How do you check your HDDs health?

[shamus8888]

Hi all!

I am building a rig from old parts salvaged from my attic. I have 2 HHDs that I plan to use, which are Maxtor DiamondMax10 200GB S300 and Maxtor 250 GB 7,200rpm DiamondMax 10.

I temporarily tested them on my main rig and they still seem to work find. However, I am wondering if there is any way that I could test if the HDDs are still healthy? Could they still be used? The rig I am building is a simple machine for my kid who will just use it for surfing and light gaming. He also stores a lot of pictures as he is into photography.

So, I am wondering if I should just get new HDDs or should I gamble using these two?

Also, I plan to give the rig a cheap C2D chip, will these HDDs somehow impair the performance?

Thanks for answering.

 

[Nothinman]

You can get something that will show you the SMART information and do the SMART self-tests.

 

[solog]

just use those two. Backup photos to dvd.

 

[shamus8888]

Originally posted by: Nothinman
You can get something that will show you the SMART information and do the SMART self-tests.

I dont think my 2 HDDs even support SMART :< And if they do, what is the tool/software to achieve this?

I googled " check HDD health " and came up with several pretty suspicious websites so I do not dare download anything as yet.

edit: Never mind. I used the latest Speedfan's S.M.A.R.T tab and it seems that my HDDs are still pretty fit and performing well

 

[shamus8888]

Originally posted by: solog
just use those two. Backup photos to dvd.

Hmm, yeah... thats what I have in mind tbh. Not really the time to splash out too much cash. Just wondering if these 2 HDDs are worth keeping.

 

[Nothinman]

I dont think my 2 HDDs even support SMART :< And if they do, what is the tool/software to achieve this?

It's extremely rare to find a hard disk that doesn't do SMART. And since those two are 200G+ that means they're semi-recent so the chances of them not supporting it are virtually 0.

I use smartmontools on Linux, for Windows I have no idea what's available.

 

[RebateMonger]

My personal experience says that I'd be REALLY careful about keeping backups of systems that you put those Maxtors into. Of course, that's always a necessity, but with Maxtors of the 2002-2005 timeframe, it's even more important.

At this point, I don't have a SINGLE Maxtor consumer-level drive built after 2000 that's still working, including a 250GB drive that just quit. Seagate acquired Maxtor a couple of years ago and dumped all their old designs, so today's Maxtors should be as reliable as Seagate's drives. Whatever that means.