In unraid world, we preclear our disks before adding them to the pool. Not only does it zero the disk so it doesn’t screw with parity, it also ‘tests’ it. Helps catch still-born, and early death drives. There are other tools to burn-in disks; I think the old spin-rite can be used for it too.

Minimally a long SMART test, which is some basic diagnostics and a full disk surface read test.

But I also like to do a full disk write as well. One full read, one full write should be enough imho.

If you’re in Windows download the manufacturer drive app to do a full SMART test.

• Seagate Seatools: https://www.seagate.com/support/downloads/seatools/
• WD Dashboard: https://support-en.wd.com/app/products/downloads/softwaredownloads
• Toshiba Storage Diagnostic Tool: https://www.canvio.jp/en/support/download/hdd/ot_sdt/en.htm

Usually the SMART long test in each of these utilities works with other brands too. I know I’ve used Seatools SMART test on all three drive brands without a problem.

For write test you can either do a full format, or use DISKPART utility with the CLEAN ALL command. Note that CLEAN ALL will not show any status update, it will just run in the background. You will only know by monitoring the disk activity from the task manager. CLEAN ALL will wipe the entire disk surface. A full format will only wipe within the filesystem partition container. Not a big deal, just that CLEAN ALL is full disk, where as full format is partition only.

There are third party paid utilities like Hard Disk Sentinel that you can configure for wiping the disk with any pattern you want as many times as you want. Also will do a full surface read if desired.