Testing a Drive

Master_Pain

Master_Pain

Supreme [H]ardness
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I just got a new 2tb drive and I wanted to check it for any dead clusters. I want to make sure it's in perfect working condition before I transfer my old storage drive's data to it. What would I use to test it?
 
usually mfg tools do the trick, something like wd windlg or hitachi drive fitness test
 
If it's Linux you're on, you can use the command badblocks, which is part of e2fsprogs - so should be in your distro, or part of any Live Linux CD like Knoppix or PartedMagic. You can do read-only or read/write tests using the tool.

A
 
I much prefer badblocks or even a full format over a manufacturer tool. The reason is I have seen that manufacturer tools seem to be more interested in protecting their warranty than your data. I have seen cases where the WD and Seagate programs said drives were perfectly fine when there was serious problems with the drives.

After a 4 pass badblocks or a full format or two use a program to display the SMART raw data. Look at ReallocatedSectorCount, OfflineUncorrectableSectors, PendingSectors..

The first two should be close to 0. The last if it has a value format / badblocks again.

John
 
I am running Windows 7, not Linux, so I can't do that ahm. I did use run a HD Tune error scan on it, said it has 0 damaged blocks. Does that check the same way mfg tools does?
 
I am running Windows 7, not Linux,
Click to expand...

You could boot of any live cd and do that but it would have your system offline for a few hours to a day while testing.

Did you do a full format?

In windows a full format combined by looking at the raw SMART data should be fine.

I did use run a HD Tune error scan on it, said it has 0 damaged blocks.
Click to expand...
Does it do write testing of every block?
 
There are no tests to perform. All drives record the problems they have in what is called SMART. This program reads the smart data and will tell you if the drive has had any bad sectors (that it reallocated ..) or other problems. The point of writing is if the drive had any difficulty writing the data it would most likely show up as problems in the smart. Also the format should fail. If you are not seeing any of this you should be fine for now.

Although it is a fact that any drive from any manufacturer can fail at any time (age and wear are not always the cause of death) so you should always backup all data that you do not want to risk loosing.
 
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I have a question about reading the SMART data...it is the RAW data that matters, right? I installed CrystalDiskInfo and see columns for Current, Worst, and RAW. For ReallocatedSectorCount, OfflineUncorrectableSectors, PendingSectors...each showed 100 for Current and Worst, but RAW data was 0. (This was on a WD 500gb drive.) Likewise, using WHS SMART add in, my new HD204UI drive showed Value & Worst at 252, but RAW data column was 0.

Also, is there an idiot's guide to using badblocks via PartedMagic or other. I am Linux stupid and have only used Windows. With this Samsung HD204UI, Samsung's own ESTools 3.01p failed to run and SpinRite started but stopped with a division overflow error. The only tool I've used so far is Seagate's Sea Tools for DOS...long generic test which passed...and then I went ahead and added the drive to my WHS. I have a 2nd HD204UI that I'm putting in an e-sata enclosure as a backup drive. So I can play with that one still as I haven't added it to a system.
 
texas_nightowl said:
I have a question about reading the SMART data...it is the RAW data that matters, right? I installed CrystalDiskInfo and see columns for Current, Worst, and RAW. For ReallocatedSectorCount, OfflineUncorrectableSectors, PendingSectors...each showed 100 for Current and Worst, but RAW data was 0. (This was on a WD 500gb drive.) Likewise, using WHS SMART add in, my new HD204UI drive showed Value & Worst at 252, but RAW data column was 0.
Click to expand...

That means that the drive has not detected any problems to this point.

Also, is there an idiot's guide to using badblocks via PartedMagic or other. I am Linux stupid and have only used Windows. With this Samsung HD204UI, Samsung's own ESTools 3.01p failed to run and SpinRite started but stopped with a division overflow error. The only tool I've used so far is Seagate's Sea Tools for DOS...long generic test which passed...and then I went ahead and added the drive to my WHS. I have a 2nd HD204UI that I'm putting in an e-sata enclosure as a backup drive. So I can play with that one still as I haven't added it to a system.
Click to expand...

For badblocks I usually do a 4 pass write test on new disks.

badblocks -wsv /dev/sda

assuming your drive is /dev/sda

CAUTION: Make sure the disk you want is /dev/sda first because that command will destroy all data on the disk.

Note: This 4 pass test will take over 1 day to complete.

hdparm -i /dev/sda

should give you the serial number and id of the drive

You can also do

smartctrl --all /dev/sda

In my case one of my 3 samsung 2TB F4s is /dev/sde so here are those commands for mine.
Code: 
jmd0 ~ # hdparm -i /dev/sde

/dev/sde:

 Model=SAMSUNG HD204UI, FwRev=1AQ10001, SerialNo=S2HGJDWZ806049
 Config={ Fixed }
 RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=4
 BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=unknown, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=off
 CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=3907029168
 IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
 PIO modes:  pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
 DMA modes:  mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
 UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 *udma6
 AdvancedPM=yes: disabled (255) WriteCache=enabled
 Drive conforms to: unknown:  ATA/ATAPI-0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7

 * signifies the current active mode


Code: 
jmd0 ~ # smartctl --all /dev/sde
smartctl 5.40 2010-10-16 r3189 [x86_64-pc-linux-gnu] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-10 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Device Model:     SAMSUNG HD204UI
Serial Number:    S2HGJDWZ806049
Firmware Version: 1AQ10001
User Capacity:    2,000,398,934,016 bytes
Device is:        Not in smartctl database [for details use: -P showall]
ATA Version is:   8
ATA Standard is:  ATA-8-ACS revision 6
Local Time is:    Thu Oct 28 12:05:51 2010 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x00) Offline data collection activity
                                        was never started.
                                        Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
                                        without error or no self-test has ever
                                        been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:                 (21300) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:                    (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                                        Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                                        Suspend Offline collection upon new
                                        command.
                                        Offline surface scan supported.
                                        Self-test supported.
                                        No Conveyance Self-test supported.
                                        Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
                                        power-saving mode.
                                        Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                                        General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:        ( 255) minutes.
SCT capabilities:              (0x003f) SCT Status supported.
                                        SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
                                        SCT Feature Control supported.
                                        SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   100   100   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  2 Throughput_Performance  0x0026   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0023   077   067   025    Pre-fail  Always       -       7164
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       18
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   252   252   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   252   252   051    Old_age   Always       -       0
  8 Seek_Time_Performance   0x0024   252   252   015    Old_age   Offline      -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       981
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   252   252   051    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       26
181 Program_Fail_Cnt_Total  0x0022   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       2322
191 G-Sense_Error_Rate      0x0022   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       66
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0022   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0002   064   059   000    Old_age   Always       -       34 (Min/Max 21/42)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x003a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   252   252   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0036   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x002a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       3
223 Load_Retry_Count        0x0032   252   252   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
225 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       13

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged.  [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]


Note: selective self-test log revision number (0) not 1 implies that no selective self-test has ever been run
SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 0
Note: revision number not 1 implies that no selective self-test has ever been run
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Completed [00% left] (0-65535)
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
 
Thank you for that! Being unfamiliar with it, I'll probably disconnect my other drives so that the HD204UI is the only one connected when I try this.
 
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