Test HDD before using

[Casterina]

I have bought a 4TB Blue drive and was wondering what software should I use to test the drive (health and bad sectors etc) before using so it?

[tikker]

I've never tested my drives. Plug them in, if they work great, I'll start using them. If you want you can check the SMART status (e.g. with CrystalDiskInfo), run a few benchmarks or do a burn-in if you really want.

[Casterina]

3 minutes ago, tikker said:

I've never tested my drives. Plug them in, if they work great, I'll start using them. If you want you can check the SMART status (e.g. with CrystalDiskInfo), run a few benchmarks or do a burn-in if you really want.

What field should I be looking at in Crystal Disk Info other than health status? Also, which software should I use for burn-in test?

[tikker]

2 minutes ago, Casterina said:

What field should I be looking at in Crystal Disk Info other than health status? Also, which software should I use for burn-in test?

If it says healthy it should be fine. I mostly only look at the reallocated sector count and maybe pending sectors, as these indicate bad sectors. I don't know about burn-in software, as I have never done it.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

44 minutes ago, tikker said:

If it says healthy it should be fine. I mostly only look at the reallocated sector count and maybe pending sectors, as these indicate bad sectors. I don't know about burn-in software, as I have never done it.

Since drive failures occur most frequently when one first gets them or after having them several years, I always used the drive wiping function in CCleaner to repeatedly write ones and zeroes to the drive for a couple of weeks. If a drive was going to fail early, it will show up soon enough to allow one to get a new replacement from the vendor.

 

I no longer can recommend CCleaner but there are other drive wiper programs one can use.

[Casterina]

2 hours ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

Since drive failures occur most frequently when one first gets them or after having them several years, I always used the drive wiping function in CCleaner to repeatedly write ones and zeroes to the drive for a couple of weeks. If a drive was going to fail early, it will show up soon enough to allow one to get a new replacement from the vendor.

 

I no longer can recommend CCleaner but there are other drive wiper programs one can use.

I have checked on WD website and they have the Data Lifeguard Diagnostics tool, which test should I do?

 

Quote

Quick test - Performs SMART drive quick self-test to gather and verify the Data Lifeguard information contained on the drive.

 

Extended test- Performs a Full Media Scan to detect bad sectors; and attempt to repair them, or mark the damaged sector for not to be written to. This test may take several hours to complete depending on the size of the drive. The average test time takes about 1 hour per Terabyte.

 

Erase - Erase will low-level format the drive with options of Full Erase and Quick Erase. File system and partition table will be permanently erased.

 

[tikker]

2 hours ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

Since drive failures occur most frequently when one first gets them or after having them several years, I always used the drive wiping function in CCleaner to repeatedly write ones and zeroes to the drive for a couple of weeks. If a drive was going to fail early, it will show up soon enough to allow one to get a new replacement from the vendor.

 

I no longer can recommend CCleaner but there are other drive wiper programs one can use.

In my day-to-day use PC there's nothing irreplacable on the drives, so would it fail I would have my backups and just RMA the drive. I might do it if I had more extensive storage.

25 minutes ago, Casterina said:

I have checked on WD website and they have the Data Lifeguard Diagnostics tool, which test should I do?

 

 

Those are probably just scans SMART status tools. The Full Erase would come close as a proper "test", as it will probably physically write 0s to the entire drive (beware this takes a looong time).

[Lady Fitzgerald]

1 hour ago, tikker said:

In my day-to-day use PC there's nothing irreplacable on the drives, so would it fail I would have my backups and just RMA the drive...

The idea of torture testng the HDD is, if it going to fail early, you want it to fail while still in the vendor's return window who will replace the drive with a new one. After that window, you would have to apply for an RMA from the manufacturer which, if granted, will usually result getting a refurbished drive in exchange instead of a new one.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

2 hours ago, Casterina said:

I have checked on WD website and they have the Data Lifeguard Diagnostics tool, which test should I do?

Use the WD tool to test the drive to see if it is good or not. The torture test I described is for something different, as discribed in my post just previous to this one.

[tikker]

22 minutes ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

The idea of torture testng the HDD is, if it going to fail early, you want it to fail while still in the vendor's return window who will replace the drive with a new one. After that window, you would have to apply for an RMA from the manufacturer which, if granted, will usually result getting a refurbished drive in exchange instead of a new one.

