[ale] Detecting problems on drives in USB enclosures?

[David Tomaschik]

John Wells wrote:
> Guys,
>
> I have an enclosure and a number of drives in my office. I'm not sure which are good and which are bad, but there's a good one in there somewhere.
>
> Is there a way from Linux (or...shudder...windows) to detect problems a la SMART or something else via a usb enclosure? I can manually swap them in/out in one of my machines, but I'm all out of slots and that'd would be an immense pain. Surely the popularity of enclosures and external drives has reaped tools?
>
> Thanks!
> John
>   
Some enclosures will handle SMART, but many may not.  Also SMART may not
report all errors.  I would try running badblocks on the disks: if it
finds nothing, it's likely the disk is still usable.  Oh, and listen to
it when it runs... if it grinds or clicks loudly, stay away! :)

-- 
David Tomaschik
Moderator, LinuxQuestions.org
http://matir.wordpress.com