Best way to test a new 8TB drive without taking days? (If possible)

I am on a Windows 10 desktop.

Normally I try to "build" my own external drives when I can as I don't trust pre-fabricated external drives, but with how much more expensive 8TB internal drives are (and that's not even including the enclosure) I purchased an external 8TB drive from Western Digital for backup purposes. However, I immediately had problems. The drive would not mount at first, I assumed it was the cable being loose, and after I got it working it failed about 20% or so into the backup while making noises, the drive also ran very hot, CrystalDisk reporting it at a temp of 57C but otherwise no SMART errors. I wanted to do a surface scan just to make sure but chkdsk was reporting that it would take 130 hours, so I just cancelled it. This drive was still new so back it goes for a refund.

So I guess that means back to "building" my own external... luckily there happened to be a sale on a Toshiba drive so I got that. Thing is though, I want to avoid a repeat of this issue just to be safe. Right now I am doing a non-quick format of previously mentioned WD external just to make sure to wipe any data from it, even though I am pretty sure no backup data managed to be stored in a usable state.... and it's taking about 10 or so hours.

It's probably going to take just as long, if not longer, to format the new drive I am getting, and that's not counting any tests. Are there any tests, surface scans, or any other recommended days I can test the drive just to make sure it works that won't take days? I know that 8TB is a large drive and that is a lot to test, but I can't wait a week just to do a surface test. Do I have any other options that are still a reliable test?

Also, the enclosure I am getting has both eSata and USB 3.0 ports, which would be recommended to use? I always thought eSata would be faster, but now I am reading that USB 3.0 might actually be faster. Or would it not even matter for a 7200RPM mechanical drive?

not really helping you but you close to your requiest

WMIC diskdriver get status

I believe it returns the smart status ( however non of the smart data that crytaldiks do)

I use HDSentinel to monitor and also check new drives with a full read/write surface scan. IIRC using USB3.0 it took 24-26 hours to do a single pass (about 12 hours to write test and 12 hours to read test) , and I just had to leave my PC on overnight. I could also use the PC while it worked so it wasn't a big deal, but it slowed down a bit if I did lots of excessive writing, like copying files from my internal drives. The enclosures are the worst part because they really don't have enough air flow. I'd really recommend getting a fan and pointing it towards the drive to try and cool it a little while you test/full format it. I shuck my drives and the difference of the drive in the enclosure vs outside one can be 10c or more (64c vs 54c IIRC when I did my surface testing).

In general I usual do a full r/w surface scan with HD Sentinel's disk tools then just to a quick format afterwards to put the file system on if the drive passes with no errors.

I think your drive might not be good, if it's taking 10 hours for a quick format. Full format sure it'll take about 12 hours give or take because it's physically writing like 0s onto the surface, but a quick format should take a few minutes at most.

LurkerLito said:

I think your drive might not be good, if it's taking 10 hours for a quick format. Full format sure it'll take about 12 hours give or take because it's physically writing like 0s onto the surface, but a quick format should take a few minutes at most.

Click to expand...

I said I was doing a non-quick format of it.