From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from lists.gentoo.org (pigeon.gentoo.org [208.92.234.80]) by finch.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D0D0613800E for ; Mon, 6 Aug 2012 15:19:23 +0000 (UTC) Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id DFC44E062B; Mon, 6 Aug 2012 15:19:04 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-lb0-f181.google.com (mail-lb0-f181.google.com [209.85.217.181]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5E866E07C7 for ; Mon, 6 Aug 2012 15:17:42 +0000 (UTC) Received: by lbbgk1 with SMTP id gk1so1500083lbb.40 for ; Mon, 06 Aug 2012 08:17:41 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:sender:in-reply-to:references:from:date :x-google-sender-auth:message-id:subject:to:content-type; bh=IK/hr4CIln7v25zzMNotA5q817j9EVCKrJmH4P+2IdI=; b=eFbEOLg0Pfcyj++WhER5XIwHho1QJtCl56iuXmpFmKa1q/QpV8v5rSQJmq8mqBYZBc xW61QAPy/5BYsUU9eWhAJAmu7RTH0PBfE30PFOJEYYOOkY6yQ0koIU3S0F0BTvy80ku4 +ijMnLgNfxjTqoRhtvQR2y1LcYCHJBcM007j9fBf2vyd1f4qPEvMxtD3dPdXP7of0F+e jAug2QVr2HLHSIVHR2iq7TesaY2y6e6XOUDkXIifRo1oMLVY1RVo1RLc/K6Y9rfMFGGG O/2IpDh1IbDv8bXj07Khu2w0dxrjDZYAC7p14A4+qX26+i1PXJqB8b4+2GhGmefbt3A0 H9ew== Received: by 10.112.99.98 with SMTP id ep2mr4941884lbb.45.1344266261363; Mon, 06 Aug 2012 08:17:41 -0700 (PDT) Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Sender: paul.hartman@gmail.com Received: by 10.112.77.4 with HTTP; Mon, 6 Aug 2012 08:17:21 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <501E6AFA.4000205@gmail.com> References: <501E6AFA.4000205@gmail.com> From: Paul Hartman Date: Mon, 6 Aug 2012 10:17:21 -0500 X-Google-Sender-Auth: k415K3LzmPervHOe25y6aha_OiY Message-ID: Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Want to seriously test a NEW hard drive To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Archives-Salt: 47e976d4-280e-4b99-bf95-2810d10eedd7 X-Archives-Hash: 496416d57df26bda6c82512eaaa0b22c On Sun, Aug 5, 2012 at 7:45 AM, Dale wrote: > Howdy, > > I finally got me a 3Tb drive on the way. Should be here Wednesday. I > have seen some reviews where it would not work right. I think some of > it may be BIOS related since some BIOS's don't like drives that large. > Anyway, I want to test this thing real good to really make sure it is up > to the task before putting my data on it. It's going to be so much > data, there is really no way to do back-ups at this point. Come on, 2 > to 3Tbs on 4Gb DVDs. Really? lol Maybe a external drive later on but > for now, well. > > I have heard of bonnie and friends. I also think dd could do some > testing too. Is there any other way to give this a good work and see if > it holds up? Oh, helpful hints with Bonnie would be great too. I have > never used it before. Maybe someone has some test that is really brutal. I wouldn't want to torture the drive, but just make sure it works. What I do: boot parted magic liveCD, run ATA SECURE ERASE on the drive (you probably need to suspend and awaken your machine to unlock the drive, the GUI tool in the liveCD does this for you automatically), that will do factory reformat/low-level reformat, then run SMART full test which can take many hours. If it survives both of those, and doesn't make audible clicking noises in the process, I feel confident that it is in working order. Those steps are more important if I'm testing a used or refurbished drive, for a new drive you may want to skip the secure erase and only do the smart test. If SMART test passes then I don't think there's any reason to run badblocks, but you can have it run during mkfs if you want reassurance.