I recently purchased a new WD Red Pro drive. My plan isn't to stick it in my array right away, rather save it in case an exisiting drive fails a year or two from now. Given price increases recently, it seemed like a good way to hedge against an inevitable future disk failure.

When it arrived yesterday, the box it came in wasn't padded/insulated with anything. The OEM WD box was just bouncing around in some cardboard. I wasn't too pleased, but there was no sign of external damage.

I was wondering what the best way would be to go about confirming the drive is 100% operational and doesn't have some internal issue.

I'd like to confirm it, before re-boxing it up and putting it away.

My first thought was: the unassigned devices preclear plugin. Assuming a preclear task completes with 1 pass, would that be enough to validate the disk? Should I do an extendend SMART test too, or something else?

In the olden days, A lot of us use to run about three full preclear cycles on any new hard disk. BUT, disk size was about the 3TB max size range. The object was to put about 100 hours of intensive disk activity on any disk before committing to use in the array.

But you also have to remember that back then disk reliability is not what it is today. DOA disk and infant-mortality were bigger issues than they seem to be today. With your description of how this disk was packed, I would do enough preclear cycles to put a minimum of a hundred hours on it. My last 12TB drive took about 46 hours for one cycle. (Hopefully, your vendor has a 30 day exchange policy.)

PS— I have two spare drives on the shelf because I kinda saw this price boast coming with Trump's tariff promise...

Edited February 21Feb 21 by Frank1940

Thanks @Frank1940 !

Yea the vendor has a 30day policy, which is why I want to verify it ASAP. The WD box did have the standard anti-shock packing, so hopefully that did the trick. It's a 8TB drive, so I'll run it a few times.

Just curious - I've never had a preclear job fail. Will I get a red alert box in the unraid UI if something goes wrong? Figure it'll be obvious if it fails.

I don't remember. I know that there is a nice status/results page that is a part of Unassigned Devices Preclear plugin. There is also a Support Thread that you can reach from the PLUGIN Tab of the GUI if you have further questions. (Or they might be already answered int he thread.)

11 minutes ago, codearoni said:

The WD box did have the standard anti-shock packing, so hopefully that did the trick.

That is actually good protectlion all by its self. That container is often used as shipping container by just slapping a label on it.

2 hours ago, Frank1940 said:

That is actually good protectlion all by its self. That container is often used as shipping container by just slapping a label on it.

That makes me feel a lot better! Finger crossed it all pans out. Tyvm

Best way to ensure new drive isn't a lemon?

Is it yellow? If so, lick it.

If it taste sour, it is probably a lemon.

Sorry. Sometimes I just can't help myself.

😆