Re: Decent HDD testing tool?

Rod Speed wrote:
Zeno wrote:

Anyone recommend a windows (or a something on a bootable disk maybe) disk tool that can exercise drives (read and write)?

...
I need something I can leave running for a few hours as I've been given a number of drives I don't know the state of.

Makes more sense to run a SMART test on the drive and check the SMART report.
You can do that from a bootable live linux CD, run smartctl and do a full self test.


Works also on Windows if supported by the driver. Then you can run
e.g 'smartctl -t long C:' to run a full test in background.
Or use it via the GSmartControl GUI frontend:
http://gsmartcontrol.berlios.de/

If this does not work, here is a list of live CDs:
http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/download.html#live-cd

I would recommend Parted Magic because it contains both smartctl and GSmartControl.


These include a couple of external USB ones inside a sealed case which I would have
to physically break to get access to the drives.

Thats harder. There isnt a lot of SMART support with external USB drives.


SMART support is now much better than in the past. It depends on the USB bridge:
http://smartmontools.wiki.sourceforge.net/overview_USB-Support


--
Regards,
Christian Franke
.