Tip – Linux smarctl commands to check drives

 The other day (TOD) I need to check out the condition of some new HDD and SSD  drives I just purchased. As it was a Linux system these are the smartctl commands that I ran.

To run this you will need replace DeviceName with the name of the device you want to write (ie /dev/sdb) 

NOTE – Some of these commands may overwrite your drives so DO NOT RUN IT ON A DRIVE WITH DATA YOU WISH TO PERSERVE!

HDD and SSD hours (smartctl -a /dev/ | grep Power_On_Hours)

smartctl -t long /dev/DeviceName ## run a long self test on the device could take hours 
smartctl -a /dev/DeviceName ## check the results of the long test
smartctl -a /dev/DeviceName | grep Current_Pending_Sector ## pending sector reallocations
smartctl -a /dev/DeviceName | grep Reallocated_Sector_Ct ##  Reallocated sector count
UDMA CRC errors (smartctl -a /dev/DeviceName | grep UDMA_CRC_Error_Count ## UDMA CRC errors

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