What can I do to test a new hard drive?

[Shephard]

I just got my Caviar Black 1TB today. Very excited ito nly took a week to come. No box damage and sealed so that is a good sign.

I just installed Windows 7 on it, took about 30 minutes.

There is no clicking so that is a good sign. The hard drive is a bit noisy but everyone said that, even the good reviews.

What can I do to test it for bad sectors or any other bad stuff?

Right now it's just temporarily being used. Once I get the rest of my new parts the operating system will be on an SSD so I will have to wipe this drive.

thanks all!

 

[Elixer]

Normally, you test things without anything installed on it.
But anyway, it all depends on how much you want to punish the drive.
You can get a programs that torture test the HD.
http://hddguru.com/software/2006.01.22-HDDScan/ (in windows) or
http://hddguru.com/software/2005.10.02-MHDD/ (no OS--boot disk) work well.
It is going to take quite awhile to test the HD though, anywhere from 3-12 hours depending on what tests.

 

[Shephard]

well too late for that I got excited and wanted to see if it was working.

which one do you recommend?

what about check disk? is that worth doing or no.

 

[WilliamM2]

Download the Ultimate Boot CD (then you can test just about anything) and choose one of the manufacturers HDD diagnostic tools. I prefer IBM/Hitachi, as it works on all brands, and seems to work with a wider variety of sata controllers. Run the full test. Took about 3.5 hours on my black 1TB drive.

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/download.html

 

[razel]

Western Digital has WD Diagnosis software. No need for third party unless you run into an issue with WD's software.

 

[tivo1]

this is what im using from now on...

badblocks -svw -c 4096 -b 4096 /dev/sdb

and then some smartctl commands prolly for internal drives

 

[Blain]

Why the obsession with "testing" if the drive is doing 100% fine?
It's a hard drive... use it and focus on a something that really matters.

 

[WilliamM2]

Why the obsession with "testing" if the drive is doing 100% fine?
It's a hard drive... use it and focus on a something that really matters.

I always run full diagnostic test on any new drive. No point in finding bad sectors after I've gone to all the trouble to set up Windows on it, or transfer all my data to it. Drives can and do get damaged in shipping, and it's not always obvious.

I'd rather find out immediately, and just do an exchange, rather than be stuck with a refurb drive from the manufacturer once the return period is over.

Of course he is going about it backwards...

 

[Shephard]

well this is my first new hard drive in 5 years.

It's gonna be in my new main computer. So I am gonna copy all my backed up off my external on to the main one.

I don't wanna find out it months later that was something wrong and the drive craps out. Then I lose all my data that I put on it!

Find out earlier if it is damaged and RMA!

 

[Nothinman]

Why the obsession with "testing" if the drive is doing 100% fine?
It's a hard drive... use it and focus on a something that really matters.

Because they fail so frequently that I feel it's good to put a new one through some paces before trusting it. And running something like bonnie++ for a day doesn't take any effort, I just have to have the patience to wait a little bit longer before using it.

 

[Zap]

Why the obsession with "testing" if the drive is doing 100% fine?

I've always wondered about this.

I also wonder about other stuff, such as why some people keep re-scanning their system for viruses even though the previous scan was clean and they have AV running in the background all the time.

I don't wanna find out it months later that was something wrong and the drive craps out. Then I lose all my data that I put on it!

First thing is if you don't want to lose data, have more than one copy of it on separate media.

Second thing is that your initial testing will only cull the drives that are subject to DOA or hardware "infant mortality." It will not find out if your drive is prone to failure at some random date in the remote future.

 

[Nothinman]

First thing is if you don't want to lose data, have more than one copy of it on separate media.

Second thing is that your initial testing will only cull the drives that are subject to DOA or hardware "infant mortality." It will not find out if your drive is prone to failure at some random date in the remote future.

First, it's not always worth it to duplicate every piece of data one may have to a second or third drive. I could have several terabytes of movies that I've ripped from disc. Losing them to a dead drive wouldn't really cost me anything but time, but I would rather not have to spend all of that time ripping them again. So spending some hands-off time up front is a much better investment.

