How to Test a HDD?

[gumbob3]

I recently bought a 500gb WD Blue HDD at a garage sale. I have no idea if it works or not, but it appears to be in good condition on the outside. With my pc I just bought, I realized it has the exact same hdd in it. What is the best way to test this hard drive? I thought the easiest way would to go on ebay and buy a 9" SATA Cable (http://www.ebay.com/itm/9-SATA-SERIAL-ATA-HDD-HARD-DRIVE-OPTICAL-DATA-STRAIGHT-TO-ANGLE-RED-CABLE-USA-/291760007343?hash=item43ee4068af:g:5QIAAOSwFNZWzL9t). Then, just boot up the system normally, but with two hard drives plugged in. There is another mounting spot below the current hard drive, an empty plug on the sata power cable that plugs into all drives, and two empty sata data ports on the motherboard. So, would this be an effective way of testing this HDD? I think someone mentioned that I could get a virus just by plugging it in and looking if it shows up in my drives list. If this method is "unsafe" what would be a better way to test this drive? All help is very much appreciated! THANKS! -Ethan

 

[SkyNetRising]

Just connect drive to the system and boot up.
If you have antivirus installed, it should catch if anything nasty is on that drive.

And test it with any software that can read SMART data. HDtune - for example.

 

[D_Know_WD]

Hi there gumbob3,

You just need SATA & power cables in order to attach the drive. Then you just boot up.
As SkyNetRising, if you have an antivirus tool installed, you should be fine.

Apart from that, if there is some data on the drive, it may be a good idea to reformat it.
Also, in order to check the health status of the drive, you can run both short and extended WD's DLG tests: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=D3xhL1
The tests results should show the overall health status of the drive.

Let me know in case you have some more questions,
D_Know_WD

 

[gumbob3]

Hi there gumbob3,

You just need SATA & power cables in order to attach the drive. Then you just boot up.
As SkyNetRising, if you have an antivirus tool installed, you should be fine.

Apart from that, if there is some data on the drive, it may be a good idea to reformat it.
Also, in order to check the health status of the drive, you can run both short and extended WD's DLG tests: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=D3xhL1
The tests results should show the overall health status of the drive.

Let me know in case you have some more questions,
D_Know_WD

I have both Avira and Malwarebytes, so I should be okay! Also, do you know about how much power a 500gb WD Blue HDD takes? Thanks

 

[D_Know_WD]

Well, HDDs doesn't really require much power.
Here, depending on the model, you can check the power requirements: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=dcqc8t
I believe it should be around 6 W.

Cheers,
D_Know_WD