Extended self-test for external 1TB WD Elements drive stuck

[Luis]

Hello. I seem to be having a problem completing the extended self-test for a brand new external 1TB WD elements drive. The test got as far as "estimated time remaining 1 minute" and just stayed there for nearly 20 hours before I stopped it.

I'm not quite sure what the problem is, the extended self-test didn't find any problems when it was running - it just never properly finished either. Is there anything I can do to help the extended self-test finish? Any settings I could adjust? Is it normal for a 1TB external drive to need 20+ hours to finish a test? I'm just at a loss here. Should I give it another try? Because I'm running WD Data LifeGuard right now and it seems to be doing okay.

I just don't want to have to rely on Data LifeGuard alone, that's why I have Hard Disk Sentinel: because I trust it and it's never let me down. I would greatly appreciate any help and I thank you for your time.

[hdsentinel]

I can confirm that this can be completely normal situation, described already on this forum eg. https://www.hdsentinel.com/forum/viewto ... =32&t=8074

As described in the Help:

https://www.hdsentinel.com/help/en/58_test.html

"During the test, the hard disk is still usable but may be slower (and vice versa: hard disk usage may make the test much longer)."

The estimated time for the test is provided by the manufacturer of the hard disk - and it is usually valid if there is no absolutely no other hard disk activity during the test. Even if the drive is new, there may be some background activity caused by Windows or other applications which can cause that the test takes longer time to complete.

With hardware self tests like the extended self tests, software like Hard Disk Sentinel (or even the manufacturer specific tool) can only
- start the test
- read the progress in 10% increments
- read if the test completed without problem - or with an error code
but there is no way to otherwise control/know more about what's happening in the hard disk drive.

The Help describes this limitation too:

https://www.hdsentinel.com/help/en/62_testfaq.html

"In some cases, these hardware tests (Disk -> Short self test, Disk -> Extended self test) are not available, not supported or they result in an error quickly even in relatively low number of problems. No further information is returned about the result, for example it is not possible to list the sector(s) which are damaged. In such case, an appropriate software testing method is required."

So personally I'd try to stop and use Disk menu -> Surface test -> Read test instead, to verify if all sectors are readable and this test would show much more details (for example the transfer speed and possible retries on the disk surface map). These would confirm/verify if the disk drive is really working correctly - or would reveal possible problems (which may affect sometimes even new drives).
Ideally you'll see 10000 good (green) blocks (maybe some darker green blocks) and no damaged (yellow) and no failed (red) blocks.

[Luis]

Thanks so much for the quick reply.

I've just finished the surface test and everything seems fine: green across the board. Is it safe to assume that between the surface test and the Data Lifeguard test that the external drive is okay? Because both tests say everything's fine. Should I run any additional tests to be sure?

Again, thank you very much for your help, it's truly appreciated.

[hdsentinel]

If both the hardware self test and the Disk menu -> Surface test -> Read test shows no problems then yes, you can be sure that the drive is working correctly.
I'd recommend further testing only if the tests you used would report problems - but this is not the case.