
> > > > the way I'm running it, or some problem with my system configuration
> > > > (UEFI / BIOS, etc.) I tried changing the SATA controller mode from RAID
> > > > to IDE, but it didn't help.
> > > 
> > > A disk behind a weird SATA controller that sometimes thinks it's
> > > a RAID controller? That's going to be problematic.
> > 
> > This is an HP Z440 workstation. I don't know much about these things,
> > but this is apparently standard HP design:
> > 
> > https://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c02961221#AbT1
> > http://h10032.www1.hp.com/ctg/Manual/c04823811 (p. 108)
> 
> OK, it's an Intel FakeRaid. This will work optimally with Debian
> in AHCI mode. 
> 
> But I suspect that we now know why the DFT utility can't see it:
> because DOS can't see it, because DOS doesn't have any SATA
> support. The best that can be done is providing a virtualized
> interface, and that won't let you interrogate the disk.

Ah, okay. Well, the BIOS does offer an IDE mode for the controller, but
even that doesn't allow DFT to work. Are you suggesting that that's
because it's not "real" IDE, but some kind of virtualized interface?

> > > Let's go back to: what are you trying to accomplish? Do you have
> > > a new disk that you're trying to qualify in some way, or an old
> > > disk that may have failed and you want to send in for warranty
> > > replacement, or what?
> > 
> > A "refurbished" HGST Ultrastar, almost certainly a server pull,
> > purchased on eBay. Originally, I just wanted to verify the health of
> > the disk, and to do so "by the book" (I can always just run badblocks
> > and call it a day), but now I'm intrigued, I suppose, by the
> > challenge ;/
> 
> I think you've come to the end of this road. Do run badblocks
> and check it out that way. And have smartctl run a long test.

Makes sense - I'll do that. Thanks.

Celejar

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#228082

Celejar wrote: 
> On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 14:06:55 -0400
> > But I suspect that we now know why the DFT utility can't see it:
> > because DOS can't see it, because DOS doesn't have any SATA
> > support. The best that can be done is providing a virtualized
> > interface, and that won't let you interrogate the disk.
> 
> Ah, okay. Well, the BIOS does offer an IDE mode for the controller, but
> even that doesn't allow DFT to work. Are you suggesting that that's
> because it's not "real" IDE, but some kind of virtualized interface?

Yeah. IDE stands for "integrated drive electronics" and was
essentially a wrapping of the 8-bit (and later 16-bit) PC/AT bus
that fed into a controller mounted on the drive.

The successor was called ATA, and later still redubbed PATA
(parallel ATA) when SATA was invented.

You've got a multiterabyte SATA drive. It speaks a 1.5, 3 or 6 Gb/s
serial protocol with a command set that only looks like IDE if you run
them both through a blender. For one thing, I'm pretty sure IDE couldn't
handle more than... here's the doc:

https://tldp.org/HOWTO/Large-Disk-HOWTO-4.html

The 528MB, 137GB, and 4.2GB limits are all coming into effect
here, possibly others.

-dsr-

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#228084

On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 14:06:55 -0400
Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:

> But I suspect that we now know why the DFT utility can't see it:
> because DOS can't see it, because DOS doesn't have any SATA
> support. The best that can be done is providing a virtualized
> interface, and that won't let you interrogate the disk.

Not necessarily. As you say, MS-DOS (And, I believe, Free-DOS) don't
have drivers for SATA. However, it is perfectly possible for the DFT
utility to have its own drivers built in. If I were testing hard drives
on MS-DOS <shudder!> that's what I would do.

-- 
Does anybody read signatures any more?

https://charlescurley.com
https://charlescurley.com/blog/

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#228095

On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 14:52:41 -0600
Charles Curley <charlescurley@charlescurley.com> wrote:

> On Wed, 21 Oct 2020 14:06:55 -0400
> Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:
> 
> > But I suspect that we now know why the DFT utility can't see it:
> > because DOS can't see it, because DOS doesn't have any SATA
> > support. The best that can be done is providing a virtualized
> > interface, and that won't let you interrogate the disk.
> 
> Not necessarily. As you say, MS-DOS (And, I believe, Free-DOS) don't
> have drivers for SATA. However, it is perfectly possible for the DFT
> utility to have its own drivers built in. If I were testing hard drives
> on MS-DOS <shudder!> that's what I would do.

