[colug-432] Flawless Drive

[tom]

On 09/20/2016 04:32 PM, Rick Hornsby wrote:
>
>
>
> On September 20, 2016 at 11:17:07, tom (thomas.w.cranston at gmail.com 
> <mailto:thomas.w.cranston at gmail.com>) wrote:
>
>> How can I check a new HDD or SSD for errors. I could use the Disks gui,
>> but I don't think it will detect bad areas on either type of drive. Is
>> there a command line I could use? Could a Windows install disk be used
>> to check a drive for bad areas. Is it reasonable to expect a HDD or SSD
>> to be 100% flawless when brand new?
>
> It depends on what you mean by "100% flawless". Should a drive perform 
> adequately and to specifications out of the box? Yes, absolutely. 
> Should a drive have 0 bad blocks already remapped by the drive's 
> firmware? Probably. Does a bad block or two that's been remapped and 
> that the OS will never know about really matter? No.
>
> If you can momentarily retreat from the idea where you seem to think 
> your new drive has bad blocks, and explain the symptoms you're 
> experiencing, we might be able to provide better insight to whatever 
> problem you're having.
>
No new drive yet. Just getting prepared to buy one. I want to send it 
back immediately if not up to par.
>
> There are many many software products which will perform a surface 
> scan of your disk, and will attempt to validate that there aren't any 
> bad blocks the drive's firmware has yet to remap. Use a little bit of 
> caution when running these tools against an SSD. SSDs are a completely 
> different storage technology than traditional magnetic platters. They 
> are not nearly as easily manipulated into checking a specific physical 
> area of the disk's memory, but rather often provide a layer of 
> abstraction from even the SATA controller - to the point where you 
> pretty much can't actually know with any certainty what physical part 
> of the drive's "memory" you're looking at.
>
>> I am leaning towards a SSD for my laptop as I think it will not be
>> affected by movement of the laptop.
>
> Well, yes. It is true there are no moving parts in an SSD. Under 
> normal conditions, a spinny drive is not necessarily a critical 
> improvement over an SSD as far as movement of the laptop. Between the 
> computers and the drives themselves, modern gear tends to be able to 
> park (lock) the heads when they sense a sudden acceleration - like a 
> fall. A laptop dropped the wrong way from enough of a height onto a 
> hard surface can destroy either type of drive. If the laptop is going 
> to experience a lot of vibration - ie it will be used in a moving 
> truck, get an SSD. Spinny drives are pretty solid, but there's no 
> reason to risk dropping a head into a platter.
>
>> Would probably go with HDD for my
>> desktop computer as it just sits there for years on end.
>
> SSDs have a few more benefits - they're faster, have lower power 
> requirements, and don't run as hot. However SSDs are still a little 
> more expensive on a per GB cost for smaller drives, all the way to a 
> lot more expensive for the larger capacities.
>
>
>
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