badblocks -vw

[Hadders]

Mike McCarty wrote:
> Hadders wrote:
>> Mike McCarty wrote:
>>
>>>
>>>
>>> You've got some misconceptions. Those drives do sector remapping. Using
>>> read/write tests won't detect this, as the FEC on the discs will hide
>>> the errors. You need to query the disc itself for the knowledge it
>>> has.
>>>
>>> # smartctl -a /dev/hdx
>>> # hdparm -I /dev/hdx
>>>
>>> may help.
>>>
>>> Mike
>>
>> Okay, that makes sense. But I need to write something to them to have 
>> the FEC detect a failure and remap it?
>
> You do that all the time when you use the disc. A new disc from
> the manufacturer has already been through more stringent tests
> than you can do at home. I look at that data about 2 or 3x per
> year, and I haven't seen any errors on my disc yet.
>
> Mike
I like to test new disks that show up through the courier, especially 
when they weren't well packaged (like these ones)
The manufacturer tests them, for themselves, but once they leave there, 
who knows what abuse they can suffer.
I figure a small home test to detect an obvious fault is worth doing off 
the mark. After that... who knows.

Usually disks for me have failed in the first month of continuous 
operation.  I have been sent disks that had errors with badblocks off 
the mark too.

H