I know what the torture test is meant to show. I've just had nothing but positive experience with the warranty through the shop I buy all my electronics through and they've always sent me a new one after either I or their tests proof stuff is dead or not working. In this case not dealing with the manufacturer directly (which doesn't occur often anyway) benefits me I guess. The return window for getting a new replacement is 6 months, so if it's gonna die it'll probably show within that time.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

1 minute ago, tikker said:

I know what the torture test is meant to show. I've just had nothing but positive experience with the warranty through the shop I buy all my electronics through and they've always sent me a new one after either I or their tests proof stuff is dead or not working.

For how long after you buy an HDD will that shop give you a new replacement for a drive that has failed or otherwise gone bad? Some early failures may not show up for six months or more and most vendors will not replace a failed or otherwise bad drive with a new one after a month, expecting you to go to the manufacturer for a replacement, which normally gets you a refurb instad of a new one. The torture test is intende to force a failure that might not show up for several months to show up within a month so you can get a new replacement from the vendor, not a refurb from the manufacturer.

[tikker]

1 minute ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

For how long after you buy an HDD will that shop give you a new replacement for a drive that has failed or otherwise gone bad? Some early failures may not show up for six months or more and most vendors will not replace a failed or otherwise bad drive with a new one after a month, expecting you to go to the manufacturer for a replacement, which normally gets you a refurb instad of a new one. The torture test is intende to force a failure that might not show up for several months to show up within a month so you can get a new replacement from the vendor, not a refurb from the manufacturer.

Within 6 months you undeniably have right to a new replacement, as a general rule, because things just aren't supposed to break that fast. They also deal with the manufacturer for you.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

3 minutes ago, tikker said:

Within 6 months you undeniably have right to a new replacement, as a general rule, because things just aren't supposed to break that fast. They also deal with the manufacturer for you.

I totally agree one should get a new replacement after only six months but, unfortunately, that's not how most most manufacturers handle it.

 

What is this incredible shop you are talking about? Btw, you never did answer for how long after you buy an HDD will that shop give you a new replacement for a drive that has failed or otherwise gone bad?

[tikker]

2 minutes ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

I totally agree one should get a new replacement after only six months but, unfortunately, that's not how most most manufacturers handle it.

 

What is this incredible shop you are talking about? Btw, you never did answer for how long after you buy an HDD will that shop give you a new replacement for a drive that has failed or otherwise gone bad?

Well the 6 month is just consumer law. I never had hard drives fail on me, but they sent me new stuff even after things broke 2 years into the 3 year warranty. All my computer related buys come from Azerty.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

6 minutes ago, tikker said:

Well the 6 month is just consumer law. I never had hard drives fail on me, but they sent me new stuff even after things broke 2 years into the 3 year warranty. All my computer related buys come from Azerty.

It's not in the SSA (Squabbling States of America). Where in the world is Azerty?

[tikker]

2 minutes ago, Lady Fitzgerald said:

It's not in the SSA (Squabbling States of America). Where in the world is Azerty?

The land of the Dutchies, the Netherlands. They can get finnicky though about damaged stickers and the likes; not like they're just handing out drives  

[Lady Fitzgerald]

25 minutes ago, tikker said:

The land of the Dutchies, the Netherlands. They can get finnicky though about damaged stickers and the likes; not like they're just handing out drives  

Different countries, different laws. 

 

Hoever, methinks being finicky about damaged stickers and the likes is pretty universal unless local laws say otherwise. In the SSA, they aren't supposed to matter unless it can be proven by the vendor or manufacturer that opening the item and fooling around inside was the cause of a problem. In real life, one has to prove that it wasn't the casue to the vendor or manufacturer, usually in court.

 

[r0otctrl]

On 11/16/2018 at 6:22 AM, Lady Fitzgerald said:

Since drive failures occur most frequently when one first gets them or after having them several years, I always used the drive wiping function in CCleaner to repeatedly write ones and zeroes to the drive for a couple of weeks. If a drive was going to fail early, it will show up soon enough to allow one to get a new replacement from the vendor.

 

I no longer can recommend CCleaner but there are other drive wiper programs one can use.

you can use Windows command prompt to do this with the `format` command