How to recertify used hard-drives?

[bubbles]

I have some 250gb IDE drives I bought used that I want to test thoroughly (check for bad sectors etc.).

What is a good program for this. Something like DBAN, but will also check/fix errors and do a stress test?

[[LYL]Homer]

Run the low level diagnostics provided by the drive manufacturer, check their website.

[DonDon]

Homer;1033137565']Run the low level diagnostics provided by the drive manufacturer, check their website.

Ditto.

I also find the test portion of HDTune to work pretty good too.

The best way to test the drive though is to fill it with data, them copy it off.

This (http://www.nu2.nu/bst/) might be what you are looking for though.

Don

[Joe Average]

DBAN on a drive is simply unnecessary these days unless you're paranoid. A Quick Format (in Windows, of course) followed by general usage of the drive is perfectly acceptable. Never use DBAN as a way of "testing" a drive as that is entirely not the purpose of the software.

The suggestion to use to the hard drive manufacturer's diagnostic tool is the correct course of action as that's what those tools are designed for. Run the Quick or Short test first to spot general issues with the mechanics if they exist, and regardless of the results from that test, always run the Long or Advanced or Thorough (each manufacturer calls that test something different) afterwards and wait for the test to finish. If there are any issues with the drive that will cause a problem of any kind you'll know it from the results.

If the manufacturer doesn't have such a tool (I think all of them have such diagnostics but you may not be able to download them), use the Hitachi Drive Fitness Test as it seems to be functional for any and all other brands of drives and does basically the same testing.

Again, if there's something wrong, bad sectors, bad mechanics, S.M.A.R.T. issues, etc the Hitachi DFT will tell you - BUT always look for the actual diagnostic made by the hard drive manufacturer and use that one if it exists.

Copying a few hundred gigs of data to and from the drive isn't anything but a waste of time as you could get 249GB into the data and have a problem. The drive diagnostics are the fastest and most efficient way to determine the state of a drive as usable or worthy of a trash can.

Good luck...

[Tolyngee]

I've been using Spinrite for a long time...

[vischo]

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools

[Nenu]

Spinrite or HDD Regenerator are both very good tools.

[Ockie]

Run the basic test and diagnostics from the manufacturer and you should be good to go. If you want to, you can always run a nice full format on the drives.