Using Hardware Test Tools (tc-hdd-tool)

The tc-hdd-tools are a set of tools that are replacing UBCD to run diagnostics necessary to identify hardware faults with the hard drives and memory in a system. In addition to more streamlined tools/tests, the these tools will also allow for running a FCSK on a disk. 
 

Please let tech support know if you run into any issues with this article or the tc-dd-tools.
If you are unable to get this tool to work, defer to UBCD to run diagnostics on your machine. 

Write USB Image file to USB drive

Windows

Rufus (Preferred Method)

1. Download Systems-Tools > HDD Tools from this page. 

2. Download Rufus from Rufus - The Official Website (Download, New Releases)  which is an application to create bootable USB drives.  

3. Open Rufus and then click on the picture of a CD in the bottom right corner as highlighted below.

   Open

   

4. Select the NSC ISO file. Then change the format type to "DD Image" as shown below in the attached picture.

   Open

   

5. Once this is done then click Start to make the image. 

6. At this point connect the USB drive to the appliance. During boot up go into the BIOS and verify the USB drive is the first in the boot sequence. 

win32diskimager

1.Visit win32diskimager on Sourceforge and click the Download button to download the latest version of the software

2. Install it, approving Administrative access if necessary

3. Insert a USB pen-drive into the system. Warning: this drive will be completely over-written. Make sure to backup anything important!

4. Download the Switchvox utility image, either the System Tools themselves, or System tools with a full Switchvox Install in the 'Download USB Images" section.

5. Launch win32diskimager and approve Administrative access if necessary

6. Click the blue folder icon and select the Switchvox utility image previously downloaded

Note: image name will be different. Most likely "hdd-tools.img"

7. Click Write and allow the process to complete

8. Remove the pen-drive from the system and it is ready to go!

Linux

Using dd

1. Download the Switchvox utility image, either the System Tools themselves, or System tools with a full Switchvox Install

2. Verify the checksum(s), using either md5sum, sha1sum, or sha512sum

3. Insert a USB pen-drive into the system. Warning, this drive will be completely over-written. Make sure to backup anything important.

Mac

TBD

1. While not tested yet, the instructions for Linux should work. You still may need to find an archival utility that can extract tar file. 

Using Utilities Image

Booting

Access the USB flash drive Boot Menu

1. Install the USB flash drive into an open USB port of the system

2. Ensure a Monitor and keyboard are connected to the system

3. Power the system on, or reboot it if already powered on

4. While the system is booting, alternate pressing F10 and F11 on the keyboard to enter the One Time Boot Menu

• This key differs between different appliances, some require F10, some require F11

• The BIOS in some systems may be configured to boot from an attached USB device first automatically and require no key-press

5. Select the install USB flash drive from the list of available boot options

6. You should see a menu similar to the one below once the drive has booted, with a timer counting down from 60 seconds

7. If the timer expires, the system will cancel the boot of the USB flash drive and continue a normal system boot

Continue with no changes

Select either (Re)Boot USB or Boot Next Device - Switchvox

1. If selecting (Re)Boot USB you will be returned to this menu, with no changes to the system

2. If selecting Boot Next Device - Switchvox The system will cancel the boot of the USB flash drive and continue a normal system boot, without changing the system

3. Alternatively, the system can be manually rebooted or powered off at this menu, and there should be no further changes to the system

Hard Drive Utilities Step-by-step guide

Note: Before running the Hard Drive Utilities on a 450 or 470 you will first need to bypass the RAID card. In order to do this you will need to disconnect the RAID card from the RAID backplane and use a standard SATA connector to connect the drive directly to the motherboard.

Select Hard Drive Utilities

1. The system will begin booting a customized Tiny Core Linux live environment

2. Once the boot is complete, it will automatically launch the included script fsck-all (documented below)

a. The fsck-all script sleeps for eight seconds on start, both to allow time to exit if needed, and to allow for hardware devices to settle and be detected by the system

3. If fsck is not desired, as in you only want to run something else, or if it has completed and further test operations are desired, press Ctrl + C to exit the fsck-all script and get a system shell

a. If fsck has started scanning a drive, you must allow it to complete before Switchvox will boot properly again

4. Type the command ls - 'ell-ess' or LS - to see a list of included scripts

a. 

b. fsck-all - automatically runs fsck on all the detected volumes in the system, after an eight second delay

• File System Check - Runs 'e2fsck -yfcck' on each supported volume in the system

• Only need to run if getting a request to manually run fsck when booting Switchvox, or as a way to run fsck in a maintenance window

• When the fsck operation has completed, the script will prompt to press Enter to reboot or Ctrl + C to exit the test

• NOTE: if fsck finds and corrects any errors, it is recommended to take backups, and reinstall at the earliest convenience

c. smart-all - automatically runs S.M.A.R.T. tests: short, conveyance, and long; on all the detected drives in the system

• When the script has completed, it will prompt to press Enter to reboot or Ctrl + C to exit the test

d. check-smart-all - returns a status report from S.M.A.R.T. on all the detected drives in the system

e. shred-all - runs the shred utility on each drive in the system in turn, which will completely erase each drive

5. To run a different utility, merely type its name into the shell and press the Enter key to run it

6. smart-all and check-smart-all require no arguments to run, and can complete with no user intervention

7. shred-all will scan for existing drives in the system and present each one in turn for operation

a. It will display the drive letter, and a large warning informing that the contents of the drive will be erased

b. It will then require the user to fully type yes before it will begin the erase process on that drive

8. If a drive is having issues completing S.M.A.R.T. tests, but is not reported as FAILING, it is recommended to run shred-all on the drive

a. This will help force the drive to perform its regular sector re-map operation and can restore the proper functionality of the drive

Memory Test Step-by-step guide

Select Memory Test

1. MemTest86+ will launch and begin testing the system memory with no further user interaction

2. Watch until it indicates that the test has been completed

3. It should indicate whether there has been a Pass of the system memory, or errors will be displayed

Notes
​Running the Hard Drive Utility shred-all will erase all the contents of the drive in the system.
Installing Switchvox will erase all the contents of the drive in the system.
Make sure proper backups are taken before running either of these options.