<html><head></head><body>+1 for both smartctl and memtest86+. SMART tests are easy to run but are time-consuming, a simple smartctl --test=long /dev/sdX will do fine. Just remember to replace sdX with the suspect drive :) <div class="gmail_quote">On September 6, 2014 10:14:57 PM EDT, Chick Tower <c.e.tower@gmail.com> wrote:<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;"> <pre class="k9mail">On 09/06/2014 09:58 PM, Andy Ball wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 1ex 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid #729fcf; padding-left: 1ex;"> Looking for some help and tips. I am currently running Ubuntu 12.04 (64bit) I am having some crash issues lately and suspect Hard drive or CPU issues are there tools that are recommended to help identify what the problem might be. Not the best with command line so graphical tools are desired. I am looking at upgrading from 12.04 to 14.04 I leaning towards fresh install. My main concern is keeping Virtual Box machines from breaking most of them are on an external drive is there something I need to be aware of and back up. </blockquote> If you're worried about a hard drive failing, Andy, check out smartctl and smartd. I don't know of any GUI interfaces for them, but they're what you want. How old is the problematic PC? I thought I was had a failing video card on my eleven-year-old PC, but a replacement video card didn't make any difference. Later, Bill Marr suggested that it might well be the power supply, which I now suspect could be true. I replaced that PC, though, so I'm not going to spend any more time trying to figure it out. But, depending on your symptoms, if there's any reason to suspect the power supply you might want to find out how to check that out or how to replace it. In my case, the PC would suddenly start the boot process, with no shutdown beforehand.</pre></blockquote></div> -- Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.</body></html>