carm wrote:
> How do you get memtest86 to run? Do you have to make it a bootable cd
> or floopy? Im running windowsxp pro.Thanks.
>
The floppy version of memtest86+, is a floppy formatting program.
You execute the program you downloaded. The program will prompt you
to insert a blank floppy into the floppy drive. The program will
then install the test program on the floppy. The contents of the
floppy at that point, cannot be listed in Windows. Once memtest86+
is installed on the blank floppy, there is no conventional file
system on the floppy. Just the test program is there. But it is
effectively invisible, and you cannot list it in Windows or DOS.
At that point in time, it is a good idea to write on the paper
label, that the floppy contains memtest86+.
You then go into the BIOS and verify that the floppy is the first
boot device in your BIOS boot order. If you restart the computer,
and the floppy is inserted in the drive, you'll boot from the floppy
and memtest86+ will begin testing. A 640x480 screen should appear,
with a text based status printed on the screen.
If you want to reuse the floppy again for something else later,
you'll have to reformat it, to put a conventional file system
on it.
The CDROM version is a .ISO . You burn it to a CD and then the CD
should be bootable. I've never tried the CDROM version myself.
There is no operating system present when memtest86+ runs. The
program is pretty small, and operates the computer itself.
Memtest86+ is relocatable, and the program actually moves itself
out of the way, and tests the memory underneath. That is how
memtest86+ is able to test every byte of the memory. Memtest86+
does two tests. It tests the memory above itself first. Then,
memtest86+ moves out of the way, and tests the memory area where
the executable used to live. And that is what makes it superior
to memory test programs that run while in Windows - the Windows
based programs cannot move the OS out of the way, and test the
memory where the OS lives.
Paul
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