Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tools will help you test WD internal and external drives. In additional, it can provide you with the model and serial of WD drives attached to the system.
These powerful tools can help you perform a SMART drive quick self-test, to gather and verify the Data Lifeguard information contained on the drive, or perform a Full Media Scan to detect bad sectors. You can use it to Full Erase, or Quick Erase the drive by writing zeros. File system and data will be lost. Also there is a button which when you click it show's S.M.A.R.T. data. S.M.A.R.T. monitor drive's performance and calibration characteristics and predict imminent drive failure.
Versions and drive compatibility.
You can find versions for DOS (Floppy), bootable CD and for Windows. DOS and bootable CD versions are designed for hard drives larger than 8.4 GB with the model number starting with WDxxx. In our site you will find a link to Western Digital Downloads section. There you can find your HDD and Download Data Lifeguard Diagnostic if your HDD is compatible with this tool. However it works with most 2.5" and 3.5" SATA and PATA HDDs.
Supported Operating Systems (for installable version)
- Windows Vista (64-bit)
- Windows Vista (32-bit)
- Windows XP
- Windows 2000
- Windows ME
- Windows 98SE
Installable version
Download Windows Data Lifeguard Diagnostics "windlg_117.zip" file, extract and run the program "WinDLG.msi". If running Windows Vista, you will need to Right-Click on the WinDLG.msi file and choose to Run As Administrator.
CD bootable version
Download "Diag504fCD.zip" file to your desktop and extract it to your desktop with a file extraction utility or download the iso version of the file which does not require extraction with a zip utility. Now use a CD burning program to burn a CD from the .ISO image. (you can find CD&DVD burners here.)
You can now boot the computer to the diagnostics CD. Make sure your boot order in your BIOS is set to boot to the CD-ROM drive first.