I usually just yolo and throw them into the pool but my last drive I just did a long SMART test and it came up clean so into the pool it went.
One can also do a badblocks run if you don't mind waiting the extra time to do so and can understand the logs.
Mmm, sure but it can be a bitch to get booting again if you don't know what you're doing and sometimes when you do. Lol
I'd do it with gparted and if you're using uefi then you need to grab that partition too and that's where may run into a problem that requires you to know how to work with on your particular system bios.
Typical cloning tools will just wipe what's there, gparted let's you copy individual partitions and paste them on another disk. Not a lot of people know that. :)
Available on just about every Linux iso, can easily be installed if it isn't, and has its own iso of you need something dedicated.
So a nas with tons of storage, high speed nic to a desktop, and a dock to attach the old drives for review. From there, it's just a matter of sorting through files and dumping them on the nas. Personally, I'd do it with a Linux PC to avoid pesky windows permissions.
Time before failure is impossible to predict but these days, they'll last far longer than you'll likely use it for.
Ok. All that is fine. There's no 3.3v wire to worry about. The drive won't miss it.
What is this 6 pin you speak of? Are we talking modular psu or OEM? The only molex I'm concerned about is the one that carries 12v, 5v, and a couple grounds. The only 6pin I'm aware of is normally for a GPU and that only has 3 12v wires and grounds.
Maybe some pictures will help.
crimped or molded, doesn't really matter. it's only a problem when the conductors in the molded plastic get hot enough to drift till they make contact. if you're mindful of your currents, it's fine. molded simply provides a little channel for heat to escape.
you're not gonna get 3.3v from a molex connection for this. that's only available on the mobo connector and sata cables directly from the psu.
the 3.3v fix involves taping off those pins on the hard drive so this fix isn't really necessary. I've yet to find a sata drive that requires 3.3v.
so yes, it's safe. just don't go crazy with daisy chains and trying to draw too much power off one molex or sata power connection.
just a sas controller, everything else works as usual.
I wouldn't trust WD with any of their lineups right now. it doesn't matter which line is still good, treat it all as bad till they fix it.