Test HDD before use

Swiftz · 16 Nov 2018 at 12:50

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

darael · 16 Nov 2018 at 16:06

A full format should do what you want.

bremen1874 · 16 Nov 2018 at 16:11

Or scan it with the manufacturer's diagnostic.

Swiftz · 16 Nov 2018 at 16:46

bremen1874 said:
Or scan it with the manufacturer's diagnostic.

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

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.

bremen1874 · 16 Nov 2018 at 16:51

Quick test first. If it passes that run the extended. The extended test will take hours to complete.

Swiftz · 16 Nov 2018 at 18:45

bremen1874 said:
Quick test first. If it passes that run the extended. The extended test will take hours to complete.

Thanks, I will run the tests tomorrow and report back with the results.

Also, should I do a full erase which writes zeros to the drive or is that not necessary?

bremen1874 · 16 Nov 2018 at 18:50

If this is a brand new drive none of this is really necessary except for peace of mind.

If it passes diagnosis leave it at that.

edGfaCTor · 16 Nov 2018 at 23:26

Hirens Boot CD is worth getting.

darael · 18 Nov 2018 at 10:01

bremen1874 said:
If this is a brand new drive none of this is really necessary except for peace of mind.

If it passes diagnosis leave it at that.

It's rare I test a harddrive these days - I find it just isn't needed. If I were to test a drive, a successful full format would give me confidence in the drive.

Perhaps if I was selling the drive, I would run quick and full tests for the buyer's peace of mind. But I usually get a lot of years from my drives anyway, so this seldom happens.

MassiveJim · 19 Nov 2018 at 15:41

If you can mount it in an existing windows install, look for a program called HDDScan.
very light application that can do quite a bit, including a sector by sector surface scan of the drive.

Swiftz · 20 Nov 2018 at 15:48

bremen1874 said:
Quick test first. If it passes that run the extended. The extended test will take hours to complete.

I have ran the quick and extended test yesterday and this is the result. So I assume the drive is healthy with no bad sectors/blocks?

darael said:
A full format should do what you want.

Is the full format the same as the extended test I did?

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.

Semple · 20 Nov 2018 at 16:20

Swiftz said:
I have ran the quick and extended test yesterday and this is the result. So I assume the drive is healthy with no bad sectors/blocks?

Is the full format the same as the extended test I did?

Yep that looks fine.

I think i prefer to use passmark (i think that's what it's called), as that will mark each block green or red depending on health.