hard drive test

[Jonathan Hutchins]

Quoting Matt Luettgen <matt at tccassociates.net>: 
 
> I managed to revive a supposedly dead 60Gb drive, I'm looking to do some 
> testing to make sure its not going to die again before I put data on it, 
> any suggestions on where to start? (badblocks finds nothing useful) 
 
I'm really surprised that you still see so much disk software, including most 
Linux installers, that offers to check for "bad blocks" on IDE drives.  IDE 
firmware does logical block translation, so you never see the actual hard disk 
areas that might be bad.  If the firmware can't compensate a block's errors, 
either it doesn't offer that block as part of the virtual hard drive presented 
to the system, or it has failed badly enough that you're not going to get the 
drive up to the point where you could access it to begin with. 
 
Although IDE hardware's pretty standardised by now, the firmware still varies 
a bit among manufacturers and models, and it's still best to use software 
intended to for your particular make and model.  That software can direct the 
firmware to do direct reporting of the actual hard disk errors, and can make 
sure that the firmware is accurately excluding any physical errors it finds. 
 
Using software that's even a little bit "wrong" for your make and model will 
give you useless results, and if it attempts to "fix" anything on the drive 
will either fail or result in a useless drive. 
 
Most of this software seldom makes it as far as a retail shop, so look for 
guys who work for wholesalers and can get a copy for you. 

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