Any way to test a Hard Drive

Hey guys - got a pile of old 20 & 30 Gig Hard drives around from upgrades. Would like to know if their is a way to test or check a used HD for and performance issues without just loading an OS and seeing if it works and possibly check for any problems. Just a thought and figured I would ask - Thanks and appriciate it.

 

I have an Iomega E-go external USB hard drive. These drives use laptop harddrives.

I just took it apart and removed the 160gb drive I had in it (and put it in my Cf-29). Now I can just plug in any laptop hard drive and run it via USB.

I use it to do what you need it to do- test harddrives I have laying around.

The 160GB version I bought is ATA. Don't get a 250GB model because it SATA.

http://store.iomega.com/section?SID=2e0ec3390c17aca4de1adad712abb32edce:4760&secid=39515

 

find a hard drive scan utility, salvation would work, dont know if its free or not tho.

 

Thanks - Software was what I was asking - what are the red flags for issues with a HD to just scrap or that it still has life?

Thanks Guys

 

There's the Ultimate Boot CD: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

... and I have a USB cable that has a 3.5" IDE, 2.5" IDE and a SATA connector on it. and you just plug the HD in to test (it's not an enclosure).

 

I just use the external connection.. Play around with loading and unloading a few files... Listen to it carefully. If it makes a lot of clicks and clacks... It's probably not worth selling and risking your ebay reputation. If all works well... Format it and put it in the ebay selling stack. I then seal mine in an anti-static bag then wrap that in bubble wrap and then put in an over sized box filled halfway with packing peanuts... Put the sealed and wrapped drive in and then fill to the top with packing peanuts. I've never had a complaint yet and I've sold 40-50 drives on ebay over the years from all the customized laptops I've built.

 

SpinRite is a great tool for testing and recovery. Not free, but well worth the $$.

Canuckcam... I'd love to get a cable like that. Did you make it?, buy it?, details?

thanks,
Rick

 

I used salvation on a floppy to map the bad sectors on an old unusable drive and loaded DSL Linux on, so far no problems. The software was a free download from salvation.

 

Ideally, find a SMART monitoring tool - most hard drives support this and it will give you a read-out of what state the drive electronics 'think' it's in.

If it's not reporting errors, then give it a go with Spinrite or similar, which will effectively refresh the low-level formatting.

If that runs OK and the drive's not making any strange noises, it should be OK for a while.

Keep the smart monitor running on the final system if you can, it may give you a bit of warning before any problems get serious.

The one I use is no longer available, I've just done a quick Google search and found this:
http://www.passmark.com/products/diskcheckup.htm

Sadly, these tools only monitor the disk surface and heads, they can't tell you if the bearings are about to fail & suchlike, so listen for strange noises & squeaks as things power up..

Robert.

 

HDTune is a free program that has a HDD test function on it.

 

All good info...