What Software To Test New Usb Hard Drive Using Drive Letter Not Serial Number ?

Hi,
I need to test a new usb Hard Drive, having had a new one recently fail me in 3 weeks, I need to put another new one through HDD equivalent of boot camp !
I try a software out and all my Hard drives cease to be my drive letters and are strings of alphanumeric names.
Sorry but I know my data drive as D, and the new one as N, named in properties so it shows up in explorer as N usb_HDD_019 My Passport slim black.
I have no way of working out what string of numbers/letters each of the drives are, especially I am not taking apart my PC !

so what prog will drive test in a human interface way and not freak me out ?

Also ideally let me know if any that are plugged in are becoming unhealthy. I have just had another fail yet it was working fine last week. being 004 its getting on a bit, I am on 019 now.

DBenz

 

Drive letters cannot be used for testing as the user is free to change them at will. I use CrystalDiskInfo for monitoring the condition of my drives. The test info it displays includes the current drive letters so give that a try.

 

Hi,
Thank you for replying, my only reply.
As said I have a brand new usb HDD and wish to test it before I start writing my files to it, considering the last one saw a few days of file copying of a dying HDD, so now thr files were safe on a new usb HDD, but then it failed in 3 weeks. I just can't continue on such a hair raising basis and need to run a new drive through a testing regime, HDD bootcamp !
This prog appears to monitor drives in use with data on them over time. In that respect its good, but I cant see how it goes about testing all the write sectors and testing for anything less than manufacturer spec.

How do I get it to evaluate a new drive for reliability and so on, put it through my bootcamp see if it displays any weaknesses, bad sectors etc. ?

It is correct to test a new HDD, so what is there to use ?

DBenz

 

Same ppl also offer CrystalDiskMark which seems closer to your requirements. It obviously gives disks a hard time as they don't recommend its use on SSDs Haven't used it myself though.

 

Thinking on, you will never get a 100% guarantee against drive failure no matter what drive testing you may do, so the answer is a reliable backup plan which utilises a mix of local drives, network drives and cloud storage. I use just an NAS and a 1Tb file space offered by my ISP and consider myself virtually immune to data loss. It's a nice feeling.

 

Hi, I have 32 Tb of data and 19 usb HDD many of which are prime data as well as backup to the internal drives, which also have internal backups, the latest #19 seems a little uneasy, sometimes not there when I boot up, have to unplug then replug it in, I will take a look at your CrystalDiskMark, as long as I can select the drive #19 and not have to try and figure out what serial number it is, then run a test, its now got lots of data on it, I wanted to test it before use, its predecessor as said failed in a short time.

DBenz