hello people

with which software/tests should hdd be tested to make sure that it is good/healthy?

for example are these tests of Victoria enough: 1.verify 2.read 3.write 4.long self diagnostic?

does read test "include" verify test? in other words it does the same and plus more?

Usually I use Victoria and it's enough.

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ACELab partner

to check hdd do you use all four of these tests: 1.verify 2.read 3.write 4.long self diagnostic?

I was thinking that a full write then full read with Victoria was enough but maybe it is not the case...

Because recently I bought an used drive, that was getting lot of pending sectors, about 1500 (the max it seems)
Making a full write have "clean" it, then I have done two others full read, and another full write with Victoria.

SMART was saying no problems, so I have begin to store data.
But after about 500GB copied, I spotted that the SMART value "Offline UNC scan" and "Write error rate" have little increased.

Damn, I just plugged it to verify, and those two values are now coming back to 0, saying worst 198, current 200...
But at least it is not normal because my others WD drives have those worst values to the default (200 usually)

So my next drive test will be something like :
- full write (+LBA num)
- full read (those two first test are also to get a preview of the health)
- partition it and fill it full with real data
- let it plugged idle for about 8hours (for the 2TB offline scan)
- maybe a full read there
- full write zero
- eventually last full read (but surely useless if not already SMART errors there)

Maybe we can optimize this test time by using the random option of Victoria instead of full write the partition with files, and then force SMART offline selftest.
But I prefer to be like in real condition with the OS partition/files to be sure of the result.

I admit that all those steps are very long, so me too I'm interested on what is your procedure to guaranteed an healthy drive.

I also dont know what the Victoria verify option is exactly doing, it seems that maybe it just read the data without copying it to a buffer. (timing are lower in verify mode, so it surely do less than read)

That's a lot of time and effort. Even when a drive passes all the tests you throw at it, it can still fail unexpectedly and usually does so at the worst possible time. I'd suggest that you spend some of that time making regular or continuous back-ups, or running a Raid 1 along with a periodic back-up to another raid 1 or online storage. Hard Disk Sentinel can monitor your drives continuously and alert you to impending failures.

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Sabo Computer Repairs & Data Recovery

I have re-investigate in my little failing drive, and it seems little capricious so maybe not a right example...
WD20EADS, I get four of them and the only one that have not shown any problem was refurb by WD...

Have redone full write/read with Victoria and SMART have not indicate any new problem.
Finally, it's the first drive that say me some "problems" just after having pass with success these Victoria tests.

I spotted in the selftest logs that the previous owner have done many SMART extended test, with some failing, and some succeeding...
So I started one extended test to see, and it failed after 5min saying read failure, I restarted it and it finished without error...

It seems that the SMART tests are very sensitive, and so can maybe better predict if there is a risk with the drive.
I suspect that maybe it indicate a read failure just because it cannot read a sector in an tiny elapsed time, but this in my case do not say the sector is really bad, because my drive have now pass 4 full read/write scan with Victoria without saying any UNC.

So I'm finally little confuse with this drive...

I conclude that my next drive test will surely be :
- full write with Victoria
- full read with Victoria
- SMART short test
- SMART conveyance test
- SMART extended test (or eventual "offline data collection test" if it is bigger than extended and I can start it, because no way to success starting it manually in my current case)

I understand you point of view LarrySabo, but from my long experience of HDD using, it's surely rare that a well tested drive before using it will suddently fail just after. (me I have never seen that, at least about WD drives, humm except the current strange story...)

i would like to know about these factors during your tests, i think they do matter because these tests are long and drive is under nonstop load:

cooling - during these long tests drive gets hot. for example i have fan blowing directly on drive during tests
position - when i googled about it i could not find 100% answer, so to be safe i test drives in horizontal position, sticker facing up
vibration - in case of laptop drives i never test them laying freely on the surface because they are too light and during load they vibrate and "shake" a bit, so i hold them firmly by some means
power - i test drives only with medium and above quality power supplies and during test, power to be stable i do not load pc much with other tasks, only light browsing
contacts - if drive is several years old, before test i clean certain contacts with eraser on the "inside" side of pcb

if i am doing something wrong, unnecessary or silly please correct me