General: Help Me Evaluate the HDD Condition

[blackscorpio]

I bought this RMA'ed Seagate HDD 4TB, attached the crystaldiskinfo, please tell me if this looks fine or not?

Please. TIA.

[blackscorpio]

Any one please

[manishbharech]

With the pics it appears to be ok, however download a disk scan utility and run a surface scan to check for bad sectors if you wanna be 100% sure of the hdd health

[blackscorpio]

Originally Posted by manishbharech With the pics it appears to be ok, however download a disk scan utility and run a surface scan to check for bad sectors if you wanna be 100% sure of the hdd health

Thanks any other insights will be helpful.

I want to use this as a backup drive but the drive actually is a Seagate Surveillance class drive, is it fine to use as backup? I mean it will used once a month to copy the data and then removed stored in a safe place until the next back up time.

Another idea is to put this drive into a external enclosure that I have lying around, which is a seagate freeagent goflex 3tb unit. is it fine to use the enclosure? how do I know if the power requirements are enough for the 4tb as it was a 3tb external drive?

TIA.

[manishbharech]

Yeah you can easily use this drive for archive purpose and can also use it with hdd enclosure as power requirements are the same since they both have the same sata standard

[redhotiron2004]

Originally Posted by blackscorpio Thanks any other insights will be helpful. I want to use this as a backup drive but the drive actually is a Seagate Surveillance class drive, is it fine to use as backup? I mean it will used once a month to copy the data and then removed stored in a safe place until the next back up time. Another idea is to put this drive into a external enclosure that I have lying around, which is a seagate freeagent goflex 3tb unit. is it fine to use the enclosure? how do I know if the power requirements are enough for the 4tb as it was a 3tb external drive? TIA.

If it is a surveillance class drive tgen dont even think about backing up your important data out there. Surveillance class drives are not at all meant to be for backing up data they have different tweaked algorithm that supports high write and read capability and somewhat ignores the error correcting versus the normal storage drives. What it means is that your data have a high probability of being corrupt if stored for longer times. Surveillance drives are meant to record videos etc. There data integrity is not that important.

You can use this drive in your desktop or even as your portable drive. But, I would strongly suggest not to use it for archieving/backup purpose. It could be a lot more costly mistake than you can imagine right now.

[blackscorpio]

Originally Posted by redhotiron2004 If it is a surveillance class drive tgen dont even think about backing up your important data out there. Surveillance class drives are not at all meant to be for backing up data they have different tweaked algorithm that supports high write and read capability and somewhat ignores the error correcting versus the normal storage drives. What it means is that your data have a high probability of being corrupt if stored for longer times. Surveillance drives are meant to record videos etc. There data integrity is not that important. You can use this drive in your desktop or even as your portable drive. But, I would strongly suggest not to use it for archieving/backup purpose. It could be a lot more costly mistake than you can imagine right now.

now I am confused !!!

I really needed a back up drive immediately as my NAS has degraded and I had never backed up it.

Can I use it as temp solution before I get an really back up drive.


TIA.

[manishbharech]

I think it's a marketing line by hdd manufacturers, data corruption happens when bad sectors start developing on any hdd either in the storage space or partition tables, as long as the drive is healthy you will be able to access your data regardless wether it is surveillance , nas, entry level or server grade, surveillance drives generally are better than entry level drives , to be safe data wise perhaps you can back up the really important information using something like Dropbox , but generally a person stores more of media on large drives , so it's upto you what you wanna do , my take is that you need space more that's y u went in for a recertified drive in the first place

[redhotiron2004]

Originally Posted by blackscorpio now I am confused !!! I really needed a back up drive immediately as my NAS has degraded and I had never backed up it. Can I use it as temp solution before I get an really back up drive. TIA.

My motive is not to confuse you. But, just to tell you the pros and cons. For general usage surveillance drives are fine. You can also use them as a temporary storage place for a month or two if you have no other choice. But, I would suggest that you make atleast 2 copies of that data on 2 separate drives until you get a proper backup hard disk. The fact of the matter is that these drives cost pretty much the same. Just 10-20bucks here and there depending on the warranty. Like WD blue and green and purple(surveillance) are quite close in price for same capacity.
Apart from marketing there is a definite reason why you should adapt a particular drive. There are error correcting algorithms that are used in all the drives. Those settings actually determine the life of the drive in the long run. In lay man terms a normal drive/backup drive might have a lower write/read speed but it have a greater data redundancy capability which makes it more reliable in the long run versus a surveillance drive which might have greater write and read speed but lower tolerance towards data integrity. The types also determines how long the data would be protected without powering on the drives. Usually backup drives can keep data safe for longer duration without the need of powering on regular intervals versus the normal or surveillance drives.

So, if you have no other choice for the time being then do go ahead with the surveillance drive. But, make 2 copies of the most precious data you have or change it ASAP whenever you get funds.