How can I check 4TB HDD?

[PartingShot]

Hey all,

When I acquire a new HDD, I always run the drive maker's verification software (i.e. Seagate's Disk Wizard, Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test, etc.) and make sure the HDD is 100% good before formating and partitioning.

I recently purchased the new Hitachi 4TB HDD, and have just discovered that, as of today, Hitachi's Drive Fitness Test tool will not work on their 3TB+ products.

Is there a 3rd party tool that run a full drive verification (S.M.A.R.T. testing, checking all HDD sectors, etc.) on this 4TB beast? I figure if there's a solution, somebody here would know

Thanks in advance for any assistance.

[DB83]

Am I having a blonde moment here ?

Surely you run such diagnostic software AFTER you partition/format your drive.

[Cornucopia]

Most of those disk verifiers check the sectors' read/write viability, so don't need or use partitioned or formatted disks.

Scott

[jagabo]

Perform a full format (not quick format). That will read every sector of the drive and mark any bad blocks so they won't be used by the OS. Of course, that's not the same as writing and reading every sector but it's better than nothing.

[PartingShot]

Thanks to those who replied. I did find a solution... Seagate's SeaTools for DOS (a boot CD created from a downloadable ISO on Seagate's website).

It's funny that Hitachi releases the first 4TB 3.5" internal HDD for desktops with no way for its users to verify the drives prior to first use. The reason, apparently, is that Hitachi is behind WD and Seagate with respect to manufacturing HDDs with Advanced Sector formatting (4K sectors). Even their 2TB HDDs were made with the older 512 byte sector format.

When I first launched Hitachi's latest version of their Drive Fitness Tool (via a boot CD) to test the 4TB HDD, it detected the 4TB HDD (correct model number) attached to the system, but incorrectly reported that the HDD was 1.8TB in capacity. I looked on Hitachi's website and found their disclosure that the Drive Fitness Test tool does not work with HDDs 3TB and up.

So I next tried WD's verification tool (can't recall the name), but it wouldn't work because it only operates on WD HDDs.

Then I went to Seagate and found their SeaTools for DOS program, and burned it onto CD-R. I booted from the CD and it correctly identified the Hitachi 4TB HDD and reported its full 4TB capacity. Additionally, the tool can run all the available tests on it, even though it is not a Seagate product. Thank you, Seagate.

And please, Hitachi, get your Drive Fitness Tool updated to run on your own high capacity advanced format HDDs. Seriously.

[teodz1984]

Didn't Western digital acquire Hitachi last year for $4.3 billion, heheh....

[zoobie]

boy...I'd hate for one of those suckers to fail...

[redwudz]

I suspect a full format of a 4TB disc will take a really L O N G time.

[fritzi93]

Are your computer details correct? You're using XP? If you format with XP, you'll need to check the alignment afterwards on that advanced format drive. (AS-SSD, for one, can check alignment. Parted Magic can correct alignment if necessary).

[PartingShot]

Are your computer details correct? You're using XP? If you format with XP, you'll need to check the alignment afterwards on that advanced format drive. (AS-SSD, for one, can check alignment. Parted Magic can correct alignment if necessary).

Good catch, fritzi. Actually, this brings up an interesting point. This 4TB HDD will actually be inserted in a Thermaltake BlacX docking station, and connected via eSATA to a host PC. I use this arrangement to move and access data across PCs. There are two PCs that I'd like the option to attach to the 4TB HDD. One is a HTPC running Win7 Professional SP1 (64-bit). The other is a desktop running WinXP Pro SP3 (32-bit).

If I create and align a single partition on the 4TB HDD, it needs to be properly aligned on a 4K (4096KB) advanced sector boundary, as fritzi correctly points out. This will allow the drive to have no performance issues with Win7. But what about attaching to WinXP? WinXP only knows 512 byte sector boundaries. But this should work too, since 4096KB is divisible by 512 with a remainder of 0... right?
*Edit* Did more research. Conclusion: having a 4TB volume/partition is a no-go for WinXP 32-bit. I don't wish to have multiple smaller partitions on this HDD, so it will only be used with the Win7 64-bit HTPC.

Thanks for the reminder, fritzi.