Data Verify Error

[Anonymous]

When doing a burn in on a Computer with anywhere from 2-6 hard drives I will occasionally get the error "Data Verify Error" on the Boot drive in all partitions (5).

Can you expound on this at all to help me figure out what this would be caused by?

Thanks

[David (PassMark)]

If you are seeing this error on the disk test, then it means that the data read from the disk is not the same as the data written to the disk. Normally this is a fairly serious error because it can lead to file corruption on the disk.

In the detailed error log file you should find some additional details for this error that show the value that was read from the disk and the value that was expected.

Most of the time the fault is with the disk itself but on rare occasions it can also be caused by bad RAM. This is becuase some of the system RAM is used to buffer data being set / received from the disk.

Even more rare would be something like a design flaw in the disk controller or MB that causes failure under high load when using multiple drives.

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David
PassMark

[Anonymous]

Disk Verify Failure

When getting this error, it has been when we have 2 180 gb drives connected to a secondary channel, the actual errors are showing on the primary master which is a 120gb drive. It has 5 partitions and the 180s can have anywhere from 4-6 partitions.

However if we move those drives onto a promise controller it seems that the problem fixes itself, so perhaps it is something with the controller as you suggested

Thanks

[David (PassMark)]

You have a setup that not many people are using. Invariable this means that the hardware has been less well tested in this configuration.

It is often the case in computing that new bugs come to the surface when a new configuration or new features are tested.

I would consider it unlikely that the manufacturers of your drives and motherboard would have done endurance testing on a setup with between 12 and 18 partitions over 3 channels.

It can be difficult to know who to blame as well. It coule be BIOS, the O/S, the MB, the IDE cables or the drive's themselves. It would take a significant investigation to prove who was at fault.

I glad to hear that you found a solution in any case.

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David
PassMaek

[Anonymous]

Disk Verify Errors

You have a setup that not many people are using. Invariable this means that the hardware has been less well tested in this configuration.

It is often the case in computing that new bugs come to the surface when a new configuration or new features are tested.

I would consider it unlikely that the manufacturers of your drives and motherboard would have done endurance testing on a setup with between 12 and 18 partitions over 3 channels..
David
PassMaek

If you get this Disk Verify error, it's the real thing. Burnin PRO V4 just found this on a customer's problem machine that kept corrupting Windows 98SE over a period of time. Replaced the hard drive first - still had verify errors. Finally replaced motherboard, and that cured the problem. Looks like a fault in the IDE controllers on the motherboard for this case.

Had a second occurance of the Disk Verify error on a different machine, this time a caused by faulty IDE CD-Rom drive on the Secondary IDE Controller (master) was causting Disk Verify errors on the Primary IDE Master hard drive (the boot drive). This wasn't too surprising; my service experience has shown that IDE devices are like the old style christmas tree lights - if one goes out, they all go out (or malfunction).

Kudos to Burnin Test PRO V4 for catching these problems with IDE electronics; nothing else in my arsenal of diagnostics & tests could. I very seriously doubt that the number of partitions on a drive would affect this issue, or cause erroneous Disk Verify errors.

R. Hamilton
Image Setters PC
Tulsa, Ok USA

[ocular]

On the theme of data verification. I have a system that I have detected file data verification corruption. This was detected as a result of file copying and then doing a md5 checksum. The problem shows up much readily if a 2GB file is used.

Will BurnIn Test do such a test - ie make a 2GB file and move it and verify it. With the trial version even by changing to 10% of C: drive (20GB in total) the file written is only 250MB. Is this a limitation to the unregistered trial version?

[David (PassMark)]

The disk test in BurnInTest does not move 2GB files around the disk. But the size of the files shouldn't normally have any significant impact on how correct the data is on the disk. Many smaller files should cover the same surface area on the disk platter as a large file.

You should also be aware that moving a file between directories on the same disk doesn't normally move the file on the surface of the disk. All that happens is that a couple of minor changes are made to the directory enteries and the file stays in the same place. So when you say move, I assume you really mean copy.

BurnInTest creates a series of test files, with each file being up to 10% of the disk space. It writes each file to the disk and reads it back to check for data corruption. By using multiple files, eventually the full surface of the disk will be covered. So if your disk is really bad in the way you describe, then it should be detected.

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David

[ocular]

Yes I do mean copy rather than move. On this particular system I can copy a 2GB file to another folder and get an md5 checksum error 90% of the time.

I have run BurnIn test on same system looking at HDD test 5 times ( 15 minute limitation on registered version) with file size set at 10% of HDD on a 20GB C: drive. The write verification process still seems to occur in 250MB increments (rather than 10% of HDD size). BurnIn test has passed this system every time.

Using another redundant system with exactly the same hardware I have diagnosed the new motherboard as faulty by using this file copy method and running a checksum. The board will be RMAed.

I am keen to see if there are settings that I can improve the sensitivity of BurnIn Test to detect this data corruption problem.