How to predict external hard drive failure ?

[michelangelo]

Hello. I have no current problem (so far) but want to work towards minimising the probability of troubles. After organising my data among internal HD, external HD and trash, after setting up automated versioned backup (to a Time Capsule) and bootable duplicates (via CCC) for my primary MacBook Pro and wife's iMac, I now receive every morning emails stating that my cloning operations went OK. I like good news better than the absence of bad news.

Still, this does not inform me about my drives' health (internal HD, external HD for data and external HD for clones). Instead of getting up a morning with a failed drive (how would I know?), I would like to replace my drives before they fail.

Ideally, I would like to receive every morning an email stating that, after wizard's review, my drives (mainly the external HD like the backup drives) are OK to go for another day (week ?). If a drive is deemed dying, the idea is that I would no longer use it in its role. I would immediately shop for a new one.

Does this mean getting rid of the flagged drives (or is there a retirement home for old drives?) ?

Is this overkill ?

Is this feasible ?

How ?

Suggestions ?

Thank you, all of you, for your valuable insight.

 

[pigoo3]

You could give this a try:

https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx

- Nick

 

[chscag]

I second what Nick posted: DriveDX. I use it to check my external drives.

 

[MBP17•David]

Another vote for DriveDX - excellent app, and very easy to enable SMART support for almost any old USB drive.

 

[KevinJS]

Looks like your primary question is answered, and thanks to those who supplied that answer.

Now for the secondary. If you don't have an Eco-waste station close by, take a big hammer to any failing drive, destroy it and chuck it in the garbage. That should stop any temptation to use it in the future.

 

[michelangelo]

Wow! The speed of replies, and the immediate consensus around my question #1 impressed me. My congratulations to all of you. Thanks. It was dinner time. Dinner notwithstanding,I immediately downloaded the suggested app and installed it on both computers, for email tests.

I configured the emails on Mail. Does not seem to work.

For question #2, I see that fixing the drive is not an option. Is it wrong to wipe clean an exhausted drive with one additional pass of zeroes and put it back into service, as I plan to do regularly (12 months) on the 1 + 2 = 3 partitions of my time capsule (where no automated verification seems possible) ?

Driver. I noticed a public domain driver is required for external drives. How do I know I need to update it ?

TIA

 

[KevinJS]

Platter drives wear out and develop bad sectors. They SEEM OK, then one day they fail. Here's a prediction. You'll have a drive failure right at the most inconvenient time.

Don't succumb to temptation. If you are going to the trouble of testing drives, trust your tests. Destroy them before they destroy your data.

 

[IWT]

@michelangelo,

Driver. I noticed a public domain driver is required for external drives. How do I know I need to update it ?

Go to this page where it will explain how to sort this out: https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx/usb-drive-support

Ian

EDIT: It is much easier to set up if you purchased DriveDx direct from binaryfruit rather than the App Store. The link covers both situations.

 

[michelangelo]

Platter drives wear out and develop bad sectors. They SEEM OK, then one day they fail. Here's a prediction. You'll have a drive failure right at the most inconvenient time.

Don't succumb to temptation. If you are going to the trouble of testing drives, trust your tests. Destroy them before they destroy your data.

Good advice. I'll take it. Thanks.

 

[michelangelo]

@michelangelo,



Go to this page where it will explain how to sort this out: https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx/usb-drive-support

Ian

EDIT: It is much easier to set up if you purchased DriveDx direct from binaryfruit rather than the App Store. The link covers both situations.

Hmm. Here is what I saw, which explains to me my doubts:

On the Macbook Pro, I had first installed Smart Utility, clicked on the link Smart Utility > Install Smart SAT Driver and used the installer to install the driver. Smart Utility was able to see and rate my external drive.

On the iMac, I had first installed the same installer of Smart Utility, but the menu "Smart Utility > Install Smart SAT Driver" was nowhere to be seen. Smart Utility did not see my external drives.

On the MacBook Pro, I then installed DriveDx, which saw immediately my external drive and was able to rate it, without any additional installation. I infer from that event that both apps use the same driver.

On the iMac, I then installed DriveDx, which could not rate my external drives. Then, somewhere in a DriveDx window, I was offered the possibility to instal the driver. I did so and DriveDx was then able to see my external drives and to rate them. I conclude from that event that DriveDx knew that I did not have the driver, but I can't know what it would have noticed if I had an outdated driver.

Whenever I click "DriveDx > Check for updates... " it tells me that DriveDx is up to date, but does not mention the additional driver.

So, my question was: "How do I check for updates of the external driver ?" TIA

 

[IWT]

On your iMac, you seem to have done everything correctly in that you say DriveDx was able to see your External Hard Drives (EHD) and rate them. BTW, there is a wealth of info contained within DriveDx - well worth a read of their excellent article explains what each health metric means (via their online site).

Once you're set up, that's it. Checking for updates is for the DriveDx app itself. The drivers, once installed, remain and are good to go. If ever a new driver is needed, you will be told. This has not happened to me yet in 2+ years of use.

Ian

 

[michelangelo]

Time for status update and a warm thank you note.

I purged the other app from my macs and purchased a license for three macs. Was easy. I Registered both app. Was easy. Now they seem to do their job in the background. I would say this is still an untamed animal to me. I guess I was spoiled by CCC, where doing difficult things seem simple. Not here, not yet.

Warmest thanks to all