Surface Test > Pause, Assume

[jack150731]

Surface Test might take more than 24 hours. WRITE + READ test is WRITE all/specific blocks + READ all/specific blocks in stead of (WRITE + READ) each block of all/specific blocks, for good reasons. A workaround is to specify first and last blocks each time, but it's not very convenient.

It would be very convenient if we can Pause and Assume the Surface Test, just like Bitlocker's Pause and Assume.

Thank you very much.

- Jack

[hdsentinel]

Yes of course, this is exactly why it is possible to pause and resume the hard disk test with no problems.

Please simply

- click on the Stop button in the upper right area to open the "Are you sure you want to stop" dialog.
While that dialog is displayed, the test is automatically paused - and if you continue "No", the test resumes.

or

- click on the surface map to view the contents of the underlying sector during the surface test.
While that window displayed, the test is also paused - and if you close the window, the test resumes.

[jack150731]

I didn't know the side effect of those actions. Seems the right click also pauses the test.

Thank you very much for the prompt solution.

[jack150731]

If I Pause the Surface Test of usb disk, put the computer into sleep, power off usb disk, then power on usb disk, wake up the computer, will the Surface Test be able to Resume?

[hdsentinel]

In theory yes, it may continue - but it depends on the hard disk (more precisely the chipset of the USB enclosure / adapter) and the current operating system.

I'd suggest to try it with a read test - in worst case, you may see that the test shows that the device is no longer accessible so the corresponding sectors are not available for testing.

[Muad'Dib]

The ability to pause a test and then resume even after shutting down and restarting the computer would be extremely useful. In these days of hard drives of 2, 4 & 6 TeraBytes, such tests (even the relatively fast non-destructive surface test) can take a couple of days. It would be great if HDS somehow stored the location where the test was paused, and could then continue from that point when the test resumed (even if you exited HDS, shutdown and restarted the computer on another day). Even partitioning the drive into smaller partitions wouldn't help, since HDS doesn't test individual partitions, only the entire physical drive.

Please consider adding this 'smart resume' feature in a future version of HDS.

[hdsentinel]

Thanks for your message.

Yes, it is already considered and may be available, just it's more than complicated (consider an extremely complicated setup, with many overwrite passes, read/write options, etc. used).

I did not pay too much attention for it - because here is a method alredy available to start the test at certain position.
Just stop the test, write down the last block processed and on next startup, it is possible to start a clean from that point
(see Disk menu -> Surface test and before starting the appropriate test, select the Configuration tab and specify to start from that block).

This is relatively easily to make and would be much better than pausing/resuming.
Why?
Because after restart, a paused test may not be continued immediately by the user. If he continues the disk testing later, after longer time (eg. many days or weeks) it is possible that the previously tested area is again problematic - and after completion, the test result may be not 100% accurate.
This is why I always feel it is better, more clear to have a restarted test from the selected block.