Best free software for thoroughly testing SATA drive?

[debs3759]

I just purchased an 8TB hard drive on eBay, and when it arrives I want to thoroughly test it (SMART status, bad sectors, etc). I'll be testing it in a Skylake system. It'll be storing a large media collection, so I'll be devastated if it fails a month after transferring all my files. What's the best free software you know of to give it a thorough health check? I've never had a drive that I've wanted to do a thorough test on before

[debs3759]

never mind, I looked at a bunch of reviews, and downloaded SeaTools. Should be perfect, as the new drive is a Seagate. Currently doing an extended test on my old drives before creating a RAID array with them.

[max1024]

You can try Victoria HDD or any other utility that shows SMART at 90%, this will be enough, since by the parameters of the SMART you can already understand what is wrong with the HDD.

[Chriscosmo12]

I have always used CrystalDiskInfo. It gives a good readout on all kinds of SMART stats, drive specs, overall health, etc.

[misace]

HD Tune pro 5.75, it is trial, but fully functional. You can reset trial by removing registry keys (delete HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\EFD Software) and then reinstall.

[lavrentii]

But it can still fail. In any case do a backup.

[debs3759]

Thanks for the suggestion. A long test with SeaTools showed no problems with my current drives, so if the 8TB drive tests OK when it arrives, the 2 x 3TB drives will be safe to put in RAID 0. I'll run tests with CrystalDiskInfo as well, to compare the output and time it takes for the most thorough tests.

[Chriscosmo12]

CrystalDiskInfo is pretty instant. You may have to fully format the drive for it to update the SMART statuses. I've gotten info off drives then formatted them and the format corrected some errors. Not sure how other programs work, if they do a deep scan or format on their own.