Based partly on recommendations in this thread http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=72320.msg575810#new and on other research last week I purchased 5 Western Digital 3 TB Red drives for a RAID 5 or RAID configuration (probably will go with RAID 5). I order 5 instead of just 4 so I will have a spare on hand and also in case one tests bad straight of the box
The question now is: how to to test the drives once they arrive?
Any protocol or tools you recommend?
I already have current versions of DiskWarrior and Techtools
Exactly what problems do you want to try and detect with your testing?
Do you just want to check that it all works once it is plugged together?
Do you want to verify the ability of your RAID solution to function as a RAID solution?
Do you just want to read/write every block on every disk to ensure they're all readable/writable?
Do you want to test throughput?
Do you want to test how long it takes to copy 100 images onto the disks?
What are your expectations at the end of the testing?