# Disk surface analysis tools



## FestusHagen (Jan 22, 2009)

Hi all,

Looking for Disk surface analysis tools. (Rigorous Sector testing)

Looked through the ports and elsewhere but cannot locate any, else I'm missing them.

Any pointers to such programs / info would be greatly appreciated.

FBSD 7.1-R, Promise TX4-300 Sata ... No M$!

Thanks

-Enjoy
fh  : )_~


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## ale (Jan 22, 2009)

sysutils/diskcheckd ?


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## FestusHagen (Jan 23, 2009)

ale said:
			
		

> sysutils/diskcheckd ?



Thanks, This really does not do what I am looking for ... This only reads the current data to ensure it's readable.

I am looking for something that writes and reads to each sector multiple times verifying it's own written data to ensure the sector is stable.

Thus, if there is data in the sector it needs to lift the data test the sector and lay the data back down.

My data is safe elsewhere so I really don't care if it can't work in a data safe manner.

Thanks

-Enjoy
fh  : )_~


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## cy@ (Jan 25, 2009)

Try sysutils/smartmontools. It works with SMART capable drives at the firmware level.


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## aragon (Jan 25, 2009)

DOS boot disk and scandisk?


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## zuborg (Jan 27, 2009)

sysutils/e2fsprogs

Here is badblocks tool, it is able to do r/o or r/w disk test for badblocks


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## graudeejs (Jan 19, 2010)

```
dd if=/dev/da0 of=/dev/null bs=8m
```
this will run 1 time

if you want multiple times

```
# for i in `jot - 1 [red]5[/red]`; do dd if=/dev/da0 of=/dev/null bs=8m; done
```
this will run 5 times. Change 5 to any number of times you want to run
Note, that command above will run only in sh compatible shells [sh or mksh for example] on FreeBSD [linux have different jot]

if there are errors you'll see

If you also want to write to disk, you can replace *of=/dev/null* with *of=/dev/da0*, this can also sometimes fix some errors

replace /dev/da0 with your disk

check
dd(1) for more info, especially examples section


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## Carpetsmoker (Jan 21, 2010)

MHDD
This is only one of two proper hard drive testing tools I know of (The other one being inhouse testing tool we have at work).

See this thread for some info:
http://www.daemonforums.org/showthread.php?t=4042&highlight=mhdd

@Killasmurf: Your "test" will just wear the hard drive out. It is of little use for any proper testing (You will only catch the most obvious errors).


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## fronclynne (Jan 25, 2010)

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
has a goodly number of utilities


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## vincepoy (Feb 5, 2010)

Anyone here run diskcheckd on a system with gmirror?  For some reason, diskcheckd works fine without gmirror as it runs and then finishes but with gmirror added, it will just hammer the HDD's non-stop as the HDD light is solid from startup to shutdown and stopping diskcheckd will turn the HDD light off immediately.


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