Free USB-bootable hard-drive "checker

xrapidx

xrapidx

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Does anyone have any software to recommend for checking the state of a hard-drive? Now that my NAS is up and running, I'd like to offload a myriad of various size drives, but I'd like to do so knowing which ones to toss, and which ones are fine.

Similiar to dban, but for checking the drives.
 
Read SMART for each drive. Post results here. In meantime change BIOS to normal ATA compatibility mode. Boot Hiren's CD, then DOS Utils -> MHDD

Select controller and desired hard drive. Scan for delays (hit twice F4). Report any delays going orange or worse. It takes few hours for each drive, so it might be better to move hard drive to the ordinary PC for testing.
 
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I dunno about that... but I use this tool to check their ongoing viability
(There are other good ones out there too)...
http://panterasoft.com/hdd-health/

BTW, Hard Disk Sentinel Pro Version (Family License) is currently on sale at the moment...
http://www.bitsdujour.com/software/...ly-license+Title&utm_campaign=2016-03-15+PC+A

with a Family License it's possible to use both the installed and the new Portable version of Hard Disk Sentinel Professional! The Portable version allows the flexibility of disk testing from a pen-drive or removable device -- no installation necessary!
Click to expand...
 
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I'll have a look

The drives are in a microserver, so i'd like to do four at a time - already wiped 12 drives, now I just want to check they're ok - the last four made funny sounds.
 
Scanning is not destructive. Wiping drives cause hiding defects, in few weeks it could come out again. In other words you might be not able to pickup unreliable one. You should run SMART and MHDD before and after wiping.

BTW, If you have unreliable drive and want get rid of it, I will take it for testing.
 
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Wiping the drive was just to permanently get rid of potentially confidential information (work)... now I just need to check they're ok... and weed out the faulty ones.
 
Ok, then MHDD will do a preliminary job and eliminate very weak drives. Then random read/write tests (involving seek) should be performed for many hours using the HDAT2 (not beta), also found on Hiren's CD. Final scanning will reveal more.
 
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Tx... looks like all of the last four drives are dead, lucky I got the data off.. so that's going to save me time.
 
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