False. The hard drive itself cannot be physically damaged by a Defrag operation. During
a Defrag, the operating system is just reading and writing files. The hard disk does not
actually understand that the OS is in the middle of a Defrag.

However, if the user interrupts a Defrag or powers off the system in the middle of a write
operation during the Defrag, then there is a possibility that a particular file that was being
moved might now have errors in it due to the user\u2019s actions. Once again, the hard disk
will not be physically damaged, but the user\u2019s data file might be in worse shape than
before the Defrag.

True. This is one of the oldest complaints stemming from the DOS days and now into
Windows. Hard disk companies product and label drives based on the actual number of
bytes of user data the hard drive can store. So a 120GB drive can store at least
120,000,000,000 bytes of user data.

However, Microsoft user partitions count capacity based off of binary numbers. So 1
kilobyte to Microsoft is 1024 bytes, not 1000 bytes. Once Microsoft gets into the
gigabytes of data using binary to count, the difference in user capacity to the user can
differ by several megabytes. But once the user thinks about the difference of a few
megabytes in a drive that is measured in the hundreds of gigabytes, it is a no never mind.

True. A hard disk drive records data onto magnetic disks. The data on the disk can be
thought of as billions of little magnetized areas that are translated into 0\u2019s and 1\u2019s when
the user data is later read from the disks. A strong magnet near a hard disk drive has
runs the possibility of disturbing the magnetized areas of the disk and changing some 0\u2019s
to 1\u2019s, or 1\u2019s to 0\u2019s. If the disturbance is big enough, the drive may no longer be able to
retrieve the correct data from the disk for the area that was disturbed by the magnet.

In general, the magnetic tip of a screw driver is a relatively weak magnet. But why take
the chance of using one around magnetically sensitive equipment, such as hard disk
drives.

True. Writing any data pattern to the hard disk drive over-writes whatever user data that
was on the drive. 99.9999999999999999999999999999999999999% of the people in
the world are not able to even attempt to recover data after a new data pattern has been
written. Theoretically, there might be a chance that an individual with highly specialized
skills and tools might be able to recover data by looking at magnetic remnants from
previous written data but it is a very expensive and laborious task that might not always
be successful.

True. The support for drives >137 GB is accomplished by loading Windows XP Service Pack 1 and a registry entry modification. The Microsoft Knowledge Base Article as of 4- 28-03 is attached at the end of this document. For the latest details and updates go to the Microsoft Knowledge Base Article #303013 at:

False. The hard drive itself cannot be physically damaged by Format or Reload
operations. During these operations, the operating system is just reading and writing
areas of the drive. The hard disk does not actually understand that the OS is in the
middle of a Format or Reload.

However, if the user interrupts an operation or powers off the system in the middle of a write operation, then there is a possibility that a particular file might now have errors in it due to the user\u2019s actions. Once again, the hard disk will not be physically damaged, but the file might be in an unusable state.

False. The hard drive itself cannot be physically damaged by any commands sent through debug. In fact, the hard disk drive cannot be damaged by any user level commands sent to it through the IDE interface.

True and False. Writing a data pattern to the beginning of the drive only is typically
enough to allow a reload of the operating system since the essential operating system
files would have been over-written (such as the Boot Sector and Partition Tables).
However, a file recovery program could potentially recover some of the user\u2019s data files
that were physically located further into the hard disk drive. If the disk drive remains at
the same customer, this may not be a security issue. If the disk drive could potentially fall
into the hands of a different customer, then it is recommended that every sector on the
hard drive be over-written with zero data pattern.

True and False. Writing a data pattern of 0\u2019s is the easiest and most effective method to
over-write the essential operating system files to allow a fresh reload. It is not the only
method, but it is a method that works 100% of the time.

False. Totally depends on the \u201cclick\u201d, and when and how often the \u201cclick\u201d occurs. For
instance, during a hard disk spin-up operation, which occurs during power-on, and also
when the hard disk \u201cwakes up\u201d from a power management mode, all drives have an
audible \u201cclick\u201d as the heads are released from the physical latch that protects the heads
when the hard disk is not spinning. Also, as a result of power off or if the drive is spun
down because of power management, a \u201cclick\u201d can be heard as the heads are moved
into the physical latch.

Some users are very sensitive to the sound a drive makes when seeking from area of the
hard disk to another. Although the \u201cclicking\u201d sound of these seeks are very soft, it is none
the less still potentially an irritant to some very sensitive customers. A hard drive that
\u201cclicks\u201d for seeking noises should never be returned since the noise is totally normal and
expected.

Another possibility that causes a hard drive to click is a bad host system power supply. If
the power supply has gone bad and now does not supply the appropriate voltages and
currents required by the hard disk drive, the drive could \u201cclick\u201d as it tries unsuccessfully to
spin-up and operate without the proper power supplied by the host. In this case, replace
the host system power supply and just to be 100% safe, run GWScan on the hard disk to
ensure no damage caused by the faulty power supply.

True and False. A damaged hard drive could cause an operating system to report a
fatal exception error. However, not all fatal exception errors are caused by bad hard
drives. Fatal exception errors are most often a software contention error or similar
OS corruption. A graceful shutdown and power cycle may allow the OS to repair
itself. If the error persists and the drive passes a GWScan Extended Test, the user
may want to back up their data, write zeroes to the drive and reinstall their OS.

False. Lost clusters could be caused by several reasons not related to a bad hard
disk drive. For instance, if the system experiences a power glitch or power outage
before the operating system was able to write to disk the FAT or partition tables with
updated information regarding a recently or currently opened file, then a lost cluster
condition could exist. A second example would be one of thousands of virus\u2019 that
attack and corrupt the operating system\u2019s partition tables. It would be a mistake to
return the hard disk in these examples since the hard disk is in perfectly good
working order.