How to test a Hard drive

[Bug Splat]

I mirror all my drives. Drives are cheap these days so buying two is no big deal. I used to backup all my data but now I just run Shadow Copy (or system backup) and have mirrored drives. I also convert my machines to VMware every couple months just in case.

[jb7706]

http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm.

One of if not the best HDD utils out there. If you have failing media/surface defects it will catch it. Also good for preventing data loss without risking your data, but not a replacement for regular backups.