Stress Testing Hard Drives

[William Harrington]

On Jun 26, 2007, at 11:27 AM, Jonathan Hutchins wrote:

> I think the only thing that stress testing a drive would do would  
> be to move
> it closer to it's failure point.  Either that will be early, in  
> which case it
> might possibly happen while testing, not quite as early, in which  
> case it
> will happen just after installation instead of a week after  
> installation, or
> it will be later in the drive's life - in which case it will just  
> happen a
> bit sooner than it would have.
>
> About the only use I can see for this would bet to stress test a  
> few examples
> of a certain model of a drive to failure, and see what the MTBF is.
>
> There are also environmental factors to consider.  Testing the  
> drive in an
> open, bench-configured computer really doesn't give you any  
> information about
> how it will perform in a closed case sandwiched between two other  
> hot drives.
> This is one reason that some manufacturer's well intentioned MTBF  
> estimates
> are inaccurate.
>
> Frankly, throwing it off a high building seems just as informative.
>
> If you can write a pattern to the drive and it passes fsck, and you  
> can repeat
> this two or three times, that is going to be about as good a test  
> as you can
> usefully perform.  A drive that will function that well is an  
> unpredictable
> distance from failure.
> _______________________________________________
> Kclug mailing list
> Kclug at kclug.org
> http://kclug.org/mailman/listinfo/kclug

Each manufacturer provides datasheets for the drive which describes  
everything required for the user to know while installing the drive.  
You get spaces required, airflow requirements, etc. If you don't meet  
these, your drive will either last longer or less than the MTBF. If  
you think your drive won't last for more than five years, have drives  
to replace it!

Do not buy cheap power supplies and do not go outside of the  
datasheet requirements for airflow and space around the drive. You  
better go for an uninterruptible power supply as well. That'll help  
your whole system.

Manufacturers provide programs to perform tests with the drive. SMART  
is an okay technology to help warn of future failures. Did you have a  
bad experience with drives failing quite often?

Sincerely,

William Harrington