Hi I recently decided that I want to build my own NAS for running Unraid with Plex, and possibly further down the line Blue Iris surveillance in a VM or some other project that I happen to think of. I've just purchased 2 brand new 12TB WD Elements drives as they were on sale that I plan to schuck (never done it before but have been watching various videos on YouTube). The rest of the hardware I've picked out with the help of others can be found here https://uk.pcpartpicker.com/list/mD8vrV

 

So now that I've got these WD drives, before I buy the NAS components and schuck the Elements I'm aware that I should stress test them check for bad blocks etc and also zero write for parity? I know about Preclear but can I run something else instead as I don't have the NAS built? For example, could I run the WD Lifeguard utility to check for faults and zero write the drive so that when I do build the NAS these schucked WD's can go straight in with some level of assurance they are ok?

2 minutes ago, smush said:

could I run the WD Lifeguard utility to check for faults and zero write the drive so that when I do build the NAS these schucked WD's can go straight in with some level of assurance they are ok?

yes

3 minutes ago, trurl said:

yes

Thanks. Can I run the WD Lifeguard and let it check the external drive while using the computer as normal? Will Unraid still want to preclear the drive when I set it up or not?

Unraid only requires a clear disk when you are adding it to a new slot in an array that already has valid parity.

So I've got another 6 hours to go until the WD Lifeguard utility completes an extended scan. Assuming the drive passes this test, how many more scans should I consider performing?