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Thane_Bitter
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Premium Member
join:2005-01-20

Thane_Bitter

Premium Member

New HDD's, do you bother to test them?

Anyone test their drive before putting it to use, or just lock it in the case and load it up? If you do test which tools do you use?

In days of old with SCSI drives I could easily do a low level format from the drive controller which would turn up any problems, with SATA drives I use one of the safe-erase tools on a setting that writes to each area a couple of times, the only issue is such programs are slow. Anything faster out there?
davidhoffman
Premium Member
join:2009-11-19
Warner Robins, GA

davidhoffman

Premium Member

RAID 1 workstations and server storage for us. When one workstation drive fails we put a new drive in, copy and go. Our sophisticated CAD/CAM staff has a NetApps machine in addition to all that.

As you have noted, drives today are so big they take forever to test. We need the workstations back up and running ASAP, so we do not do the erase tool testing any longer. Our purchasers have learned which drives last and which manufacturers have good return policies. We get the best value of those two issues.

Redundancy in the primary, and secondary secure storage, is the way we have decided to go to protect against drive problems.
HarryH3
Premium Member
join:2005-02-21

HarryH3 to Thane_Bitter

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As davidhoffman noted, it's not that the programs are slow, it's that the drives now have an incredible amount of sectors to test. It takes a long time to write/read TB's of bits and bytes.

It's only going to get worse. Seagate just came out with a SIX TB 3.5-inch drive.

I also don't bother testing. I just make a drive image with Macrium Reflect and then push it to the new drive. If the new drive dies an early death, I still have the backup image.

Camelot One
MVM
join:2001-11-21
Bloomington, IN

Camelot One to Thane_Bitter

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I don't test OS drives. They usually get a fresh install, and any bad drives I've had usually show a problem during setup.

Storage drives I usually test, more so with the larger ones. Most of my media rigs don't have any sort of internal redundancy, so I like to be sure the drives are fully working before loading them up.

Kilroy
MVM
join:2002-11-21
Saint Paul, MN

Kilroy to Thane_Bitter

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My testing is limited to doing a full, not quick, format of the drive. I'm waiting for Steve Gibson to update SpinRite as the next update is supposed to be a massive improve speed improvement. Right now the current version takes about two full days to go through a 3TB drive. Since 3TB drives are my small drives I don't have time to run it on the 18 drives I have connected to my machine.

Thane_Bitter
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join:2005-01-20

1 recommendation

Thane_Bitter to HarryH3

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said by HarryH3:

It's only going to get worse. Seagate just came out with a SIX TB 3.5-inch drive

It gets better, or I should say bigger, HGST has announced 10TB drives.
»www.tomsitpro.com/articl ··· 193.html

aurgathor
join:2002-12-01
Lynnwood, WA

aurgathor to Thane_Bitter

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I always test my HDs, although the amount of testing may differ.

For one, I always do a full format at the first time -- there is no exception. And if it doesn't pass, that's an automatic return. Happened with a brand new 1.5TB Seagate some years ago -- it kept failing at the same place. Went back to Frys, and they were telling me that it formats fine. When using quick format.

Most of the time I also do a full LLF/zero write followed by 1 or 2 passes of surface scan to ensure that the HD is in a good condition.

It may take a day or two to finish testing, but I consider it time well spent. I do not have raid or any sophisticated backup plan, so I need to make sure that my HDs do not show any sign of obvious defects.

Thane_Bitter
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join:2005-01-20

Thane_Bitter

Premium Member

Ok, thanks for the input, I guess do a single zero pass or just skip that with a full format.