Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Question about testing and formatting large quantity of hard drives

xaneidolon · 07-11-2004, 10:42 AM

I recently acquired about 100 hard 3.5” IDE drives and a few laptop drives, too. I need to test and format them.

For the first few, I’ve powered down a computer, attached the drive (as the slave on the ribbon), created a partition and quick formatted using an application called Swissknife. Then rebooted and ran the error-checking from the disk’s properties.

This takes forever and I know that there is a better way. Beyond that, the Swissknife program won’t let me format using NTFS – only FAT 16 or 32.

I’d like to set up a sort of assembly line to process these disks.

I have 3 computers and a laptop that I can use. I also have 3 USB 2.0 enclosures and I’ve ordered a couple of 2.5 to 3.5 IDE adapters for the laptop drives.

I guess what I need is some advice – I’d rather not have to power down the systems for each drive – would like to do a hot swap if possible. I also need some different or better software for formatting, diagnostics, and repair (in case…er, when, there are bad sectors).

I’m not averse to buying good software, but would rather use freeware if you know of any.

Thanks in advance. Just looking to save time and frustration in this process.

07-11-2004, 10:42 AM	#1 (permalink)
xaneidolon Tilted	Question about testing and formatting large quantity of hard drives I recently acquired about 100 hard 3.5” IDE drives and a few laptop drives, too. I need to test and format them. For the first few, I’ve powered down a computer, attached the drive (as the slave on the ribbon), created a partition and quick formatted using an application called Swissknife. Then rebooted and ran the error-checking from the disk’s properties. This takes forever and I know that there is a better way. Beyond that, the Swissknife program won’t let me format using NTFS – only FAT 16 or 32. I’d like to set up a sort of assembly line to process these disks. I have 3 computers and a laptop that I can use. I also have 3 USB 2.0 enclosures and I’ve ordered a couple of 2.5 to 3.5 IDE adapters for the laptop drives. I guess what I need is some advice – I’d rather not have to power down the systems for each drive – would like to do a hot swap if possible. I also need some different or better software for formatting, diagnostics, and repair (in case…er, when, there are bad sectors). I’m not averse to buying good software, but would rather use freeware if you know of any. Thanks in advance. Just looking to save time and frustration in this process.