And DFT explicitly claims to support SATA drives:

https://www1.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT

Celejar

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#228088

On Thu, 22 Oct 2020 at 02:04, Celejar <celejar@gmail.com> wrote:

> I poked around a bit, but was unable to get anything to run:
>
> 'dir' shows two files: DFT-V300.EXE and LOADDFT.EXE. The latter
> returns: "Error: Missing parameter." The former returns:
>
> PKSFX (R) FAST! Self Extract Utility Version 2.50 03-01-1999
> Copr. 1989-1999 PKWARE Inc. All Rights Reserved. Registered Version
> PKSFX Reg. U.S. Pat. and Tm. Off.
>
> Searching EXE: A:/DFT/DFT-V300.EXE
>         Inflating: CleanDsk.PID
>         Inflating: CleanMBR.PID
>         Inflating: DFT.EXE
> PXSFX: (E50) Disk Full, file: *
>
> A:\DFT>
>
> I switched to disk B: 'dir' shows four files: the two in A:, and
> CLEANDSK.PID and CLEANMBR.PID. Running DFT-v300 gives the same error
> (after warnings about overwriting the two *.PID files), and running
> LOADDFT also gives the same error as above.
>
> I understand that no one here can be expected to support this
> ridiculously crufty proprietary closed source software. I'm just
> wondering whether there's any FLOSS solution to emulate the actual
> environment the thing expects closely enough for it to work.

On Thu, 22 Oct 2020 at 05:07, Dan Ritter <dsr@randomstring.org> wrote:

> But I suspect that we now know why the DFT utility can't see it:
> because DOS can't see it, because DOS doesn't have any SATA
> support. The best that can be done is providing a virtualized
> interface, and that won't let you interrogate the disk.

Hmmm. That error message from LOADDFT.EXE and its name
makes me suspect that LOADDFT.EXE could possibly be the
driver that needs to be loaded before running DFT-V300.EXE.

At a guess, I would try adding something like
  DEVICE=LOADDFT.EXE
to your CONFIG.SYS file. [1]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CONFIG.SYS

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#228091

On Thu, 22 Oct 2020 at 08:45, David <bouncingcats@gmail.com> wrote:

Hmmm again. Ignore my previous message. I didn't read the thread
carefully enough. I still haven't done that, because I should be
doing other things, but I have looked a little bit more carefully
so I have slightly better suggestions.

First,
https://www1.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT
says:
"""
Drive Fitness Test Version 4.16
The Drive Fitness Test (DFT) quickly and reliably tests SCSI, IDE and
SATA drives. [...] Supports Leading Drives
- SCSI.
- Serial ATA.
- Parallel ATA.
- IDE.
"""
So apparently it claims to work with all those interfaces. But
read the notes.

Next, check pages 5 and 6 and 31 of
https://www1.hgst.com/hdd/support/downloads/Dft32_User_Guide_415.pdf
in particular
"""
>From release 3.50, DFT supports Hitachi Serial-ATA drives when these
drives are attached to
- Motherboards and Plug-in PCI controllers, which utilises the Highpoint HPT374
and 372A (with Marvel bridge chip) chipsets, Silicon Image SIL3112A and 0680
chipset and Intel ICH5 chipset.
Configurations NOT supported:
- Drives attached using ATA RAID controllers where direct access to the attached
devices is blocked by the controller also not supported are Multi-Channel SCSI
RAID controllers.
- Serial-ATA controllers based on the Silicon Image Promise and Intel
chipsets are
not currently supported
"""
It seems to be a 2009 document, pretty ancient.

I downloaded the bootable image
https://www1.hgst.com/hdd/support/downloads/ftool_215_install.IMG

and looked inside it using:
sudo mount -r -t msdos -o loop dft32_v416_b00_install.IMG /mnt/junk

The CONFIG.SYS file in the image shows what drivers are expected
to be loaded. A lot of what is in there is standard guff (ramdrive, upper
memory use, that may well be unnecessary) and causing the error
messages you reported earlier. It could be greatly simplified.
It looks like no additional drivers are loaded for ATA drives.

