What to do with 'old' external HDDs?

[RadDave]

More recently, I've replaced many (a half dozen or more) HDDs with SSDs - have used numerous spinning brands in the past, such as WD, Seagate, OWC, & Glyph - DriveDx is great for checking internal drives with S.M.A.R.T but will not test my external drives so not sure which ones are still useable - I can easily use Disk Utility to erase (probably with the x2 setting) and reformat as say Ex-Fat, but then what?

I'd be curious how others handle these 'accumulating piles' of devices? Recycle, donate (such as to Goodwill), give away, or a box in the closet. Thanks for any comments and advice. Dave

P.S. any way to check these non-S.M.A.R.T externals for their 'condition' (First Aid in Disk Utility?)

 

[ferrarr]

DriveDX offers a "driver download" for external drives. Here's what mine looks like.



It may have to do with the enclosure the drive is on.

 

[RadDave]

Thanks Bob for the comments on DriveDx - I'll have to re-visit their website and look at the details more. Dave

 

[Rod]

I notice there is now a M Series version available with the SAT SMART drivers for Silicon Macs;

DriveDx 1.11.0 is released

DriveDx 1.11.0 is released

binaryfruit.com

 

[RadDave]

I notice there is now a M Series version available with the SAT SMART drivers for Silicon Macs;

DriveDx 1.11.0 is released

DriveDx 1.11.0 is released

binaryfruit.com

Hi Rod - my version of DriveDx is the one below, i.e. 1.12.1, compatible w/ silicon Macs (does that mean M2 which I just purchased?); also the SAT SMART driver goes back a year or so - again compatibility with M2 on Sonoma? Finally, I'd like to hear from some more users of these newer silicon Macs on the most recent OS versions who have used the SAT DL successfully to view their external drives? And is the DL a safe addition - the removal process described on their website uses the terminal, another risky consideration (although appears simple). Please some more opinions from those with experience? Thanks - Dave

.

 

[Rod]

I notice no one else has commented on your questions, I don't use the product myself so I don't feel qualified. That said, I think that for use with external drives drives this current version appears to be safe to use with with Mx Macs and the uninstall process using Terminal should be fine.

 

[IWT]

my version of DriveDx is the one below, i.e. 1.12.1, compatible w/ silicon Macs (does that mean M2 which I just purchased?);

Dave, I can answer "yes" in respect of 1.12.1 - it works just fine on my M2 Max Mac Studio running Sonoma.

Ian

 

[RadDave]

Dave, I can answer "yes" in respect of 1.12.1 - it works just fine on my M2 Max Mac Studio running Sonoma.

Ian

Thanks Ian - same experience here, i.e. no problem analyzing my M2 MB Air - however, my main interest is whether these various external drives (w/o S.M.A.R.T) can be assessed? I now have virtually all SSDs for my backup drives but still not sure how these can be evaluated? Dave

 

[pigoo3]

Hey there Dave.

Sounds like from post #1...your main concern is if these non-S.M.A.R.T. drives are "on their last legs".

* I would say the first thing to consider is how large are they (capacity). If they're really small...are you very likely to use them for data backup?

* Another option. If you have many of these drives...and are concerned about their "health"...use two of them as redundant backups. This way if one of them conks out...you have the 2nd one with the same data.

* Maybe don't even be concerned about these drives at all...and trash them (once anything important is copied from them). A brand new 2TB spinner hard drive from Newegg.com is currently selling for $29.99 (500GB for $19.99).

Some ideas to consider,

- Nick

 

[RadDave]

Hey there Dave.

Sounds like from post #1...your main concern is if these non-S.M.A.R.T. drives are "on their last legs".

* I would say the first thing to consider is how large are they (capacity). If they're really small...are you very likely to use them for data backup?

* Another option. If you have many of these drives...and are concerned about their "health"...use two of them as redundant backups. This way if one of them conks out...you have the 2nd one with the same data.

* Maybe don't even be concerned about these drives at all...and trash them (once anything important is copied from them). A brand new 2TB spinner hard drive from Newegg.com is currently selling for $29.99 (500GB for $19.99).

Some ideas to consider,

- Nick

Hi Nick - thanks for the advice. On my wife's iMac and my new M2 Air, I've replaced all spinners with 1 TB SSDs (± $100, mainly Crucial & Samsung) - still do duplicate drives for CCC and TM, plus using Backblaze for both computers.

As to the old HDDs (probably 3-6+ years old) which are still working fine, I used Disk Utility's second level erase/reformat (took 3-4 hrs per 1 TB HD) and decided to donate them to Goodwill - probably a lot of life left in most of them.

As to my need for storing a LOT of data, not an issue (unless I decide to rip my 4K CD collection - ) - Dave

 

[pigoo3]

As to the old HDDs (probably 3-6+ years old) which are still working fine, I used Disk Utility's second level erase/reformat (took 3-4 hrs per 1 TB HD) and decided to donate them to Goodwill - probably a lot of life left in most of them.

I'm confused.

In post #8 (from yesterday)...sounded like you were still interested in determining the status & future possible use of these older HD's.

Did you donate the older HD's between yesterday & today?...sounds like you no longer have them...and now all is good.

Nick

 

[RadDave]

I'm confused.

In post #8 (from yesterday)...sounded like you were still interested in determining the status & future possible use of these older HD's.

Did you donate the older HD's between yesterday & today?...sounds like you no longer have them...and now all is good.

Nick

Sorry Nick to give you the impression that I wanted to re-use these HDDs - I just wanted to determine their current status (i.e. still good to use), re-format each securely, and then donate or recycle them - I've already donated four to Goodwill, and have a similar number in a box to give them. My plan from the start was to switch over to external SSDs and get rid of the spinners in some fashion. Dave

 

[pigoo3]

Good deal Dave. I thought maybe you were trying to be frugal...and reuse the drives if possible.

Nick