What tests should I put a new storage HDD through?

Xirix

Honorable
Feb 11, 2014
48
0
10,530
I'll be buying a new 2TB internal for my desktop soon to replace one that's failing on me, when I receive it how can I test to make sure it's all fine? What kind of format should I do on it also?

Just a little paranoid now and want to make sure everything's good before I put the backup files back onto the new one
 

caqde

Distinguished
I usually run a short and long test via Western Digital's Data LifeGuard Diagnostic tools or similar through Seagate's Seatools (depending on who made the drive). This ensures the drives SMART data is read correctly and also tells me if the Media is in working condition when it arrives.

Although it usually is fine I have had about 4-5 drives fail these tests when I got them (out of about 20 that I have purchased for myself or others) Thankfully for me their replacement drives always worked. SO it is worth it to run these tests at least to me.