Dropped hard disk drive

[Sarmad]

Hi,

I purchased a new Western Digital 4 TB internal hard disk drive (HDD), of their "Black" variety. However, before I could install it, I put it on a 70 cm high chest of drawers from where it accidentally fell onto a carpeted floor. The disk wasn't powered on, it was just taken our of its box and still in its anti-static bag. Is that enough to do any damage to the HDD or is the product still good to use? Is there any software I can use that'll scan the HDD and check for any damage before I start putting important data on it?

Thanks.

 

[Kshipper]

It's likely good because the hard drive's read/write heads were parked off the data platters because the device was off. Was it off when it dropped? That is key. There are programs that check the read/write surface of the drive but my next paragraph outlines why that may not be necessary.

Storing important data on a single removable drive is not a good idea because of the high failure rate of hard drives. Especially those with moving heads and spinning platters (like the one you dropped). You should ideally keep 3 copies of any data you care about. 1 source and 1 local copy and a 3rd offsite.