good hardware diagnostics tool?

capsule

Junior Member
Jul 24, 2002
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Can anyone recommend a good (possibly free) diagnostic tool to test RAM and HDD for errors and defects? Long ago, I used to use AMIDiag and Qaplus but the versions I have are quite dated and do not recognize my new hardware. I just built a new system last week (please see some of the hw listed below):

Windows XP Pro
Asus A7N8X Deluxe
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
512MB DDR Samsung (256MB x 2)
Maxtor 80GB 7200rpm/8MB cache (6Y080P0)
Gainward G4Ti4200
Plextor CD-RW
etc

I notice it seems to be acting rather oddly. XP tends to hang every so often and the system itself seems a lot slower than my Duron 1.2GHz Nforce (MSI K7N420Pro) w/ 256MB DDR. Mind you this is also a fresh install without all the other system slowing applications loaded. I have run a variety of 3d games on it (UT2k3 etc) and they run fine. But I also notice that the HDD seems quite loud and not sounding too happy. So, regardless I want to run some very thorough diagnostics before I move any important data from my old system to this one. If anyone can provide any suggestions for diagnostics tools for RAM/HDDI would much appreciate it.

Btw, I tried Maxtor's diag tool...powermax? (i forget the name right now) but it would not recognize my nforce2 chipset's drive controller which comes as no surprise. Thanks again everyone, happy holidays!