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Storage Technology Division

Drive Fitness Test v2.30
With Firmware download
Usage Instructions
19 September, 2001
Table Of Contents
WHAT IS DRIVE FITNESS TEST? ...................................................................................3
DFT SYSTEM FUNDAMENTALS ................................................................................................4
CREATING A DFT DISKETTE ....................................................................................................4
Windows 9x, Me, NT & Win2000 ....................................................................................4
DFT HARDWARE SUPPORT AND RESTRICTIONS.........................................................................5
RUNNING DFT ........................................................................................................................6
TROUBLESHOOTING.....................................................................................................10
Unsupported PCI IDE Adapter.......................................................................................10
Drives Attached to PCI IDE Adapter not seen by DFT...................................................10
ASUS A7V ....................................................................................................................10
What is Drive Fitness Test?
IBM has a long track record of innovation in the hard disk drive industry, starting with the
development of the first disk drive in 1958. Many technologies common today in disk drives
were first introduced on IBM disk drives, pursuing goals of providing highest performance and
capacity in highly reliable mechanisms within industry standard form factors.
One of the latest innovations has been the introduction of Drive Fitness Test (DFT), now
available on the Worldwide Web. The purpose of DFT is to test a hard disk drive while it
remains inside a personal computer, even when the primary operating system may no longer be
bootable. This is suggested when it is suspected that there is a malfunction that could be related
to the hard disk drive. This is helpful, as often problems occur with data content and
management unrelated to the function of the disk drive itself. In these cases, a reload of the
operating system, or similar recovery action, is all that would be required to recover the
computer. This avoids unnecessary disturbance of the disk drive and usually will preserve other
existing data belonging to the user, which may not have been backed up.
This specific version of the utility provides a means of automatically scanning your system for
IBM manufactured ATA hard disk and where necessary providing the option to update the
firmware on the drive according to a pre-defined criteria.
More information and background about DFT is available from
http://www.storage.ibm.com/hdd/support/download.htm
DFT System Fundamentals
The Drive Fitness Test provides for in-depth testing of IBM disk drives. This new version will
support the download of Firmware to specified IBM ATA hard disk drives. The firmware
update will not overwrite customer data, however as a precaution it is recommended that you
backup all your data before performing any firmware update.
The Drive Fitness Test (DFT) application is designed to run under DOS and has been provided
as an executable file DFT-xxxx-yyyy-zzz.exe (where xxxx, yyyy and zzzz may vary according to
customer target product and code level). You should use this file to create a working diskette
by following one of the procedures below. If you have received a prepared floppy, proceed to
the section below entitled DFT Hardware Support and Restrictions.
Creating a DFT Diskette
Windows 9x, Me, NT & Win2000
The Drive Fitness Test set-up program (DFT-xxxx-yyyy-zzz.exe) includes IBM PC DOS2000 and the
Drive Fitness Test. In order to run the set-up program you will need to have access to a system that is
running any of the following operating systems, Windows95, Windows98, Windows Millennium,
Windows NT, or Windows 2000 and a formatted 1.44-MB diskette. Running the set-up program creates
an IBM PC DOS2000 bootable diskette that contains the Drive Fitness Test.
It is recommended that before starting the set-up program, all open Windows applications should be
closed.
The following represents two examples of how the DFT diskette can be created.
Method A.
1. Insert a formatted diskette into the Floppy drive, (A: or B:).
2. Using Windows Explorer, locate the program DFT-xxxx-yyyy-zzz.exe supplied by your
system manufacturer or IBM.
3. To start diskette creation double-click on the program icon and follow the on screen
instructions. Note: you have the option to select your country location and keyboard layout,
the default for these options is United States.
Method B.
1. Click Start, then select Run.
2. Click the Browse button to locate the DFT-xxxx-yyyy-zzz.exe set-up program.
3. Click on the filename, then click Open.
4. Click OK to run the DFT-xxxx-yyyy-zzz.exe set-up program.
5. Insert a formatted 1.44-MB diskette into the required floppy drive ( A or B if your system
has 2 floppy drives ), select the target floppy on the set-up screen then click next to continue.
6. Follow the on screen instructions.
DFT hardware support and restrictions
This version of DFT is supported for updating firmware on IBM ATA hard disk drives only, and can be
used when the drives are attached to the IDE ports on your system motherboard or any of the following.
UDMA/33, UDMA/66, and UDMA/100 plug-in PCI-to-ATA adapters from Promise Technologies,
CMD and adapters based on the HIGHPOINT HPT366 and HPT370 chipset.
Drive configurations NOT supported: drives attached using ATA RAID controllers.
Running DFT
Place the prepared floppy disk in the system to be tested and boot the system either by powering off then
back on or pressing the reset button or alternatively by pressing the <Ctrl><Alt><Delete> keys.
When the system restarts IBMDFT will be loaded automatically and you will be presented with License
Agreement as shown below.
This is a license agreement, which you should review prior to accepting using the I Agree button. The
positioning and tab keys can be used to navigate through the license agreement and buttons.
The program will progress only if the user accepts the license using I agree.
DFT will then analyse the connected drives and proceed to the screen below
The following picture shows the main DFT Firmware Update screen,
Each drive installed in the system that requires a firmware update will be listed in the device box, in the
above example, there is only one drive present in the system that requires a firmware update. The drive
model and current firmware level will be displayed.
To proceed with the firmware update, make sure the Update Firmware button is highlighted (use the
Tab, Cursor or Hot keys) and hit the enter key on your keyboard. If you choose not to update the drive
firmware select the exit button and confirm that you wish to exit the program.
After choosing to update the drive firmware you will then be presented with a confirmation screen
similar to that below
Select Continue to start the update process.
The screen below shows the progress of the firmware update, this screen will be seen for each
drive in the system that is updated. This can be verified by checking the model and serial number
information displayed in the screen below.
On successful completion of the firmware update the screen below will be displayed.
When the enter key is press to acknowledge the completion of the firmware update, the DFT
Utility will perform a rescan of the devices installed in the system to confirm all that needing
updating have actually been updated. On completion of this scan a screen similar to that below
will be displayed.
Press exit to exit from the DFT Utility.
Troubleshooting
Unsupported PCI IDE Adapter
There are some instanced where DFT when loading may display a message similar to that below. Note
this is not an error condition but just a message to alert you that DFT does not recognise the chipset
being used to control the PCI IDE Buses in your system. It is also a request for you to send the Vendor
and Device ID codes to IBM Technical Support as indicated in the message so that future releases of
DFT can cater for this chipset.
Drives Attached to PCI IDE Adapter not seen by DFT
If using a Plug-in PCI IDE adapter that uses the Highpoint HPT366 or HPT370 chipsets in some
systems DFT will fail to detect drives attached to this adapter. To fix this problem ensure that the PCI
IDE adapter BIOS is upgraded to the latest level. For example if using the EPUSB66 adapter then you
will need to have BIOS level 1.25 or above.
BIOS updates can be obtained from the following web site: -
http://www.highpoint-tech.com/drivers.htm
ASUS A7V
If using a system which utilises the ASUS A7V Motherboard and the drives are attached as primary or
secondary master to the Promise UDMA/100 ports in some instances the drive may not be detected by
this utility. Should this occur, the drive(s) should be attached to the standard IDE port(s) or jumper as
slave devices and proceed with the firmware update. On completion of the update the drive(s) should be
returned to their original state i.e. re-connected to the UDMA/100 ports or reset the jumper(s) for master
mode.