Utility to burn in new hard drive?

No point in doing that.

You can use something like HDTach if you want, or use smartctl to run the smart test mode forever.

Run the HDD manufacturers diagnostics, including the full read/write surface scan. Same for scandisk, surface testing.

Fill it with data, then copy it off again. Personally I never trust a new drive for at least a few weeks, only mirrored data goes onto it.

As for one-system-one-drive type of burn in, not really, at most you can again run the manufacturers diagnostics if they'll run, and try installing windows/other-OS.

If the drive has a jumper labelled SS (Self Seek), this will give it a jolly good work through with just the power connected. Unfortunately, this has become quite rare on disks nowadays, whereas it was once quite standard.

Andrew Gabriel wrote

Virtually all can do that now using smart, invoked with something like smartctl.

I would use CX command (random seeks untill stoped) from MHDD

-- Alan Kakareka Data Recovery Service

Scandisk with multiple surface scan?? (after you format it)

You do NOT have to burn in a harddrive.

The theory being that burning it in will reveal faults (that won't show up until used a bit) in areas that can then be locked away from use. Or, if a significant number, trigger the return of the drive to the vendor.

Not really. Infant mortality for HDDs is pretty low these days, so burn-in does not help much. Same is generally true for semiconductors. It used to be different.

Hiwever if you really want to burn in, then just put the drive under higher load for some time. I used to do this by compiling Linux kernels in a loop.

Arno

True if you don't care whether the drive works.

Just crank up some memory hog application that handles files bigger than your ram and you will thrash the hell out of the drive as it pages the data in and out. Sound Forge with a big audio file or some video editor springs to mind.

Hard drives do not require any burning in.

maybe try an anal burner ?

I extend the mistrust to the disks entire llifespan... It's volatile memory... backup procedures, redundancy etc..

Are there any drives that one could submit to diagnostics ALL the time, that transmit "condition data" to the mobo/OS constantly ?

Defining "burn in" as compressing a weeks normal operation into an , say, hour ?

Is it "generally accepted", that a virgin HD will only decease within

Vendors have already done that. Prompt failures after their testing are rare.

You know within seconds if the drive works. "Burning it in" accomplishes nothing.

With devices such as disk drives, if they don't fail within an hour or two, they'll probably run for years. Vendors exercise drives to reduce the incidence of the former. As a result, drives that survive a very brief infancy will likely remain reliable for a very long time.

Osiris wrote

Yep, that's what SMART is about.