I have JUST installed UBC for the first time. I booted from the burned UBC cd, I came to the "usual" screen, I think I chose F2, I came to some options; Maxtor, Samsung etc. The thing is I have no idea what they do, it installs a harddrive it says? How does it do that if there is no Maxtor HD connected to it? As I don't have anything Maxtor labeled on my hardware.

When most of the programs startup they search for their drives. This is of course included in the circuits on the hard drive. If the software doesn't find it's brand of hard drive, most of them tell you that and then say there is nothing it can do.

Ok, here is a bit more in-depth answer.

Let's say you have a Western Digital hard drive installed in your computer.

Choose the option Western Digital Diagnostics, I think it's 5.04c for newer drives and external USB Western Digital hard drives and the other earlier version for older drives. (I find 5.04c works on almost every Western Digital hard drive BTW)

The utility will load the diagnostics program for the particular hard drive you select.

For instance, let's say you think you Western Digital hard drive may be going bad. Load the diagnostics program (for Western Digital) and check the drive by selecting "Quick Test" or "Extended Test" (whatever your fancy).

I use the drive utilities quite a bit for doing system rebuilds. I like to wipe my hard drive then testing them before reinstalling my operating system. Not all the drive diagnostics programs have this feature though, in which case I use autoclave, found in another option of UBCD. ( I believe under File System Tools, last page?)

BTW I am using the Western Digital diagnostics utility only to explain this subject because I own a lot of Western Digital hard drives.

Hope this helps explain it a bit more.

-HippieCat

I was vague in my initial post. However the original question was asking about the "installers" page........I don't know if this user has noticed that there are several pages for most of the "groups."

Since you say you use UBCD to test hard drives....have you ever noticed a problem loading any of the tools or getting to another page?? Best example is the hard drives. I will be on page 1 and try to go to the next, only to find myself at page 3?? When this happens I also have problems launching applications, they don't launch when I press their key? After a minute or two of going back and forth between pages, then an application will launch when I press it's key.

I've been trying to figure out what is causing this but can't. I think I will take extra time in the future by jotting down notes so maybe I can figure out what causes this issue. Most of the time I'm too busy to, jumping between 2-6 computers at a time! I'll have one testing a stick of RAM, one testing a HDD, one installing Windows, etc. I'm dealing with used parts so I really don't have the time to get into details. Try a few options, if it doesn't work then it's junk....move on to the next.

Sorry for getting a bit off topic here... I'm sure it will be ok though.

No, never have encountered that problem before. I hate to say it but I would give memtest86+ a run, or try burning off another cd of 3.4. I am betting this is on the FULL version, if it is try burning a copy of 3.4 basic and see if it still happens. If you don't use INSERT there is no point in using the FULL version anyway. I have noticed several problems with 3.4 FULL including a rather slow initial loadtime, when booting the cd.

Hope this helps.

BTW:

That, to me says he thinks it installed a hard drive by running the initial drive manufacture type's program, sorry. Maybe my interpretation was a bit off. I have been know to do that, lol.

-HippieCat

Let me start over again.

What I meant was, "that" option installs a drive and it's drivers or whatever, but what if you don't have Samsung, Maxtor etc. drive, but another brand of drive?

So lets say if I have a MAXtor or Samsung drive, I install with this function, what happens? I get another drive to my disposal? to do what from UBCD...?

Then it will allow you to test your drive to see if it is OK or confirm that you have everythiong setup properly on it and such. It will also generally tell you info about the drive such as date and RPM and such.

Think of the UBCD as purely a diag tool. I think you are getting bent out of shape in trying to figure out what everything does like with the HD tools. Almost everything on the disk is for diagnostic purposes only. There are other utils on there that recover or scan for Viruses and such. Generally the theme is to diag the machine as to what has failed or is about to and try to fix it. It is one tool of many that any PC Tech should have in his/her arsonal.

Once you understand that most tools let you diagnose an issue, then you are better off to figure out what everything else does.

As a last resort, there is always google for everything on the disk...