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Introduction |
| If you are evaluating a hard drive, this guide will show you how to do basic tests to detect common problems. ***''While these tests are not perfect, most issues can be detected.''*** | | | Common drive problems include: | | | * High hours (Wear and tear) | | * Reallocated sectors | | * Pending reallocated sectors | | * Hidden problems | | === Why should used hard drives be checked? === | ***''Most failures are sudden and without warning, if not known in advance due to lack of symptoms.''*** If thesethe machine is having problems areand the issue is caught early, this will give you time to move everything and replace the drive can be replaced before it fails. While SMART can only do so much, it plays a major role in doing this since the data can be used to do thisgive red flags. | | ***''NoteIMPORTANT NOTE: Some hard drives have known problems (Ex: Seagate 7.01/7200.11), while others fail due to lower quality standards (Ex: WD Blue/Green). These even when working should be wiped and replaced!''*** | | | === Guide notes === | | * ***''While Parted Magic can be redistributed legally per the GPL, I will not point to these downloads as I cannot verify their authenticity.''*** | | * ***''These tests are not 100% accurate. Some problems can (and do) slip past these tests.''*** | === A word on driveabout bad sector remapping: ===
* ***''While [link|https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?p=2|WD], [link|https://www.hgst.com/support/hard-drive-support/downloads|HGST], and [link|https://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/|Seagate] offer diagnostic tools, they do not work on drives with serious problems or excessiveexcessively bad high sectors. For SMALL amounts, this will work; but once you exceed ~100 (most common drive reserve) you will lose capacity and data in such a way it is unrecoverable.''***
* ***''Before attempting a sector remapIf you can do so before testing, backup your system's data. This can cause your drive to fail if it dies during testing. Drives with SMART errors SHOULD NOT BE FIXED; backup, replace, and wipe the bad drive.''***
* ***''DO NOT REPAIR drives with SMART errors.''*** |
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