[cataflam]

Not the parent, but probably because

1. It's notorious that hard drives have a higher failure rate at the beginning of their lives than in the middle (see bathtub curve [0]). So it's not absurd to test them hard early on before writing any useful data and to do an early RMA.

2. The failure rate on drives is low enough that his methodology may be right but he still never has any failure in his life. Doesn't it make insane.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bathtub_curve

[philliphaydon]

I once bought a new 1TB Drive when they were fairly new. MOVED about 500gb if data to the new drive. Checked it. Seemed fine. Turned computer off and went to bed.

Next day the HDD didn’t turn on. Completely dead. :( I’ve never had a failure since but I backup everything now.

[kbutler]

It would depend on the effort to do the methodology vs. the expected return (savings of finding a failed drive times the probability).