Hard disk testing & integration facility

0870 7424 008

Hard Disk Systems Integration and Test Facilities

Overview: Data Clinic provide independent research, evaluation, integration and testing services of systems using hard disks. Utilizing our two fully equipped facilities, we offer comprehensive testing and evaluation of different system components and interfaces in their operational environment, extreme conditions or extended life. This allows our customers to correctly integrate their systems, pinpointing any weaknesses or potential failures, and removing them.

Test Facilities: Our test facilities are based in Bury, England and Prato, Italy. Our research is partly funded by the UK's Department of Trade and Industry.

Below is a brief outline of the testing and integration services we offer:

Test Planning Activities - Identify system tests using customer requirements, design and environmental documentation

Prepare test cases and test scenarios to run these system tests
Plan the development, if required, of tools such as simulators, to support system testing
Prepare, operational profiles for the system
Schedule activities and estimate testing costs

Overall systems testing - Specification compliance testing during integration

Stress testing - The behaviour of the system under extreme or extended operation and load for reliability, performance and use-ability
Acceptance testing - The system is tested to check if it conforms to the terms and conditions of sale or contract
Interface testing - Where the interactions between sub-systems and components are tested
Physical and environmental testing - Vibration, shock, magnetic interference, temperature etc

Data Clinic's system testing will show-up potential problems and errors not anticipated in the design or manufacturing process.

Hardware Interfaces

Physical-level interfaces - Concerned with the physical connection of different parts of the system e.g. plug/socket compatibility, physical space utilisation, wiring correctness, etc.
Electrical-level interfaces - Concerned with the electrical/electronic compatibility of hardware units i.e. can a signal produced by one unit be processed by another unit
Protocol-level interfaces - Concerned with the format of the signals communicated between hardware units.

Interface testing involves the deployment of specialised equipment to monitor its operation. We then analyse the results, investigate the problems and propose solutions.

Software interface testing

Tests are designed after studying the overall system design and software specifications. Our test programs must account for overall operational functional parameters, procedures and protocols.

Stress Testing - Pushing systems beyond maximum design loads

System failures are most likely to show themselves at the extremes of the system’s behaviour
When a system is overloaded, it should degrade gracefully rather than fail catastrophically
As the load on the system increases, so too does the message traffic. At some stage, the system is likely to become swamped dealing with tasks or errors and the work done by the system or user degrades.

Above: Fault finding on a multi layer PCB. Frequently, failure is due to one or more surface mount components, but finding the cause of the failure is what we are looking for...

For further information on our testing and integration facility please contact us on

0870 7424 008

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Current Testing Operations:

CCTV equipment using hard disks

Many modern CCTV devices record their data onto hard disks rather than video tape. There are many reasons for this - video tapes are bulky, provide poor multiplexed quality and wear out. A hard disk recording system provides a much enhanced all-round performance. Under certain conditions, these units have been found to fail. Recovering lost CCTV footage

Hard drives used in EPOS systems

These cash tills also provide additional services such as stock control and a degree of data protection by duplicating data across other machines. When failure occurs it often leads to the loss of critical data.

Above: A laptop hard drive and caddy system from a failed field unit undergoing hardware testing

Above: Programming a failure simulation