What about first testing the health of the disk before creating more waste?
Priorities. It's a fact of life that disks wear out and fail. If your priority is data integrity, relying on unreliable tests to try to cut down on e-waste contradicts that, since that greatly increases the chance you'll be caught flat-footed and lose data.
- Copy data to them once.
- Have redundant copies of data on multiple devices.
- Once data is copied, catalog it, and put it on a shelf until needed.
They're unlikely to die just sitting there without power, and multiple redundant copies should cover any issues with single-device failure.
Actually they will likely die shortly after you use them again. HDDs have bearings and they are lubricated. The lubricant ages and might even collect at the lowest point in the bearing. Once the disk is powered up after many years the bearings will no longer be properly lubricated they get warm expand and destroy themself. The HDD could run for a few minutes or several hundred hours before it starts to make weird sounds and vibrations and turn itself off to prevent further damage or it keeps going until something dies (common for older models).
>multiple redundant copies should cover any issues with single-device failure.
Certainly needed but in the end its probably not worth the time. I would need dozens of such disks to get the few TB in backup space that I need.
BTW fans in PCs and laptops die for the same reason as described above. Its common for old laptops to make weird noises and overheat after they where left untouched for years.
Unfortunately, disk storage has a pronounced tendency to fail with no warning whatsoever. The only real assurance is multiple independent archived copies. Keeping tabs on health reports is itself a rather error-prone procedure.