How to test a new HDD?

[Duliwi]

Hello,

I have bought a new HDD 2TB. It is empty and I have taken GPT as partition table. It will be a data-HDD, not a system HDD.
I have created 32GiB for SWAP; 100GiB NTFS and the rest is ext4.

To be sure, that my HDD is in best health and there is no reason for sending it back, I would like to test it.

What is the best method to test it?

I have tried to see the SMART Attributes in GSmartControl. But it is not listed in the start window of GSmartControl. (?)
Currently I have started a long test with:

Code: Select all

sudo smartctl -t long /dev/sdc

Test will be finished in 241 min.

Is this enough? Or should I test it in addition with another method?

Any suggestions are appreciated.


Toshiba P300 / HDWD120UZSVA

Code: Select all

ID-3: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 vendor: Toshiba model: HDWD120 size: 1.82 TiB 
           block-size: physical: 4096 B logical: 512 B speed: 6.0 Gb/s type: HDD rpm: 7200 
           serial: <filter> rev: ACF0 scheme: GPT 

[argonaut459]

I'm not really a pro at Linux, though I may share my approach.

I made it a habit to run every HDD, SSD or USB Stick through 2 programs.
HD Tune Pro, and Crystal Disk Mark - Yes all this was done on a Windows 7 PC.
The point being that I get the same kind of measurement everytime I got new hardware.

HD Tune Pro was nice as it offered read and write speeds for every Block on a HDD, and hence I could figure out where to best make the cut for partitions.
All other data was used to compare them to test results on the internet, which often used the same (similiar) program.

These tests saved me from a defect WesternDigital external HDD, that got pretty hot during the tests. WD later claimed that 85°C in a 20°C room after 2 minutes test was normal, and that they should sound like a grinder :D
the new one worked perfect, but I only got a refund thanks to these screenshots.

[ServiTec]

What I recommend you is using a specialized testing tool, preferably out from the OS, I mean a live usb with a testing tool like Hiren's, (preferably the old versions with the HDD testing tool Victoria) or there are various live tools such as Ultimate Boot CD. Anyway if you prefer to use the OS as the working base, there are tools that can help you like fsck or badblocks, this last has a function that describes if the unity has damaged sectors but both tools can give you a clearer idea about what is your HDD state.

[Aronticuz]

First provision: I would not take my own advice - well not yet anyway - yet here is my 2 cents worth ...
But a sort of rush quick summary SMART result is built in to KDE Partition Manager - remember any mistakes in a Partition Manager can make you want to kill or otherwise harm the individial(s) who offered that advice without any hints of plausible deniability.

I hope I did my own plausible deniability thing well and here is a working method I use once KDE Partition Manager is up n running
1 - select device
2 Device > SMART status
It also gives you an option to save the results

[manyroads]

I always run BIOS tests....

[davidy]

https://github.com/JonMagon/KDiskMark/r ... /tag/3.1.2
has an appimage for disk benchmarking. It's CrystalDisk Mark but a simplified linux version.

[wdscharff]

It can also be found in the MXPI as a flatpak, although if you have to be economical with disk space, you should prefer the app image (~40MB to ~150MB).
(I have of course tried both ;-} )

[jeffreyC]

There is an older version of kdiskmark in the repos for MX-19 and MX-21.
There is a Debian package on that release page which would install on MX-21 (it and 14 dependencies or so), I do not have MX-19 to test whether it would install.