In message , Mark
Twain writes:
Well I the OS wasn't idle when I did the test,..
I didn't think about that,...

Maybe I should do another with it at idle.

Robert


You won't _get_ it to be idle. The best you can do is run HDTune
multiple times, and see if the "spikes" (if that's the right word for
something that goes downwards!) are in the same place across the disc.
If you get spikes in different places, then they're just due to the OS
interrupting; if they're always in the same part of the scan, then
there's probably a dud patch there, that is being swapped for a good
patch, which impacts the speed. If they have breadth, that's not good.
If there haven't been enough for the reallocated sector count to start
showing other than zero (the manufacturers don't show above zero there
until it gets above some threshold; _all_ drives have _some_ dud
sectors, even from new), then you've _probably_ got time to image or
otherwise copy data from the drive. HDTune is a moderate way of seeing
if you have dud sectors that aren't enough for the reallocated sector
count to start showing; if only a few, the drive may be fine.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Old professors don't fade away - they just lose their faculties.