Solution
You should use the Hard Disk Drive Diagnostic Tool to check to see if the issue is with the hard drive. NI provides a Hard Drive Diagnostic Tool for Seagate hard drives, for either an English and non-English (localized) operating system environment, which will check the PXI/PXIe embedded controller for actual hard drive failures before you send it in for repair.
NI also provides a Seagate Hard Drive Diagnostic Tool that can be used for Toshiba hard drives shipping with any NI embedded controller or Fujitsu hard drives that are installed in PXIe-8133, PXI-8110, PXI-8109, PXI(e)-8108, PXI(e)-8102 or PXI-8101 controllers. This may work for controllers that have a Western Digital Drive installed as well. For all other controllers with Fujitsu Hard Drives see
Fujitsu Hard Disk Drive Diagnostic Tool for PXI and PXIe Embedded Controllers.
Please follow the steps below to run the utility.
Creating a Bootable USB Diagnostic Disk for Seagate Hard Drive
- Insert a USB flash disk into one of your computer's USB slots.
- After the OS has finished identifying the USB drive, run the SeaTools Desktop_beta.msi installer (see attachment). This will install the Seagate USB Boot Maker application to help you build a bootable USB hard drive.
- Select the USB flash disk you would like to make bootable using the drop-down list.
- After selecting the appropriate disk, click the Make Bootable button. The application will format the USB flash disk with a bootable DOS image and HDD diagnostic application. A progress bar will indicate when the application is finished formatting the disk.
- Close the application by clicking Close.
Creating a Bootable USB Diagnostic Disk for Fujitsu or Toshiba Hard Drives
- Insert a USB flash disk into one of your computer's USB slots.
- Download the file attached below titled Seagate Hard Drive Diagnostic utility - Text Based Version 1.4.zip and extract the files to a folder on your hard drive.
- Run CreateSeagateUSBDiagDisk.exe from the folder you just created and extracted files to.
- Select the USB flash disk you would like to make bootable using the drop-down list.
- After selecting the appropriate disk, click the Make Bootable button. The application will format the USB flash disk with a bootable DOS image and HDD diagnostic application. A progress bar will indicate when the application is finished formatting the disk.
- Close the application by clicking Close.
The USB flash disk should now be bootable. You can use this disk to execute HDD diagnostics on a PXI or PXIe embedded controller.
Note: When testing non-Seagate drives using this utility you may see a false warning message: "Drive Has Been Overtemp -- 100". This is due to the tool checking a register that does not exist on non-Seagate drives and should be ignored in most cases.Using the HDD Diagnostic ApplicationFollow these steps and the corresponding hardware section to run the HDD diagnostic application on a PXI/PXIe embedded controller:
- Insert a bootable USB flash disk (created with the application described above) in one of the USB slots on the PXI/PXIe embedded controller.
- Boot the PXI/PXIe system and enter the BIOS by pressing the delete key as the controller boots to change the boot priority with the USB flash disk first:
PXIe-8133, PXI-8110, PXI-8109, PXI(e)-8108, PXI(e)-8102, or PXI-8101In the BIOS browse to the
BOOT menu, select
Hard Drive from the list and hit
Enter. Place the USB device first on the list by using the + and - keys. Save and exit the changes.
Fujitsu or Toshiba Hard drives only: In the BIOS change the drive mode to IDE as opposed to AHCI, and place the USB device first on the list.
PXI-8174, PXI-8175, PXI-8176, PXI-8184, PXI-8185, PXI-8186, or PXI-8187In the BIOS browse to the
BOOT menu, select
Hard Drive from the list and hit
Enter. Place the USB device first on the list by using the + and - keys. Save and exit the changes.
PXI-8195, PXI-8196, PXIe-8103, PXI(e)-8105, or PXI(e)-8106In the BIOS, browse to the
BOOT menu, and place
USB HDD option before the
IDE Hard Drive. Save and exit the changes.
The controller should now reboot and open the SeaTools Desktop.
If your hard drive is not recognized by the system, shut down and check the following:
- All power and interface cable connections are correct.
- All drive jumpers are set correctly.
- System BIOS is setup correctly.