Multi-Hard Drive Diagnostic Software (self-bootable)

[Altster]

All

I am in the need of a “low cost” or “free” or “open-source” or “freeware with limited options” Multi-Hard Drive diagnostic software that is self-booting. It will need work with just about any hard drive interface which has been produced in the last 5 to 10 years to the current interface(s). I would like for the program(s) to run something like Vivard’s software but with the ability to run on multi-drives at the same time.

Most likely I already have the hardware to run this software on and if not I have no problem with obtaining it from our facilities. I would like for it to be able to be used with a 6-bay SATA drive server that I currently have set up for use with DBAN. I did just download the most current version of Dban but have not looked at it yet.

Any and all suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Ray

 

[Altster]

I know I'm replying to my post but I wish to share this with all of you Linux users (I'm still a novice, but working on getting to know it more and more). I found this in one of my many searches after making my first posting. I won't know if it works until I get to work tomorrow. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Note that if you have multiple drives hooked up at the same time, it's a lot easier to identify which one you're working with if you just make sure not to hook up two of the same model. Of course, you can also identify the drives based upon the order in which they're hooked up, but it's brain-dead simple if the drives are all different models.
1. Boot from an Ubuntu Linux live CD
2. Open a terminal, then run the commands below (note the '#' designates the shell prompt)
3. # sudo bash
4. # apt-get install smartmontools (this is the part that requires Internet access)
5. # fdisk -l to list the drives' sizes and device IDs (/dev/sdX, where X is an unique letter for each drive, starting from 'a'). Note this list, and perform the rest of the steps on each hard drive.
6. # smartctl -a /dev/sdX where sdX is the hard drive device ID. Look at the events that indicate "pre-failure," such as Reallocated Count. If the "WORST" value for realloc is lower than 100, the drive has already started to degrade; throw it out. (Technically, you can wait until WORST reaches THRESHOLD, but you'll take a performance hit every time you try to read or write a reallocated sector.)
7. If smartctl shows nothing of concern, run a badblock scan: # badblocks -nvs /dev/sdX if the drive still has data, or # badblocks -wvs /dev/sdX if you want to wipe the data and do a more thorough bad block scan. If badblocks finds any bad blocks, throw the drive away--its spare sectors for bad sector reallocation are all used up.
8. If badblocks passed, run, # smartctl -a /dev/sdX again to see if the bad block scan turned up any newly-reallocated sectors. If the drive has a clean bill of health at this point, it's safe to put back into service. If you ran badblocks -wvs in the previous step, they are probably also wiped thoroughly enough to give away, if you have no better use for them.

If you want, you can open up a separate terminal for each drive and run the bad block scans in parallel, so you don't have to keep checking on the status of one drive before moving onto the next. Depending on the sizes of your drives, you may need to let the scan run overnight anyway.

I hope this works. I plan on attempting multiple open terminals for each drive. I'll let all of you know how it goes.

Cheers

 

[mikeroq]

Personally, I use SeaTools. Otherwise I fire up gsmartcontrol and run a test there. Get the Ultimate Boot CD, or Hirens, they both have multiple diagnostics for HDDs from various manufacturers tools to a couple generic ones.

 

[BillMoney]

Personally, I use SeaTools. Otherwise I fire up gsmartcontrol and run a test there. Get the Ultimate Boot CD, or Hirens, they both have multiple diagnostics for HDDs from various manufacturers tools to a couple generic ones.

i think he is looking to run hdd tests on multiple drives at one single time

Hirens is great as it provides different manufacturer's diag tools.

 

[Eagle21]

Parted Magic is a Linux distribution which is self-booting, includes the GSmartControl hard drive testing utility (you do not need to install it), and allows testing multiple hard drives at the same time.

 

[Altster]

Personally, I use SeaTools. Otherwise I fire up gsmartcontrol and run a test there. Get the Ultimate Boot CD, or Hirens, they both have multiple diagnostics for HDDs from various manufacturers tools to a couple generic ones.

Got 'em and have used them for single drive testing.

But you see I probably have 500+ drives to run diags on and wipe (I'll probably use DBAN for wiping 'em clean). So I think you can see why I need to have a software package or combined with the proper hardware, the ability to test multiple drives at the same time.

 

[Altster]

i think he is looking to run hdd tests on multiple drives at one single time

Hirens is great as it provides different manufacturer's diag tools.

Yes, I have & am using Hiren's 10.6 at the moment. Great collection of software tools!

 

[Altster]

Parted Magic is a Linux distribution which is self-booting, includes the GSmartControl hard drive testing utility (you do not need to install it), and allows testing multiple hard drives at the same time.

Downloading it right now and will burn to CD and take to work with me (tomorrow). I look forward to "playing" with Linux- and FreeDos-based software packages any time I have spare time.

Thanks to one and all who have responded so far. I'm getting some really good suggestions from all of you(s).

 

[uprighttech]

Yes, I have & am using Hiren's 10.6 at the moment. Great collection of software tools!

That is a very dated version of Hiren's. The newest release is version 15.2 I believe.