![]() ![]() Occasionally, you'll get a SMART scan which fails with (READ ELEMENT FAIL) - this is a 'stuck' bad block which (for whatever reason) can't get marked as bad, so HD Sentinel has its own scans you can run. It DOES reduce the performance of the drive, and on my 4TB drives it takes about 7hrs (HD Sentinel produces reports and status during testing) This is purely internal to the drive, so there is no CPU/IDE overhead, and the HDD will continue to allow you to use it, performing the scan in the background. ![]() I then set up a scheduled monthly SMART long scan - this does an internal end-to-end surface scan of the HDD, marking any bad blocks on the way. I always set up a scheduled daily SMART short scan - this does a quick check (2min) on drive status/electronics, BUT also confirms/denys any PENDING bad sectors (those which the HDD couldn't write to once, but are not yet confirmed as bad). Now,as mentioned, reading SMART is not the ultimate goal, and you can't just rely on that passive system, so HD Sentinel has numerous disk test routines - that can run in the background, including the System/Boot partition. It has correctly read the info from IDE/SATA/SAS interfaces on Intel/AMD/SiL/nVidia/PERC/IBM controllers running IDE/JBOD/RAID/AHCI modes. I have to say, that with 20 years of dealing with 100's of failing HDD's that HD Sentinel is by far the best at reading/testing via SMART more than any other single software package. The context of my reply is purely from a personal perspective, and not a professional recommendation: I run the advanced test if I'm working on a system having specific issues and I suspect a hardware issue. ![]() Therefore, I got to where I run the quick test if I feel pretty positive it's a good or bad drive, more of a general thumbs up or down to confirm is all I'm seeking. Side Note: I have had times I've run the quick test, it came back positive but I still felt like there was an issue so I ran the advanced test and then it failed due to a deeper down issue. I started using that several years back, along with various other tools and this one lasted the test of time in my toolkit with being the most consistent and thorough without taking many hours to run. You can find it on Hirens or on the UBCD, or you can download it just by iteself (I just figure if I'm making a utility disc, why not have the rest of the tools on there was well with one of the first two listed). Two posts in two days - must be losing my mojo.I know it's dated, but until I have a problem with it or start getting false alerts I don't see myself stopping use of it: IBM/Hitachi Drive Fitness Test. Before you ask me, "Why didn't you wipe it in the old computer, idiot?", it's because the optical drive had been harvested from the old clunker. I'm going to put the drive back in the old computer and see what the status is. There was NEVER a password needed for booting when the hard drive was in the old PC. Is it the act of changing the computer the drive was in causing the locking? I'm pretty confused. I don't know if I have two different things going on here (Boot & Nuke failure) AND the freeze locking or both the same. Rebooted again and still can't wipe it with Boot & Nuke from UBCD. Ran SEATools and it's NOT locked this time. One time, I let the PC start up and got to the Boot Options Menu, unplugged the power from the Seagate drive, plugged it back in and chose to boot from the UBCD in the optical drive. I tried turning off the PC and restating - same situation. However, once it is frozen, it remains locked until a power cycle or hardware reset." I read this article and specifically this line: "The drive can be frozen by the BIOS, the OS, or possibly a software application. Running all these tools from the UBCD 5.1.1 SEATools tells me that the drive is Security Freeze Locked. Boot & Nuke kept erroring out when I tried to wipe the drive. I put it into my utility computer (HP a1310n) on which I do this kind of thing. So, all I wanted to do was take this drive out of an old computer and wipe it using Darik's Boot & Nuke. ![]()
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