Second, that's the point.

 

[Blain]

First, it's not always worth it to duplicate every piece of data one may have to a second or third drive.

Very true.
It's not worth backing up data that wouldn't adversely affect you, should it be lost.
I believe that's what Zap was alluding to...

First thing is if you don't want to lose data, have more than one copy of it on separate media.

 

[Fallengod]

Yeah, I never give a rats ass. If I can format and install an OS on a drive, I assume it to be in good working order. Usually if something is broken, youll know.

And ya, if you care about your data, back it up to multiple drives.

 

[Nothinman]

Very true.
It's not worth backing up data that wouldn't adversely affect you, should it be lost.
I believe that's what Zap was alluding to...

But it makes more sense to spend a few hours stress testing a drive before using it than to blindly use it and have to spend hours or days reripping movies, music, etc after it dies in a week. And it's not like you have to babysit it, start the tool up and then check on it in the morning. It takes virtually no time or effort.

 

[Fallengod]

But it makes more sense to spend a few hours stress testing a drive before using it than to blindly use it and have to spend hours or days reripping movies, music, etc after it dies in a week. And it's not like you have to babysit it, start the tool up and then check on it in the morning. It takes virtually no time or effort.

Sounds good in theory but the reality of it is it does not work that way. In fact, sometimes the stress of the tools youre using to "stress" it can cause drives to fail where as they might not have otherwise, and ive seen that happen.

Also, passing a stress test means nothing, this is not some defense against a drive dying within a few weeks of purchasing it. That can still happen and ive seen it happen.

In the end, its probably a decent idea to do some tests on it but, I dont put that much effort into personally. In the hardware world, anything can and will happen.

 

[Nothinman]

Sounds good in theory but the reality of it is it does not work that way. In fact, sometimes the stress of the tools youre using to "stress" it can cause drives to fail where as they might not have otherwise, and ive seen that happen.

Also, passing a stress test means nothing, this is not some defense against a drive dying within a few weeks of purchasing it. That can still happen and ive seen it happen.

In the end, its probably a decent idea to do some tests on it but, I dont put that much effort into personally. In the hardware world, anything can and will happen.

If the drive can't handle the stress of actually being used, I don't want to trust it anyway.

No one is saying that if a drive passes a specific test it will definitely last for 10 years. But one should still do their due diligence. You also say it's probably a good idea and since it takes so little effort to let a tool run for a day or so, what's the problem?

 

[Fallengod]

If the drive can't handle the stress of actually being used, I don't want to trust it anyway.

No one is saying that if a drive passes a specific test it will definitely last for 10 years. But one should still do their due diligence. You also say it's probably a good idea and since it takes so little effort to let a tool run for a day or so, what's the problem?

Just sayin.

 

[jwilliams4200]

But it makes more sense to spend a few hours stress testing a drive before using it than to blindly use it and have to spend hours or days reripping movies, music, etc after it dies in a week. And it's not like you have to babysit it, start the tool up and then check on it in the morning. It takes virtually no time or effort.

Exactly right. I always run badblocks on new HDDs that I get. I just let it run in the background and it takes a day or two to cycle through all the patterns on a 4TB HDD. If there are any badblocks found, I just return the HDD. Technically, if there are a small number of bad blocks, they can be remapped and the drive should be fine...but why risk it?

Over the past 10 years or so that I have been doing this, I have found several HDDs with bad blocks (must have gone through over 100 HDDs, not just for my own use). Most of the HDDs with bad blocks came from newegg and had been packed poorly.

 

[tivo1]

i agree with jwilliams... as someone who has literally used hundreds of drives, and have had a large number fail, from every manufacturer - drives go bad, sometimes come bad...

If im buying a external Harddrive to use in my raid 6 array - before i potentially void the warranty by opening up the enclosure im going to test it the best i can, and if it has bed blocks Ill return it.

 

[capeconsultant]

I always did a windows error check and a defrag. More of a superstition than anything else. But... I have had very good luck with drives