Hi there
I've been building desktop PCs for a few years, and in the past they have just been for browsing, gaming, watching a few movies. So I wasn't too worried about checking the parts I was using. Also, in the US, I was able to get what I wanted, when I wanted it, with Amazon and Newegg and Frys and all the lovely computer parts places I took for granted.
I moved to Casablanca, Morocco, earlier this year, for a job, and now I realize how good I had it. The desktop I had only built last year didn't get in to my shipment (rage) so I thought I'd put something together here to be a media/file server. I believe I've combed Casablanca, from the retail shops to the back alleys, and I found one single Asus H61 board, nothing else newer than 775. No internal hard drives, no DDR3 ram, nothing from the last couple years.
I've got family and coworkers coming and going in the next few months, and I'd like to get them to bring back parts for me. It will have to be over a few trips, so they won't be over loaded, and I've decided to start with hard drives. I won't easily be able to return anything that turns out DOA, and the replacement would be a month or more away.
I'll probably go for the Seagate NAS drives, as it appears the WD Reds are getting a lot more DOA with the current batch. I realize this is not scientific, and if I was at home, I would buy double and return, but that's just not an option here.
My brother is reasonably competent, and has my desktop available with Linux Mint and Win 7 on it at the moment. I'd like to order the drives to him, have him check them out, and then box them back up and send them over when my friend comes back over.
So, for the question: Do you guys have a standard testing method for new hard drives that you can recommend? I've seen manufacturer software suggested, and Linux has the built in disk utilities. He would have about 4 days to run any tests, so over night is no problem (I know some of those that check every sector take a while).
Thanks for any help.
I've been building desktop PCs for a few years, and in the past they have just been for browsing, gaming, watching a few movies. So I wasn't too worried about checking the parts I was using. Also, in the US, I was able to get what I wanted, when I wanted it, with Amazon and Newegg and Frys and all the lovely computer parts places I took for granted.
I moved to Casablanca, Morocco, earlier this year, for a job, and now I realize how good I had it. The desktop I had only built last year didn't get in to my shipment (rage) so I thought I'd put something together here to be a media/file server. I believe I've combed Casablanca, from the retail shops to the back alleys, and I found one single Asus H61 board, nothing else newer than 775. No internal hard drives, no DDR3 ram, nothing from the last couple years.
I've got family and coworkers coming and going in the next few months, and I'd like to get them to bring back parts for me. It will have to be over a few trips, so they won't be over loaded, and I've decided to start with hard drives. I won't easily be able to return anything that turns out DOA, and the replacement would be a month or more away.
I'll probably go for the Seagate NAS drives, as it appears the WD Reds are getting a lot more DOA with the current batch. I realize this is not scientific, and if I was at home, I would buy double and return, but that's just not an option here.
My brother is reasonably competent, and has my desktop available with Linux Mint and Win 7 on it at the moment. I'd like to order the drives to him, have him check them out, and then box them back up and send them over when my friend comes back over.
So, for the question: Do you guys have a standard testing method for new hard drives that you can recommend? I've seen manufacturer software suggested, and Linux has the built in disk utilities. He would have about 4 days to run any tests, so over night is no problem (I know some of those that check every sector take a while).
Thanks for any help.
