HDD reports and packaging

[Scainer]

I have six 500GB HDD that i'm doing nothing with and was thinking about selling them.
I've used ccleaner's drive wiper to clean but I am wondering what tools can be used to report drive integrity to prove they are good and working.
Also I have no packaging, so what would be recommended?

In general I have collected from store when buying HDD as I don't trust the post handlers.
If the case of posting them to risky, am I best just binning them?

[deejayburnout]

Don't know what Apps to use to wipe and prove integrity. Some here will soon help you out.

As for postage, as long as the drives are well packaged and posted via recorded delivery, the should be OK and if any issues arise, the postage insurance should cover it.

[Scainer]

I forgot about postage insurance. I'll have a look into that. Thank you for the idea.

[liammcd]

Speedfan is a freely downloadable utility that can read the drive's SMART information and report on its integrity.

You will probably need to research the various data fields to understand their significance though.

Most modern HDDs will park their heads when powered down so should be fairly safe in transit as long as they're not dropped from height onto a solid floor. Padding in a reasonable-sized box should be fine.

[AETAaAS]

Agree on the shipping, a few centimeters thickness of cheap bubble wrap for a 3.5' drive would do IMO.

On checking, that might depend on the requirements to satisfy any given buyer. Some will take your word for it. But you could try using CHKDSK in the Windows command line.

I would use;
chkdsk x: /r

(Replace the x in 'x:' with the relevant drive letter)

This would scan the whole drive and give you a breakdown of all the sectors (looking in particular for bad ones).