Stress-Testing new HDDs

[hotzen]

Hello,

I plan to purchase 6* 2TB drives for a new RaidZ2 and wonder what the most efficient way to stress-test new HDDs is.
I plan to do the following:
- SMART Short Self-Test
- SMART Long Self-Test
- Checking SMART attributes
- "Erasing" the HDD by overwriting each bit 3 times
- Checking SMART attributes
- SMART Long Self-Test
- Checking SMART attributes
profit.

 

[C7J0yc3]

I usually run em through HD Tune Pro's benchmarks, check the SMART status, format em, and let em go.

 

[drescherjm]

Well since you mentioned raidz meaning you probably have a program called badblocks. I would run each drive through a four pass badblocks read write test. For a 2TB drive this will take 24 to 30 hours per drive. However you can run several at a time.

During and after the badblocks test check the smart. Look for Reallocated_Sector_Ct, Current_Pending_Sector, Offline_Uncorrectable and UDMA_CRC_Error_Count. All of these should be 0 well maybe the UDMA_CRC_Error_Count can be non zero but small.

BTW, I do this for all new drives at work and also ones that come back from RMA.

 

[hotzen]

Thank you for that advice, didn't know badblocks yet.

 

[asgards]

i usualy fill drive with data, format and refill ... if during such actions it develops any issues it gets rma'ed ... if not its most likely safe to use for prolonged period of time
but thats just to test if its bad batch, most likely if any problems will come, they will get you couple months after starting to use it ... after that its most likely safe to use it till it gets obsolete

 

[drescherjm]

Thank you for that advice, didn't know badblocks yet.

badblocks -wsv device

BTW, this is how I found that there was a problem with Samsung 2TB F4s. It turned out to be a firmware issue..

http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1551753

 

[BigXor]

I use a tiny little Windows freeware program called Roadkil's Disk Wipe . At least two passes of random data.

Open more instances of the program if you want to erase multiple drives.

Then I do a surface test using Paragons Partition Manager.

Check S.M.A.R.T data.

Viola! After practically forever I begin to feel safe putting good data on the drives.


EDIT: I just noticed this thread is for linux users.