• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

software test hdd

I use Hard Disk Sentinel for a full surface scan. It even works on my 8 drive RAID array, since Seagate's tools won't work through my RAID card. And I had no issues using it with a USB drive caddy to test drives individually before deployment.
 
smartctl (smartmontools)

It's available on practically every operating system out there and has very simple command line usage to do lots of different things.
 
arestavo said:
I use Hard Disk Sentinel for a full surface scan. It even works on my 8 drive RAID array, since Seagate's tools won't work through my RAID card. And I had no issues using it with a USB drive caddy to test drives individually before deployment.
Click to expand...
Just one caveat using HD Sentinel (among other application) for a mounted RAID array. You will (generally) NOT be able to check the area of the disk that the RAID card uses for its internal storage and record keeping. It is a very small area, but it is extremely important. If that area fails it is time to swap. Always test the disks when they are NOT part of the array (With HD Sentinel, or any other application that talks to it as a block storage device (it does the translation of the areas of the disk it uses for data storage, but does not (generally) give you the option of testing that space the RAID card uses itself, when it does not have complete (a relative term of course) access to the disk.))
 
bought my 2.5" HDDs + USB 3.0 case in 2023 in the same year and in 2024 I performed a full surface scan test with seatools (genéric long test) and HD Tune (error test) and the SMART in CrystalDiskinfo was good. I access these HDDs once a year to monitor the HDD's degradation before it dies and I lose files. Is a full surface test (many hours) necessary every year or is just reading the SMART in CrystalDiskinfo enough?
 
aransamus77 said:
bought my 2.5" HDDs + USB 3.0 case in 2023 in the same year and in 2024 I performed a full surface scan test with seatools (genéric long test) and HD Tune (error test) and the SMART in CrystalDiskinfo was good. I access these HDDs once a year to monitor the HDD's degradation before it dies and I lose files. Is a full surface test (many hours) necessary every year or is just reading the SMART in CrystalDiskinfo enough?
Click to expand...
Are you checking the SMART with crystaldiskinfo through the USB 3.0 case?

I'm asking because some USB enclosures can actually introduce problems (random USB errors and such) and the drive will then register that as a SMART error. Usually it only shows up as a "UDMA CRC error", in rarer cases I've seen a "Pending sector count" appear, which is often a prelude to a bad sector.

If the drive is connected directly, I'd say you're mostly fine just checking SMART, because the drive actually runs some offline tests internally in its free time. A USB enclosure can interfere with that too, by - for example - putting the USB port to sleep for power saving.

I think you'd be best off running that test once a year like you do, even better if you remove it from the enclosure and connect it directly to a PC while doing that. SMART via CrystalDiskInfo is fine too - try to familiarize yourself with the parameters it exposes, maybe take screenshots and then compare what changed. Just remember that some USB enclosures may obscure some parameters by not correctly passing SMART commands.
 
I use some USB 3.0 case IS hard open case remove HDD e connect PC
IS necessáry one once year error test iin HD tune pro and seatools or no some open Crystal and see smart?
 
I have two 2.5" HDDs inside a USB 3.0 case with files. I store these HDDs and access them once a year.
Once a year, what procedure should I follow to check the health and integrity of the HDD and data? Is a scan lasting several hours necessary?

Last year, in 2024, I ran the SeaTools Generic Long Test and the HD Tune Pro Error Scan, but found no errors.
 
aransamus77 said:
Last year, in 2024, I ran the SeaTools Generic Long Test and the HD Tune Pro Error Scan, but found no errors.
Click to expand...
Yeah, those are decent testing programs. Seatools alone will do fine, assuming it's a Seagate. Personally I would run the long test once a year and then just open crystal disk info for a quick check.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top