testing for a possible "weak" HD

Spanik · l33t Joined: 12 Dec 2003 Posts: 943 Location: Belgium

I have here 4 HD's that come from my previous raid array. They are not that big, 1.5TB but right now I could use a kind of "scratch" disk for storing stuff before I can classify it. For that use it is big enough. I can not remember if I took them out because of a degraded array or just because it was becoming too small.

Is there some kind of application that might test those disks to check if they are still usable? Of is this a case of cutting losses?
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Expert in non-working solutions

Goverp · Advocate Joined: 07 Mar 2007 Posts: 2009

smartctl's long offline test is the usual starting point, together with a careful examination of the SMART reports; you'll find lots of people asking about broken disks on these forums, and the replies will tell you more about SMART. For more detailed analysis you probably want the manufacturer's diagnostic/test disk you download from their sites; sometimes Windows applications, sometimes stand-alone or DOS (still!), though some of them I think now just print SMART statistics.
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Greybeard

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2023 1:27 pm Post subject:

Spanik,

Record the output of smartctl -x ...
Run the long test
Record the output of smartctl -x ... again.

Post both.

The long test is a drive surface scan that the drive does internally. Like reading the entire drive to /dev/null but no data passes over the interface.
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Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

Spanik · l33t Joined: 12 Dec 2003 Posts: 943 Location: Belgium

Ok, I'll see if I can hook them up. I assume I better connect them to the motherboard and not through a usb adapter?
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Expert in non-working solutions

Hu · Moderator Joined: 06 Mar 2007 Posts: 21635

Motherboard would be preferable. Some USB drive enclosures can pass SMART commands well enough to be usable here. I believe I have read of some that cannot. If you try a drive enclosure that is not suitable, you will not be able to use the SMART commands, but will (probably) not be misled into misclassifying the drive's health.