The AUTOEXEC.BAT file in the image contains the essential
  PATH=A:\DOS;A:\DFT;A:\;
  cd DFT
  LOADDFT.EXE  DFT-V300.EXE DFT.EXE /PSR >NUL

The final line is the most important.
That shows the correct use of the LOADDFT.EXE  and
DFT-V300.EXE files, and invalidates my previous advice.

The >NUL might be hiding diagnostic messages.

And I wonder if /PSR is anything like "terminate and stay resident"
so I would be wary of expecting sensible results if running that
line more than one time.

What I would do is rename AUTOEXEC.BAT in the image, to disable
it, and I would run the above commands manually at the DOS prompt.
And I would run them without the >NUL and perhaps also without the /PSR

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#228144

On Thu, 22 Oct 2020 10:32:17 +1100
David <bouncingcats@gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 22 Oct 2020 at 08:45, David <bouncingcats@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Hmmm again. Ignore my previous message. I didn't read the thread
> carefully enough. I still haven't done that, because I should be
> doing other things, but I have looked a little bit more carefully
> so I have slightly better suggestions.

...

> I downloaded the bootable image
> https://www1.hgst.com/hdd/support/downloads/ftool_215_install.IMG
> 
> and looked inside it using:
> sudo mount -r -t msdos -o loop dft32_v416_b00_install.IMG /mnt/junk

I tried that too. Just for the record, mount is pretty smart these
days: a simple

# mount image_file mount_point

works fine ;)

> The CONFIG.SYS file in the image shows what drivers are expected
> to be loaded. A lot of what is in there is standard guff (ramdrive, upper
> memory use, that may well be unnecessary) and causing the error
> messages you reported earlier. It could be greatly simplified.
> It looks like no additional drivers are loaded for ATA drives.
> 
> The AUTOEXEC.BAT file in the image contains the essential
>   PATH=A:\DOS;A:\DFT;A:\;
>   cd DFT
>   LOADDFT.EXE  DFT-V300.EXE DFT.EXE /PSR >NUL
> 
> The final line is the most important.
> That shows the correct use of the LOADDFT.EXE  and
> DFT-V300.EXE files, and invalidates my previous advice.
> 
> The >NUL might be hiding diagnostic messages.
> 
> And I wonder if /PSR is anything like "terminate and stay resident"
> so I would be wary of expecting sensible results if running that
> line more than one time.
> 
> What I would do is rename AUTOEXEC.BAT in the image, to disable
> it, and I would run the above commands manually at the DOS prompt.
> And I would run them without the >NUL and perhaps also without the /PSR

Thanks much. I think I'm done wasting time trying to get this thing to
work, but if I'm motivated to try again, I'll keep this in mind.

Celejar

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#228093

On Thu, 22 Oct 2020 at 08:45, David <bouncingcats@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, 22 Oct 2020 at 02:04, Celejar <celejar@gmail.com> wrote:

> > Searching EXE: A:/DFT/DFT-V300.EXE
> >         Inflating: CleanDsk.PID
> >         Inflating: CleanMBR.PID
> >         Inflating: DFT.EXE
> > PXSFX: (E50) Disk Full, file: *

More hints:

I just noticed another annoyance, that "disk full" error suggests
that it expects A: to be writable as well. So you will need
to solve that issue.

It's weird that LOADDFT.EXE takes a self-extracting file
as an argument. Especially as the files are being extracted
onto the floppy drive, so they must be small enough to fit
on there anyway, so why compress them. Maybe it's just
a packaging convenience.

Looking again at this line from AUTOEXEC.BAT:
  LOADDFT.EXE  DFT-V300.EXE DFT.EXE /PSR >NUL

suggests that running DFT.EXE (one of the self extracted
files, per above) is the ultimate goal, perhaps by loading it
with LOADDFT.EXE

So this is what I think needs to happen:
I would run DFT-V300.EXE somewhere that it can successfully
extract all its files, put all those files into the image, disable the
AUTOEXEC.BAT and then try again. Run DFT.EXE manually, or try
  LOADDFT.EXE DFT.EXE
as one command. It does not matter how you get to that point,
it does not all need to happen at boot time.

Unfortunately, their CD image uses exactly the same code
as above so it also requires an A: drive that is writeable
by DOS for their stupid extraction code to succeed.

A final thought is that _might_ actually need the ramdrive,
but that would be weird too. If not, you can probably disable
most or all of CONFIG.SYS too.

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