Hardware Clinic

Boot-and-test hardware diagnostics on a USB stick. Plug it in, boot, and in about one second you have a full diagnostic bench — no Windows, no Linux, no install. The whole thing is one ~360 KB UEFI program, built from scratch with no libraries. Works on any UEFI PC and Intel Mac.

Download

Your computer	Download	Then
Windows	Make-Hardware-Clinic-Stick.exe · 67 MB	Run it and pick your USB stick.
Mac	Make-Hardware-Clinic-Stick.command and hardware-clinic-1.0.0-rc8.img · 64 MB	Put both in one folder and double-click the .command.
Linux	hardware-clinic-1.0.0-rc8.img · 64 MB	sudo dd if=hardware-clinic-1.0.0-rc8.img of=/dev/sdX bs=1M conv=fsync or tools/flash.sh
Virtual machine	hardware-clinic-1.0.0-rc8.iso · 64 MB	Boot it as a CD image.

Version 1.0.0-rc8 · free for personal use · the stick boots UEFI PCs and Intel Macs (not Apple Silicon) · all files and checksums

_{The rc8 image booted in QEMU/OVMF: menu → System info → Drive health → Memory test on 4 cores. Same UI on real hardware.}

⚠️ This tool can permanently erase data. It includes secure-wipe, drive-clone and partition-repair tools that overwrite disks. It is provided as-is, with no warranty, and the author is not liable for any data loss or damage. You are responsible for what you run it on. See LICENSE.txt.

Computer won't start and your files are on it?

Boot the stick, press f ("Save my files"), and plug in a USB drive when it asks. It finds your photos and documents, tells you how many there are, copies them across, and tells you where they went. Nothing on the computer is changed. Works with Windows, Mac and Linux drives.

Encrypted drives (BitLocker, FileVault, LUKS) are detected and explained in plain words — without the password there is nothing any tool can do.

What it does

• Quick check — a two-minute PASS / WORN / FAULT verdict on RAM, drives, cooling, video memory, hardware error log, network, display and keyboard.
• Diagnose — SMART and drive self-tests, surface read with bad-sector repair, multi-core memory test (names the faulty module), stress test with temperature and per-core analysis, counterfeit- capacity test, USB-port test, PCIe link health, fans/voltages, peripherals, OS-version detection.
• Fix & rescue — "Save my files" for anyone; Advanced rescue (a) to pick exact folders off an NTFS, ext4 or APFS drive that won't boot; clone a failing drive around its bad sectors; repair boot entries and destroyed partition tables.
• Certify — secure wipe with a certificate (text, printable HTML, and an on-screen QR), signed when you install your own key, for resale and disposal.

Results can be signed with your own Ed25519 key (see the fleet guide), and tools/verify.py checks any signed report, certificate or QR later. The download itself ships without a key, so its output is marked NOT SIGNED.

Screenshots

Built-in guide — which tool for which complaint (press ?)	Structured results (Hardware scan)

Making the stick

• Windows: run Make-Hardware-Clinic-Stick.exe. It lists only USB sticks, shows the model and size, asks you to confirm, and writes the stick. (Windows will ask for administrator permission and may show a SmartScreen warning because the program is new and unsigned — choose More info → Run anyway.)
• macOS: put Make-Hardware-Clinic-Stick.command in the same folder as the .img and double-click it. If macOS says it's from an unidentified developer: right-click → Open → Open. It uses the normal macOS dialogs and password prompt.
• Linux: tools/flash.sh hardware-clinic-<version>.img.

Both stick makers are beta. The macOS one has written a real stick on macOS 26.2; the Windows one is built and structurally verified but has not yet been run on a real machine. They only ever offer removable USB drives — never internal disks — and show you exactly which drive before writing. If in doubt, use the manual commands below.

Making the stick by hand

1. Download hardware-clinic-<version>.img and check it against SHA256SUMS.
2. Write it to a USB stick (this erases the stick):
   • macOS: diskutil unmountDisk /dev/diskN && sudo dd if=hardware-clinic-<version>.img of=/dev/rdiskN bs=1m
   • Linux: sudo dd if=hardware-clinic-<version>.img of=/dev/sdX bs=1M conv=fsync
   • Windows: Rufus or balenaEtcher, in DD/image mode.
3. Boot from it: PC — tap the boot-menu key (F12/F9/Esc/F10) and pick the UEFI: USB entry; Intel Mac — hold Option and choose EFI Boot.

Requirements: a 64-bit UEFI PC, or an Intel Mac. Not Apple Silicon (M1–M4): those Macs refuse to boot non-Apple systems from USB — run it in UTM or QEMU there instead. Secure Boot must be off for this free build (signed builds come with the commercial licence).

Press ? in the menu for a guide to which tool fits which problem.

Known limitation: on laptops whose BIOS sets the storage mode to Intel RST / RAID (many Acer, Dell, HP models), the SSD is hidden from every standard interface, so SMART and drive self-tests are unavailable until the mode is switched to AHCI. The tool tells you when this is the case.

Tested on real hardware

Every build runs a QEMU/OVMF regression bench (NVMe + SATA SMART, 4-core memory test, NTFS / ext4 / APFS rescue, GPT rebuild, wipe-all, signed upload). Real firmware is where the surprises live, and the machines it has run on so far are in COMPATIBILITY.md — one laptop so far, and that one produced three fixes.

Booted it on something? Send a machine report — two minutes, hardware identifiers only. Questions go in Discussions.

How it compares

	Hardware Clinic	Hiren's BootCD PE	Ultimate Boot CD	MemTest86	Parted Magic	DBAN	ShredOS
Built on	From-scratch UEFI app, no OS underneath	Windows PE	DOS / Linux tools, legacy BIOS	UEFI app	Linux live	Linux, legacy BIOS	Linux (nwipe)
Time to a working screen	about a second after POST	minutes	seconds to a minute	seconds	under a minute	under a minute	under a minute
Covers	diagnose, rescue, clone, boot / partition repair, wipe — one tool	very broad third-party toolkit	broad, aging toolkit	memory only	partitioning, erase, recovery	wipe only	wipe only
One-click file rescue for non-technical users	yes	no	no	n/a	no	no	no
Intel Macs	yes	PC-focused	legacy BIOS only	yes	yes	legacy BIOS only	UEFI + legacy; untested on Macs
Wipe certificate	text + HTML + on-screen QR, Ed25519-signed with your own key	no	no	n/a	erase report	no	PDF report
Cost	free for personal use; commercial licence	free	free	free / Pro	from $15	free, unmaintained since 2015	free, open source

The honest trade-off: Hardware Clinic is closed source and can only see what the firmware exposes; the Linux-based tools carry drivers for far more hardware. Competitor details as of September 2026, from their public pages — corrections welcome, open an issue.

Documentation

Guide	For
User guide	Making the stick, booting, every menu item, reading verdicts, secure wipe
Fleet guide	Unattended mode, CLINIC.CFG, signing keys and verification
File formats	RESULT JSON, reports, certificates, signatures
Compatibility	Machines it has been tested on
Security policy	Reporting a wipe or signing problem privately

Free vs. commercial

Free for personal, non-commercial use. Repair shops, IT departments and any business use need a licence — which also unlocks Secure-Boot-signed builds (no BIOS changes on customer machines), the fleet/unattended features, updates and support. See COMMERCIAL.md.

License

Proprietary; free for personal use only. Not open source. See LICENSE.txt and NOTICE.txt. Bundled third-party components (TweetNaCl, qrcodegen, DejaVu font) keep their own licences.