What do you do before start using a new Hard drive?

[Heffe_The_Boss]

So, I just bought a new 10tb Seagate drive... I've gotten into the habit of running Seagate drives through their variety of tests using "seatools" 

 

I run SMART, and short/long generic tests. This new drive I've received is failing the long test, Seatools does have a fix long process... So I'm running that now, but it keeps failing at 30%... I'm thinking about exchanging it. 

 

The last Seagate drive I purchased, it had the same issues... I had to exchange one and then do a long fix on the replacement that showed up... but its been working fine for a year now. 

 

 

 

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What does everyone else do to drives before start loading them up with data?

 

 

 

[♠FlamieMeister♠]

2 minutes ago, Heffe_The_Boss said:

So, I just bought a new 10tb Seagate drive... I've gotten into the habit of running Seagate drives through their variety of tests using "seatools" 

 

I run SMART, and short/long generic tests. This new drive I've received is failing the long test, Seatools does have a fix long process... So I'm running that now, but it keeps failing at 30%... I'm thinking about exchanging it. 

 

The last Seagate drive I purchased, it had the same issues... I had to exchange one and then do a long fix on the replacement that showed up... but its been working fine for a year now. 

 

 

 

___

What does everyone else do to drives before start loading them up with data?

 

 

 

I do legit nothing, just throw it in and see if it works. I still have a 80gb hdd for an ibm machine in my house that still kicks.

[Guest]

I usually connect them, add some screws, maybe format it, change station name. I will usually put a decent amount of data on them, and listen. If the noises are ok, I consider the process done.

[Guest]

Just now, ♠FlamieMeister♠ said:

still kicks.

Still kicks or clicks...

[♠FlamieMeister♠]

Just now, Dutch-stoner said:

Still kicks or clicks...

Kicks as in working. It wasn't really used for much, so that's probably why.

[Heffe_The_Boss]

Just now, Dutch-stoner said:

I usually connect them, add some screws, maybe format it, change station name

 

1 minute ago, ♠FlamieMeister♠ said:

I do legit nothing, just throw it in and see if it works.

 

 

Yikes. Don't you guys worry about bad sectors? I couldn't sleep at night ahaha

[Tiberiusisgame]

They're both Seagate products but there may be a firmware requirement for that software to work properly since the 10TB drive is new. Did you check that issue on the Seagate forum?

 

In all seriousness, I make a silicon sacrifice before installing a new mechanical drive in anything. It's a moral imperative.

[♠FlamieMeister♠]

Just now, Heffe_The_Boss said:

 

 

 

Yikes. Don't you guys worry about bad sectors? I couldn't sleep at night ahaha

Nah. Most the drives I get are from my parents work (Who hand out laptops that have no warranty left on them for free to employees), and they usually test them there. Also, a few bad sectors isn't gonna really stop me when I'm using a 3tb drive.

[Guest]

I wasn't worried, I still am not worried. I usually don't do much, since it's just mass storage and it will idle most of the time. (my HDD's aren't allowed to spin down) Might check the temps now and then, but noting more.

[Heffe_The_Boss]

3 minutes ago, Tiberiusisgame said:

firmware requirement

Actually this might be right, I noticed that the drive I bought last year is running newer firmware... didn't think it could be an issue 

 

 

I don't know, I put my disks through a pretty extreme work environment... constantly seeding, and multiple people accessing media files via plex... So I feel like I need to put the drive through it's own testing before start relying on it to perform that way. 

 

 

 

[Mira Yurizaki]

Use a secure erase tool, alternating what it does. At the very least that'll touch every sector and fill it with 0s or 1s.

 

EDIT: (Actually that was more of a suggestion, I just run Crystal Disk Mark and dump what I wanted onto it and hope it survives for three weeks)

[Sushihunter]

I always like to do a full format, re-name the volume, run some tests using SeaTools, and the WD equivalent.

 

In the past, I've installed HD Sentinel, but haven't used it in a while.

 

Of course, doing all this is no guarantee. I just had a 2TB Seagate Pipeline HD (refurbished), that I got from NewEgg.ca last only 215 days before going tits-up. I got lucky and was able to recover all but 2 files from the drive, but I'm still out about $60 plus many hours of my time.

 

The scary thing is that I got no warning at all. It was working fine one moment, next it just blinked off of the screen and became inaccessible.

 

For the full story: 

 

[Heffe_The_Boss]

6 minutes ago, Sushihunter said:

Of course, doing all this is no guarantee.

Preach on. I've had a number of drives fail, but I always test them out fully before loading them up with data. Right now, I have a seagate 8tb HDD that I instantly sent back when it first received it because it couldn't pass SMART, the replacement is working fine.  I also hada 4tb WD drive  fail and lost data recently, it was a few years old though and the new 4tb that took its place is running fine. 

 

 

I just abuse the snot out of my hard drives... on 24x7, seeding 5000ish files, and a ton of plex users.... those things are always spinning up.

[Sushihunter]

A few years back, I had about 6 Seagate 500GB 7200.11 HD's - EVERY ONE OF THEM FAILED!

 

I lost tons of files.

 

It was so bad, that I had to send 5 of them back for replacement at the same time! And one of those had already been replaced once before.

 

Seagate was really good about replacing them, especially when I told them I did not want the same drive back. They kindly agreed and sent me a different model of HD. So far, they are all still working after about 7 years.