I need a hard disk analyzer

newbiesforever · 09-11-2008, 03:37 PM

I need to analyze the integrity of two hard drives, and don't seem to have anything that can do it. What should I download? Besides wondering what shape my main hard drive (a little over a year old) is in, I have a much older hard drive that suddenly can no longer be detected. I suspect it's useless, but would like to know for sure. I typed things like "hard disk analyzer" in the Synaptic search, but found nothing.

farslayer · 09-11-2008, 04:29 PM

Go to the Hard drive manufacturers site and download their testing program.

You didn't mention who made your drives so I can't provide any links.

Seagate has a diagnostic tool for their drives that is called Seatools, and they have a bootable .iso you can download to use for testing. Other manufacturers should have something similar for their drives.

newbiesforever · 09-11-2008, 04:54 PM

Oh, sorry. I forgot that the drive came with a CD. It's a Maxtor, anyway.

Bruce Hill · 09-11-2008, 05:02 PM

Besides the hard drive manufacturer's test which farslayer mentioned,
there is smartmontools. Here's a sample of output from it:

Code:

root@silas:~# smartctl -a /dev/sda
smartctl version 5.38 [i486-slackware-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-8 Bruce Allen
Home page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 family
Device Model:     ST3160815AS
Serial Number:    5RA6A75V
Firmware Version: 4.AAB
User Capacity:    160,041,885,696 bytes
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   7
ATA Standard is:  Exact ATA specification draft version not indicated
Local Time is:    Fri Sep 12 05:00:00 2008 CST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x82) Offline data collection activity
                                        was completed without error.
                                        Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
                                        without error or no self-test has ever
                                        been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:                 ( 430) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:                    (0x5b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                                        Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                                        Suspend Offline collection upon new
                                        command.
                                        Offline surface scan supported.
                                        Self-test supported.
                                        No Conveyance Self-test supported.
                                        Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
                                        power-saving mode.
                                        Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                                        General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   1) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (  54) minutes.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 10
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x000f   100   253   006    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0003   097   097   000    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       15
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   036    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x000f   071   060   030    Pre-fail  Always       -       13067767
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       1729
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0013   100   100   097    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   020    Old_age   Always       -       15
187 Reported_Uncorrect      0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
189 High_Fly_Writes         0x003a   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0022   067   057   045    Old_age   Always       -       33 (Lifetime Min/Max 27/40)
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   033   043   000    Old_age   Always       -       33 (0 27 0 0)
195 Hardware_ECC_Recovered  0x001a   079   073   000    Old_age   Always       -       241345240
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0012   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0010   100   100   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x003e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0000   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
202 TA_Increase_Count       0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Completed without error       00%       903         -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

You can do specific tests with it.

farslayer · 09-11-2008, 10:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by newbiesforever

Oh, sorry. I forgot that the drive came with a CD. It's a Maxtor, anyway.

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/sup...loads/seatools

Quote:

SeaTools for DOS

SeaTools for DOS has replaced SeaTools Desktop and PowerMax. SeaTools for DOS can test Seagate or Maxtor Parallel ATA (PATA and IDE) and Serial ATA (SATA) interface disc drives. Because the software boots to its own operating system you can test your drive regardless of the OS installed on it. You can even test a new or completely blank drive. SeaTools for DOS will instruct the drive to run its built in Drive Self Test (DST) and give either a pass or fail status. If you are troubleshooting your disc drive and the DST passes, then you have a good drive!