Newegg finally gets it?

FrozenDevl said:
Just to add to this. I bought 10 drives 2 days ago. All came without any physical damage and passed all SMART tests.

Didn't expect any less though...not sure why people expect to get DOA drives so "often".

I don't think I've ever gotten a drive DOA.
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SMART tests are useless, do a complete surface scan at minimum... 1 out of every 8 drives or so I get fail during the first surface scan
 
FLECOM said:
SMART tests are useless, do a complete surface scan at minimum... 1 out of every 8 drives or so I get fail during the first surface scan
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Would you mind going into your process a little more?
What do you suggest to do to check drives to make sure everything is good?
I don't know too much about the subject of testing drives, thought SMART would be enough paired with looking for physical damage.
 
FLECOM said:
SMART tests are useless, do a complete surface scan at minimum... 1 out of every 8 drives or so I get fail during the first surface scan
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As you say, SMART stats are complete crap. Every drive that has ever failed on me has NEVER been flagged by the SMART stats. I use SpinRite on level 2 for a sort of "burn-in" test if you will. Any defeats that are present -- at least at the beginning wil inevitably show up there.

srRTA.gif
 
GreenLED said:
As you say, SMART stats are complete crap. Every drive that has ever failed on me has NEVER been flagged by the SMART stats. I use SpinRite on level 2 for a sort of "burn-in" test if you will. Any defeats that are present -- at least at the beginning wil inevitably show up there.

srRTA.gif
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Would something like HDDScan work well? Or is there a certain program "everyone" uses?
 
fyi this is also why i always choose overnight on hdd shipping purchases -- they treat the packages nicer, less chance of doa
 
FrozenDevl said:
Would something like HDDScan work well? Or is there a certain program "everyone" uses?
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Any program that actually reads every single sector should do just fine. I'm not sure about the program you're referring to. I only use SpinRite. But, it's not a difficult thing to do (or program rather). The added benefit of SpinRite is that you can also recover any of those bad sectors -- or if you just bought the drive and there is a serious defect, send it back and have them give you a new fresh one.

But the answer to your question is, yes there is other programs that you can use. I would imagine there are plenty of people here to use other programs for this sort of thing. I don't trust many of them because they give you a false sense of what they do. I am certain of what SpinRite does.

I'm looking into the application you mentioned right now.
 
I haven't ever used HDDScan. From the Softpedia description, it looks like nothing more than a simple stats report and quick S.M.A.R.T. test tool. I haven't ever used it so I can't say if it's good. But, I can tell you from the description, I wouldn't use it. Nowhere does it say that it "reads the entire drive" or something of that nature.

Why is it important to read the entire drive?

Because when the drive is read, any defects or sectors with wear are moved to new good sectors. This is actually done by the drive itself. It has logic to handle all of this. But, if you don't read the entire drive, there's no way to find this out - no matter how pretty your applications UI looks :). Can someone else suggest a program they use so we can take a look at it's fitness for this problem?
 
GreenLED said:
Because when the drive is read, any defects or sectors with wear are moved to new good sectors. This is actually done by the drive itself.
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Not quite. While a sector may be queued for reallocation (i.e., put into current pending) if the HDD cannot read it, there is no move (i.e, reallocation) done until you write to the sector.
 
JoeComp said:
Not quite. While a sector may be queued for reallocation (i.e., put into current pending) if the HDD cannot read it, there is no move (i.e, reallocation) done until you write to the sector.
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Hmm. Wasn't aware of that detail. So then, a "maintenance write" is required (as SpinRite calls it) to actually move the sector. Could you suggest an application other than SpinRite to do this for the original poster? I only use SpinRite, but that's almost $90 (worth every penny, but still, it's not free for the normal user).
 
Yawn, no wonder you guys in the US have so many problems. Big e-tailers in the UK use a anti static soft foam in the box that wedges the HDD in tight, then they are put in a second box and usually taped to that so that it can't move, they have been doing this for a long as I have bought HDD's - about 15 years
 
I don't think "not moving" is the goal for an anti-shock packaging. I would argue it's just the opposite, or somewhere in the middle, that is to say, controlled movement or movement that is compensated in some way. Western Digital packaging ships drives in an anti-static bag. After this that package is placed between two flexible (but sturdy) "caps" that allow movement, but never allow the drive to be "smacked" against the outer shell of the box. In this way, bumps or jars of the transport vehicle are "absorbed" by the flexible caps. Here's an image of how it looks.

1.jpg


If a drive is packed too tightly more force (or Gs) will be applied to the drive and you've gained nothing in terms of protection.
 
GreenLED said:
Could you suggest an application other than SpinRite to do this for the original poster? I only use SpinRite, but that's almost $90 (worth every penny, but still, it's not free for the normal user).
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This has been discussed many times in this very forum. Search for keyword "badblocks".
 
GreenLED said:
I don't think "not moving" is the goal for an anti-shock packaging. I would argue it's just the opposite, or somewhere in the middle, that is to say, controlled movement or movement that is compensated in some way. Western Digital packaging ships drives in an anti-static bag. After this that package is placed between two flexible (but sturdy) "caps" that allow movement, but never allow the drive to be "smacked" against the outer shell of the box. In this way, bumps or jars of the transport vehicle are "absorbed" by the flexible caps.

If a drive is packed too tightly more force (or Gs) will be applied to the drive and you've gained nothing in terms of protection.
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You are correct. Most packaging is designed to absorb the energy and by doing that lower the "G" force.
 
GreenLED said:
I don't think "not moving" is the goal for an anti-shock packaging. I would argue it's just the opposite, or somewhere in the middle, that is to say, controlled movement or movement that is compensated in some way. Western Digital packaging ships drives in an anti-static bag. After this that package is placed between two flexible (but sturdy) "caps" that allow movement, but never allow the drive to be "smacked" against the outer shell of the box. In this way, bumps or jars of the transport vehicle are "absorbed" by the flexible caps. Here's an image of how it looks.


If a drive is packed too tightly more force (or Gs) will be applied to the drive and you've gained nothing in terms of protection.
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Exactly. You have to limit the deceleration of the object. It's more like the crumple zone on your car for when you have a head on collision. You don't want your car to be a Battle Tank. Your body is squishy and even strapped down with a seatbelt everything gets compressed. BattleTank survives without scratch. Your body's organs completely destroyed. This is why the old cars were so dangerous.

Same thing goes for a hard drive in a box. Rustle it around with some bubble wrap it will be fine under most conditions. It will be fine right up until the box falls off the meter high sorting chute at UPS and lands on the corner.

This is the part of the physics equation all the naysayers keep forgetting...

The box itself might hit a few dozen G's of deceleration, but the object inside actually has a further distance to travel than the outer box by a few inches or centimeters. Thus an increase in G load. Bubble wrap and packing peanuts just don't have the stiffness required.

Also, if the drive itself hits on the corner, you are transfering all of that force into a smaller point rather than displacing it equally around the object.
 
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