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A pretty expensive (Samsung) USB-drive I have causes weird errors. The problem might be a computer I have connected it to (this computer's SSD broke down in a similar way) but to rule out that it is this USB stick that is broken I would like to perform a hardware test on it. How can I do that on a Mac?

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  • did you try using the Disk Utility in your utility folder
    – Ruskes
    Oct 13, 2018 at 20:18
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    Sorry, I should have mentioned that. Yes I have "Erased" it using DU but as far as I know that doesn't include a "quality check", it just writes a new partition table.
    – hensti
    Oct 13, 2018 at 20:29
  • it is called First Aid in DU
    – Ruskes
    Oct 13, 2018 at 21:01
  • But that just tests the file system, not the hardware, doesn't it?
    – hensti
    Oct 13, 2018 at 21:10
  • how do you test hardware ? in testing the disk consistency
    – Ruskes
    Oct 13, 2018 at 21:14

1 Answer 1

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Open the Terminal.app in Applications/Utilities.

Cut and paste this inside to install Brew: /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Install e2fsprogs with brew: brew install e2fsprogs

Type diskutil list to find your device (/dev/diskX)

Run badblocks on your device: (replace the X with your device number)

/usr/local/Cellar/e2fsprogs/1.44.3/sbin/badblocks -v /dev/diskX

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  • e2fsprogs was also available in MacPorts (which I use).
    – hensti
    Oct 14, 2018 at 20:43
  • On newer Brew version it is located at /opt/homebrew/opt/e2fsprogs/sbin/badblocks
    – challet
    Jan 4 at 11:25

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