best program to test HDD heatlh?

[THRESHIN]

have a VERY old 3TB WD mechanical drive. not sure if it's starting to fail or if something else is going on. what's a good app to test it? not sure what's out there anymore and what is worth using.

 

[Luke M]

Check the SMART numbers first of all. What isn't working?

 

[THRESHIN]

Check the SMART numbers first of all. What isn't working?

trying to compress some video, failed and now can't delete the remains of the file. unusual refresh behaviour in explorer.

but all that is irrelevant. this is an old drive and i'd like to perform some sort of stress testing to ensure reliability. what would you recommend?

 

[Denpepe]

I use crystal diskinfo64, or you can check the manufacturer for a utility.

 

[THRESHIN]

thanks. the SMART data is coming back fine, but i'm noticing what seems like some random disconnects. very brief and intermittent.

i found a stress test program and running that overnight.

 

[kirbyrj]

I would try checking the connections also. Cables and whatnot. I have a drive that is very picky about the SATA cable connection for example.

 

[bigdogchris]

WD had their own utilities for testing drives.

https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?p=171

But yeah, using Crystal Disk Info - if you are Green and you do say a full disk format and are still green, then you are good to go.

 

[Dreamerbydesign]

Don’t rule out a faulty cable. I’d swap cables and see what happens.

 

[daglesj]

I use Crystal Disk or Hard Disk Sentinel for a deeper dive.

 

[GDI Lord]

Don’t rule out a faulty cable. I’d swap cables and see what happens.

This.

But also have a look at a program called SpinRite. I highly recommend it.

 

[drescherjm]

I run a four pass badblocks (data destructive mode) and check the SMART before and after the test. On 5+ TB drives this takes a day or more per pass.

Here is a thread where long ago using this testing method I found a problem which ended up being a firmware bug on a Samsung F4:

https://hardforum.com/threads/new-drive-badblocks.1551753/

 

[THRESHIN]

Thanks guys. I'll check the cables today. I did find some test tools and ran a couple stress tests. Total test time was almost 2 days (!). Didn't find anything and symptoms have disappeared for now. Strange, leaning towards cable now.

 

[bonehead123]

Before you start messing with other stuff, you should probably consider moving any important data over to another drive, just in case it does go poopoo, then troubleshoot however you see fit

 

[THRESHIN]

Before you start messing with other stuff, you should probably consider moving any important data over to another drive, just in case it does go poopoo, then troubleshoot however you see fit

Always great advice that one. No worries on the backup front, the first thing I did was to copy the entire contents of the drive to a spare usb drive. Plus I don't keep anything critical on that drive.

My critical stuff is on a 8TB HGST. Backup is a 8TB WD USB drive that spends most of its time sitting in a drawer.