Diagnosing/Understanding HDD External drives

[DrWho]

I have got a bunch of HDD USB Drives I need to work out if anything is wrong with them

I always used DriveDX in the past, but the last few updates, seem to only work if the drive is S.M.A.R.T enabled, these don't have that.

I have also recently purchased a new 10TB, that I want to clone some of them on to it, and then continue to use the (now empty drives) but only if they don't have errors, such as, bad sectors or anything else

Plus my limited knowledge of how to interpret errors isn't helping the situation

Is there a program/app I can use, that simplifies the process, and would be able to (at least hopefully in some layman's terms) explain what (if any) errors it might find on my drives, and then let me know the severity. The last thing I want is to clone the drives, so I save the data on them, but then continue to use them after, and the drive (without me knowing what is wrong with it) then may fail

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Drive DX supports external drives connected via eSata or TB only. Have a read of this:-


https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx/help

 

[DrWho]

I think I mentioned I have used DriveDX but the hard drives I have are HDD not SSD and not S.M.A.R.T enabled so DriveDX isn't helping

 

[nambuccaheadsau]

Should you read the link, items in red (External Drives), there is a driver available for Drive DX to handle external USB connected drives.

 

[Fishrrman]

My advice:

Just connect each drive, and "copy over" (to your new, larger drive) what you need to copy over.

When you have copied everything over that you need to, ERASE the old drive. You don't really need to do a "secure erase", just a quick initialization should do.

Then, run Disk Utility's "first aid" feature on the newly-formatted drive.
Do you get "a good report"?
If so, repeat the first aid test about five times in succession.
A good report every time?
I'd just keep on using the drive, and would worry no further.

My opinion only.

 

[DrWho]

My advice:

Just connect each drive, and "copy over" (to your new, larger drive) what you need to copy over.

When you have copied everything over that you need to, ERASE the old drive. You don't really need to do a "secure erase", just a quick initialization should do.

Then, run Disk Utility's "first aid" feature on the newly-formatted drive.
Do you get "a good report"?
If so, repeat the first aid test about five times in succession.
A good report every time?
I'd just keep on using the drive, and would worry no further.

My opinion only.

Thanks Fishrrman I'll try that

I did read the link on DriveDX and tried installing the driver but since I am running 10.13.6, it just isn't working as described and I am not too sure what the problem is