Hard Drive Integrity Tests with Badblocks Command

badblocks.md

Before installing a new hard drive, use the following steps to detect any IMF issues.

1. Install badblocks tool.

brew install e2fsprogs
brew ln --force e2fsprogs

2. Run badblocks over device for at least 1 complete pass.

IMPORTANT: THIS WILL DESTROY ALL DATA ON YOUR DRIVE!!

NOTE: Make sure to use /dev/rdisk[0-9] device with the badblocks command for better performance.

sudo diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk5
sudo badblocks -svw -e 1 -b 4096 -c 1024 -t 0xaa -t 0x55 /dev/rdisk5

Estimate ~210 minutes per TB (for each pattern) on a USB drive for this command to run.

For example, the above command runs 2 patterns, therefore an 8TB device requires ~56 hours.

Size	1 Pattern	2 Patterns	4 Patterns (default)
1 TB	3h 30m	7h	14h
2 TB	7h	14h	28h
4 TB	14h	28h	56h
8 TB	28h	56h	112h
12 TB	42h	84h	168h
16 TB	56h	112h	224h
18 TB	63h	126h	252h
20 TB	70h	140h	280h

badblocks_output.txt

Checking for bad blocks in read-write mode
From block 0 to 65536
Testing with pattern 0xaa: done
Reading and comparing: done
Testing with pattern 0x55: done
Reading and comparing: done
Testing with pattern 0xff: done
Reading and comparing: done
Testing with pattern 0x00: done
Reading and comparing: done
Pass completed, 0 bad blocks found. (0/0/0 errors)