Dang… `badblocks` takes
f o r e v e r to run on these large drives. I decided to verify my two new 14 TB drives "the linux way" just for good measure, even though I used macOS's Disk Utility to perform the 2-pass secure erase. Still in their USB enclosures, a ran `smartctl` short and then long. Once those succeeded, I ran `badblocks` destructively in a tmux session.
`badblocks` writes a specific pattern to the entire drive, reads the entire drive to verify that pattern, and then repeats with a different pattern. By default, the first pattern is `0xaa` or `10101010` in binary, and the second pattern is `0x55` or `01010101` in binary. The purpose of writing these opposite patterns is to verify that there are no bad blocks on the drive and that no bits get "stuck". The third pattern is `0xff` or `11111111` and the fourth is `0x00 or `00000000`, but I stopped after just the first two because writing and reading
each pattern took almost
two days, and that was enough to give me peace of mind and confidence to proceed.
So, after that week of churning, I can finally show off the "shucking" process that I mentioned earlier!
Why shuck? These big external drives are often much cheaper than their bare internal counterparts even though they're basically the exact same hardware. Yes, this is counterintuitive. Yes, you might normally think an external drive with the added cost of the SATA-to-USB+power board, plastic shell, and external power supply would be more expensive. You would often be wrong. The economic and business reasons behind this are
weird, and I'll try not to get into that here.
Here's the external drive after a nearly week-long battery of tests confirmed that it's 100% good.
I'm using celluloid guitar picks to non-destructively pry apart the case. You could try to use an old credit card or spudger or paint scraper, but guitar picks are
way easier. I tried doing this without the guitar picks once before, and it was agony by comparison. Guitar picks are the perfect shape and hardness for this job. I got this set from Amazon for like $5, and they'll probably last a lifetime.
Slide the picks along the back edge of the case and gently rock them back and forth along these four positions. Inside the case are plastic clips at these locations that could break if you're not careful. You should feel a bump or a little resistance when you find a clip. The goal here is to slowly move the picks inside just enough to disengage these internal plastic clips.
Along the top and bottom near the front, use guitar picks to wiggle open a small gap until you can fit two credit cards stacked together. I suggest sandwiching two cards for prying here because the cards are larger (better for leverage) and using just one card is too flimsy. Alternatively, you could use a plastic spudger or screwdriver here too, but you might gouge the soft plastic.
With the clips successfully disengaged, The shell slides apart! Be gentle as you pull one half from the other. It's a tight fit, but remember that it's still just plastic. No metal clips or screws are holding this together.
Lifting the guts out of the shell.
Use a Phillips screwdriver to remove the single screw holding the board to the drive.
Pull out the light pipe. This is just a piece of clear plastic that transmits the drive's activity light from the board to the outside of the case.
Slide the SATA-to-USB board down off of the bare drive.
Remove the rubber shock-reduction bumpers.
Use a Torx screwdriver to remove the studs from the drive.
Done!!
Once you've done it once and know everything to do, it's really quite easy and takes maybe five minutes the second time. I'll be installing these in my makeshift NAS shortly, but I'm going to order that ECC RAM before I start storing anything mission-critical in there. It's getting close, though. I'm so excited to have this little project nearly complete.
