[Nottingham] 'Memtest86+' for HDDs and SSDs?

[Duncan]

On 24/04/12 14:23, Martin wrote:
> On 24/04/12 14:07, Chris Burton wrote:
>>> Is there anything equivalent for testing that the HDDs and SSDs in a
>>> system are fully functional?
>> For HDD badblocks (I can't imagine it being too kind on SSD) or was you
>> looking for something with more features?
>>
>> I recently used it to test a 26TB raid box and it pointed out the bad
>> disk (it did take a while though!).
>
> At the moment, I just use an ad-hoc incantation of "hdparm -tT",
> "md5sum", and "badblocks" for each device. For SSDs, I set the badblocks
> for read-only.
>
> Before I embark on the next batch of ad-hocness, I was wondering if
> anyone had put together something for some more refined/thorough testing...
>

An additional tool for your arsenal:
If the disk has SMART (many SATA, SAS and SCSI these days do) then you can use smartmontools
to initiate disk self-tests (offline, short and long).  If your lucky SMART has already been enabled
and you can use smartmontools to see what it says.
See also http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/badblockhowto.html

NB. "smartctl long" (and full badblocks) tests of large disks can take a very long time and your
HDD will get very hot in the process if your box doesn't have adequate ventilation.

Have fun,
Duncan