Tool to tell age of hard disk

[Charlie]

Recently, I stumbled across a hard disk tool that will show the first
time a disk was used. Good as s guide when buying a second hand hard
disk or even old disk passed off as new by unscrupulous dealers, but
for the life of me, I can't find that website or tool again.

Anybody knows of such of a tool? Thank you.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

No.

 

[BigJim]

some drives are marked on the sticker attached to the drive

 

[Bob I]

Your description is too vague to be useful.

 

[Anna]

Recently, I stumbled across a hard disk tool that will show the first
time a disk was used. Good as s guide when buying a second hand hard
disk or even old disk passed off as new by unscrupulous dealers, but
for the life of me, I can't find that website or tool again.

Anybody knows of such of a tool? Thank you.

Charlie:
I'm not aware of any such tool, but in most cases you can communicate with
the manufacturer of the hard drive who will provide you with the date of
manufacture of that specific drive.
Anna

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

Not really, no. What you want to know is whether the HD is
defect-free, and whether or not it is under warranty.

To judge whether it's under warranty, read the Serial Number (SN) and
in addition, look for a (manufacturing) date, then run the SN through
the HD vendor's site to confirm status. In addition I voice call the
local importer/distributor to confirm "the channel" is OK, i.e. the HD
isn't "orphaned" by parallel importation or a bankrupt wholesaler.

Also, eyeball the HD to look for signs of mechanical injury that would
vioid warranty; i.e. that the sealed unit has been opened - screw
heads, sealing tape and stickers, etc. If in doubt, take digital pics
and email or show these to distie or HD vendor support, etc.

If you can't open the HD, use IDEID (or similar) from a DOS 1.44M
boot, or Windows-based "information" tools, to look it up. Don't be
confused by volume SN (e.g. for C; that's useless for this.

To judge if the HD is defective, I'd use HD Tune (www.hdtune.com) from
Windows or from a Bart PE CDR boot (I'd always take one of those to a
pre-auction "viewing"). Look in the relevant tabs to...
- check HD temperature before testing
- check SMART status in detail before testing (camera pic 1)
- do a full and slow surface test (it ignores file systems)
- check HD temperature after testing
- check SMART status in detail after testing (camera pic 2)

Any defects, reject the drive!!
If temperature climbs alarmingly (e.g. >45C), de-value the HD
If SMART shows current counters falling towards threshold, reject
If SMART counters fall between start and end of test, reject
If SMART summary says the HD is not "OK", reject!

SMART interpretation is tricky;read up on it! Some values are merely
informational counters, including one on how often the HD has been
started up (perhaps similar to what you had in mind). The "raw"
values are hard to figure; the ones to look at are the "current"
values, which generally start from 200, 100 or similar and fall
towards the "threshold". Only when the threshold is reached, will the
SMART summary say anything other than "OK" - that's why you need the
details, rather than some vendor's "SMART says OK" thing.

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[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

If you can't open the HD, use IDEID (or similar) from DOS

GAH!!! Critical Error Alert!! The above should read...

If you can't open the SYSTEM CASE, use IDEID (or similar) from DOS

....as you *never* open the HD itself!!

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