HDD FAQ

飞仙

Q: Can MHDD see devices attached to additional PCI IDE/SATA adapters?
A: Yes.

Q: MHDD is very unstable (sometimes it crashes).
A1: You need to clear Read-Only attributes on MHDD.CFG, MHDD.EXE, MHDD.LOG, MHDD*.*. If this does not help, you can just delete all files except MHDD.exe and MHDD.hlp, and MHDD will create everything again.
A2: Check that you have enough free space on your media from which you are running MHDD.
A3: Check that you are NOT testing the same drive from which you are running MHDD (never do this!)

Q: What about MHDD under Windows?
A: I know that it is possible to run MHDD under any Windows with some limitations. For Win2k/XP you will need the USERPORT driver (google it). I do not recommend it though.

Q: I'm scanning a drive and seeing something like a chess board. Is this normal?
A: It is OK, you see delays when heads are moving to the next track.

Q: After I played with MHDD my drive became working very slow (about 3MB/S under Windows)
A: Check IDE pins on your HDD — you broke one of them when you played with IDE cables .

Q: Why MHDD cannot see my drive attached to Primary channel?
A: Check MHDD.CFG for something to enable primary channel (and also read the doc!). You can also use /ENABLEPRIMARY command line switch.

Q: What about MHDD and SATA?
A: There are no differences between IDE and SATA except the physical interface. MHDD works with SATA exactly as it works with IDE.

Q: MHDD does not see my drive.
A1: Check Q6 first
A2: If your drive is SLAVE, you have to switch it to MASTER first. I removed SLAVE-devices support from MHDD.
A3: Actually, there is a way of accessing slave devices in MHDD. Press SHIFT+F3, and then look for master hard drive number on the same channel. For example, if the master hard drive number is "3", enter "4" to select slave drive on that cable.

Q: MHDD hangs while I am trying to detect my HDD.
A: It is a common problem with some third-party MHDD distributions. Please use original MHDD floppy and CD images.

Q: How can I fix delays on my HDD (red and brown blocks in MHDD)?
A: Use ERASE command in MHDD (it will erase the entire hard drive though ), then run scan+erase delays ON, then scan+remap ON.

Q: Does MHDD Scan+remap kill my data?
A: Remapping with MHDD is safe to your data as long as you have not too much bad blocks (under 100).

Q: Does MHDD erase delays kill my data?
A: Yes, because it erases by 255-sectors blocks.

Q: Can I do sector-by-sector EraseWaits?
A: No, because it would be almost exactly the same as remap.

Q: Can I remap red or brown box?
A: No. But see Q10, that may help.

Q: I'm checking my disk with chkdsk or scandisk and they are reporting bads, but MHDD does not see any bad block. What happened?
A: Your drive had some bad blocks in the past and they were removed by MHDD or other software (or sometimes by the hard drive itself).
1. Use DiskEdit to remove bads from yout file system
2. Try Partition Magic's "Bad sectors recheck"
3. Repartition your hard drive.

Q: MHDD does not see my HDD!
A: Try Shift+F3 (and please read the doc immediately! )

Q: MHDD does not see drives connected to my Promise SX4000 or 150TX2/TX4 board.
A: Sorry, MHDD will never see drives on such boards because they suck (they have a very different interface that does not allow MHDD to talk to the board.

Q: I'm running MHDD from write-protected media (floppy/CD). Each time I exit MHDD i have error messages.
A: Use /RO command key when running MHDD.

Q: Why do I see my IDE/SATA conroller twice when MHDD runs?
A: MHDD sees each IDE/SATA channel as different device (I made it this way for internal needs).

Q: What is the meaning of scan results?
A: Normally, you should not get brown and red blocks. If you have some, see Q above (about erase delays). If you have blocks marked as a letter ("A", "x", "S", "!" and so on) — those are bad blocks. If there is more than 20% of surface is covered with bad blocks, then it is a head crash. If your hard drive is 100% filled by bad blocks — then it is either a head crash, pcb damage or firmware issue. None of these failures are fixable with free software.

Q: While scanning a drive with MHDD I see letter W sometimes.
A: You are scanning with EraseDelays turned on, and W is appearing where MHDD erased a block of 255 sectors.

Q: While scanning a drive I see blue block.
A: You are scanning with Remap option turned ON and a remap attempt has just happened there.

Q: I have defects on my HDD, how do I remove them?
A: See Q "What is the meaning of scan results?" above.

Q: I have problems with installing/removing of HPA or DCO.
A1: Sometimes it happens when your drive is attached to PCI IDE/SATA controller. Please use chipset IDE/SATA controllers to play with HPA and DCO.

A2: Some modern motherboars use HPA feature to store some BIOS data on your drive in hidden place. They may block HPA commands to the hard drive.

Q: The size of my HDD is less than it should be. What can I do?
A: Check jumper settings. Check HPA setting with MHDD (try NHPA command).
If that doesn't help, do the following:

Execute CONFIG command in MHDD, answer "y", then just press ENTER for each question.

Q: How can I low level format (LLF) my drive with MHDD?
A: You can LLF your drive by using "erase" command.

Q: Can I cut off the beginning of a drive?
A: Sorry, you can only cut the end of a hard drive surface (commands CONFIG and HPA).

Q: Can MHDD work with USB drives?
A: Theoretically yes. You have to find a driver which turns your USB device into SCSI (under DOS). Then MHDD can work with your device in SCSI mode.

There is also a very good boot floppy disk available here:

Q: I'm tired hearing these weird sounds in MHDD
A: Try command line switch /NOPINGPONG

Q: I'm running MHDD from a boot floppy/CD, where can I find logs/screenshots?
A: Bootable MHDD media creates a RAM disk and is runs from there. All logs are stored there too (on the RAM-disk).

Q: Can I somehow select a Slave device in MHDD? (I know that slave is not supported, but...)
A: You can. Press SHIFT+F3 to choose a drive. Slave-devices are not displayed, but you can choose them by entering even numbers. For example, to choose Primary Slave device, enter 2, to choose Secondary Slave device, enter 4. For drives which are attached to PCI host controllers, you have to select odd numbers.