[ale] New hard drive procedure

[DJ-Pfulio]

On 06/06/2015 07:59 PM, Sam Rakowski wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I've purchased a new hard drive(magnetic) to replace an old one that has
> some bad sectors on it. I haven't ever bought a new hard drive; most of my
> hard drives come used or part of a new device.
> 
> I'm just interested in hearing what you all run through when you receive a
> new hard drive. Zero it? Run badblocks? All or none of the above?
> 

I plug it in and use it, but setup backups immediately.  I've had a few drives
die in the first week.

Then a few 1TB+ seagates died just after the warranty ended. Older, smaller,
seagates were good drives - still have a few 320G spinning - almost 8 yrs now -
only used as portable, backup, storage now. Took them out of "production use" in
yr 6.

Of course, there is a huge quality difference between SAS drives and the crap
consumers are sold. I suspect Jim was installing SAS into those arrays.

These days, I buy 2 drives at a time - 1 for primary, the other for backups.
Just makes life easier.