Best test for used mechanical HD?

[Copyright]

I picked up a used Mechanical drive off a buddy and I want to be able to test it and make sure all is well with the drive. What software do you guys recommend? Something I don't have to purchase.

 

[wuzupfoo]

Try badblocks.

An ez to use Linux distro with this tool available is Parted Magic.

Link/http://partedmagic.com/

 

[toast0]

badblocks -w will take a long time, but is very thorough. Probably check smart stats before and after, I usually look at these three:

SMART 5 – Reallocated_Sector_Count
SMART 197 – Current_Pending_Sector_Count
SMART 198 – Offline_Uncorrectable

Ideally, they should all be zero, but if they're less than say 100 before and after badblocks, I wouldn't worry too much.

 

[T-A-Z]

+1 for badblocks.

-wsv are my preferred parameters.

 

[JoeComp]

partedmagic is not exactly free

For a free USB-bootable linux distro, try one of the utilities at::

http://www.pendrivelinux.com/

They have Windows-based installers that can put one or more of a whole list of linux distros onto a USB drive for booting.

System Rescue CD is a good choice, but many of the distros in the list will have badblocks (which is a part of e2fsprogs)

 

[staticlag]

Just issue a long SMART test and that should be sufficient.

Look for any number than 0 in the variables toast listed