External Hard drives for storage and software

[Island]

How many of you guys use the included software that ships with your hard drives?

I got a 3tb Seagate and a 2tb Western digital, and I use them both for storage. I just like using the old drag and drop method.

I have noticed though that as far as the hard drives powering down when not in use, and for testing the drive for errors, the software works good for these usages.

I am thinking of installing the software and just disabling the auto backup features, and using the software for power saving modes and drive checks. Seems windows 8 keeps power cycling my hard drives a lot.

 

[drescherjm]

How many of you guys use the included software that ships with your hard drives?

At least not in the last few years..

I have noticed though that as far as the hard drives powering down when not in use

When I need power down. I use the firmware powerdown that all drives have although I have not tried that for an external.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hdparm

and for testing the drive for errors

At work I have seen cases where manufacturer tools call very bad drives as acceptable as a result I do not trust any of these and instead I have developed my own test procedures.

 

[Argentum]

Wut? There's software that comes with hard drives?

At least not in the last few years..
At work I have seen cases where manufacturer tools call very bad drives as acceptable as a result I do not trust any of these and instead I have developed my own test procedures.

+1. Seriously speaking, I'd say the drive manufacturer has a conflict of interest telling me to wait past my warranty period for a replacement if my drive is showing signs of flaking out before that period ends. If I start seeing recurrent iostat errors on my ZFS system I'm gonna RMA a suspect drive faster than Twinkies sold out after we fat Americans heard Hostess was going under.