Recent content by DarkScythe

Just thought I'd post a followup update to this: The drives successfully finished their four passes of the badblocks check yesterday. All four drives report zero bad blocks, and random smartctl checks on each drive during the test revealed no SMART issues on any of them. I think I'm pretty...

Haha, perfect, thanks. I'm letting it run right now (the slow speed on drive d still concerns me, but at this point I don't feel like interrupting the process to try and figure out which drive it is and swap out the cable) but I'll post an update if I run into any particular issues. I haven't...

I just tried it, and was able to open up a fifth console instance (and perhaps a sixth as well.) I ran iotop for a bit, and it seems like drives a, b, and c are running at around 145~150 MB/s, although for some reason drive d is showing as only running at around 115~120 MB/s. Not sure why, but...

Okay, thanks, I think I just got them started. fdisk listed my drives as simply a/b/c/d, which was simple enough. I've got badblocks -wsv /dev/sdX running in each of four consoles. If I'm reading correctly, this should automatically run the 4-pass test on each drive with a different pattern...

Haha, you can have multiple consoles? I only see the one full screen one, so I assumed it was like the old DOS prompt or something, and I was limited to one. I will try that now. Basically, start badblocks on one drive, then ctrl+alt+F1 to execute on a second drive and so on? (Or is F1 the...

I have 4 new drives (bought the 4x WD30EFRX bundle for $360 off Newegg yesterday, plus $35 in extra discounts.) I figured running tests in parallel would be the best option, and I assumed I had to conduct steps #3 and #5 in order to do so, unless this is incorrect? Is there a way to specify...

Okay, just got everything hooked up and running. CD loaded up fine, although now I'm at a console and fairly intimidated, as I don't know what commands to enter. (I just loaded the default environment as it recommended.) From some looking around, I assume my next steps are: 1. fdisk -l to...

Many thanks for your offer! I'm currently downloading the ISO from their sourceforge, and am hooking my old machine back up to my monitor and such. I'll try to do a bit of reading of their 'quick start' guide while everything is coming together, but if you have more specific directions and/or...

Thanks for the pointers; definitely appreciate the guidance. It looks like that CD is listed here categorized as a 'Rescue' and 'System Administration' package, of which other similar ones appear to be ones like the 'Ultimate Boot CD' although I'm not clear on what exactly the difference is...

Thanks for the info, guys. I used DBAN simply because it was easy (load and go, basically) and perhaps I put more stock into its 'Verify' function than you guys are willing to. Having said that, I'm trying to look into grabbing one of these Linux Live CD's, but...there are a staggering number...

Awesome, thanks for the suggestion. I haven't used any of those Linux things before, though, so some research may be required before I can do what you are suggesting. I am curious though, is there a particular benefit to using that method over the DBAN thing? If I recall correctly, DBAN also...

Hey there everyone, I just ordered 4x new 3TB WD Reds from Newegg since they had it bundled together for $360 yesterday, which was finally within my target price range of $30/TB. Actually managed to get them a bit cheaper between the free $10 GC they sent me, and the $25 off 200 AmEx promo. I...

Haha. Not really possible since he doesn't have another GPU either, but I guess I can try asking. Assuming that's not possible, though, any other ideas?

Sorry if I may have perhaps jumped the gun a bit, but I really want to avoid the whole waiting a week for them to ship it back to me just so I can spend more money and wait another week sending it right back to them carousel, and perhaps resolve it before they ship it back to me. I'm not too...

Hey guys, I'm looking for some help or advice on an RMA to Gigabyte I'm currently going through. I heard some horror stories, but I had to cross my fingers and hope regardless, and it seems like it may actually be problematic after all. I sent in a Gigabyte GTX670 a couple weeks ago...