What program to write/verify new 4TB drive?

[Rikki]

Hi guys just got 4 x 4 TB drives HGST NAS ones and want to test them all before putting them into use on my PC.

What software should I use for this job in Windows?

Ive tried H2testw on memory cards and it works fine but not sure its the right tool for this job.

Thanks

Rikki

 

[KingRaptor]

I used to do a full format in Windows (not quick format) and it would take hours to write zeros to each sector. If it hit bad sectors, usually Windows/SMART takes note.

 

[unholythree]

On a Linux/BSD machine:
badblocks - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

badblocks -ns /dev/diskname

Will write the entire disk with four different patterns and check that each pattern was written correctly
should take a couple of days.

You can then do a long smart test:

smartctl -t long /dev/diskname

should take a couple more hours,

and then check the smart results:

smartctl -A /dev/diskname

Here's a post from the FreeNAS forum on the subject, basically this procedure:
[How To] Hard Drive Burn-In Testing | FreeNAS Community

 

[drescherjm]

I prefer the destructive (does not preserve data on the disk) test

badblocks -wvs /dev/diskname

For a 4TB 7200 RPM drive this takes 50 or so hours.

 

[Rikki]

Thanks guys but as I mentioned I was looking for a Windows solution

 

[drescherjm]

For windows a couple of full formats looking at the SMART before during and after can be effective. Also there is HDSentinel.

Hard Disk Sentinel - HDD health and temperature monitoring

 

[LightningCrash]

I don't know if it's still relevant, but in the past I've used preclear

preclear_disk.sh - a new utility to burn-in and pre-clear disks for quick add

I don't really bother with it any more though.

 

[Rikki]

Hey, ended up using h2test to write files to the drive then read them back and compare the hashes to see if they match