testing external hard drive

[Nooblite]

I'm picking up an external hard drive, 14tb Seagate Expansion Desktop.

 

Are there any tests I should do to make sure it'll last me for a long time? I want to make sure there are no defects, and I would rather not make a second trip to replace it.

 

And does anyone know its safe non-operating temperature range? It's going to be in -15 degrees celsius weather for about 20 minutes, and I'm a bit concerned

[emosun]

23 minutes ago, Nooblite said:

Are there any tests I should do to make sure it'll last me for a long time?

i don't know of any form of test that predicts the future state of a drive , only the current state.

24 minutes ago, Nooblite said:

And does anyone know its safe non-operating temperature range? It's going to be in -15 degrees celsius weather for about 20 minutes, and I'm a bit concerned

the drive will have a minimum operating temp but won't have one for just being off. it would be lower than in atmosphere temp so it'll be fine.

[Godlygamer23]

18 minutes ago, emosun said:

the drive will have a minimum operating temp but won't have one for just being off. it would be lower than in atmosphere temp so it'll be fine.

Some data sheets do list a non-operating temperature range. For the Seagate ones I looked at, there isn't one reported. But for the drives that I use for my NAS(Red Pros), there is a non-operating temperature listed.

Spoiler

Even with that, the temperature is -40 degrees C. I doubt WD's hard drives are any more special fundamentally than Seagate's. Even WD's "Blue" variants have the same reported temperature range of -40 to 70 degrees C, which I would expect Seagate's to be fairly similar. 

 

@Nooblite

That temperature is fine. Just make sure the drive is warmed up to atmospheric temperature before using it - this is specifically for condensation and for the drive itself.

 

EDIT: One of Seagate's data sheets shows an operating temperature range of 5 to 60 degrees C, so I would expect -15 degrees C for non-operating conditions to be within the proper range of the drive.

Edited January 15, 2024 by Godlygamer23

[Ryker Robb]

52 minutes ago, Nooblite said:

And does anyone know its safe non-operating temperature range? It's going to be in -15 degrees celsius weather for about 20 minutes, and I'm a bit concerned

Don't know exactly what drive will be inside it, but it will likely have a non operating temperature range of -40-70°C:

https://www.seagate.com/content/dam/seagate/migrated-assets/www-content/datasheets/pdfs/ironwolf-pro-14tb-DS1914-7-1807US-en_US.pdf

56 minutes ago, Nooblite said:

Are there any tests I should do to make sure it'll last me for a long time? I want to make sure there are no defects, and I would rather not make a second trip to replace it.

You can do a full surface scan with hd tune or victoria.