Is that their ‘data lifeguard diagnostics’? The server is Linux, which doesn’t seem to be supported by that tool. I think they publish instructions to create and run from a bootable USB but even that would be a pain as the server runs headless, no console or keyboard normally attached.
But looking at the spec for the Windows version if the tool, it doesn’t seem to do anything that smartctl, combined with other basic linux utilities, won’t do....
https://support.wdc.com/downloads.aspx?lang=enQUICK TEST - performs SMART drive quick self-test to gather and verify the Data Lifeguard information contained on the drive.
EXTENDED TEST - performs a Full Media Scan to detect bad sectors. Test may take several hours to complete depending on the size of the drive.
ERASE - writes zeros to the drive with options of Full Erase and Quick Erase. File system and data will be lost.
VIEW TEST RESULT - displays the latest test results.
...All these can be done from linux command line with smartctl, and I have already confirmed SMART attributes wrongly indicate that the disk is perfectly ok. That’s one of the things that made it unlikely (but not impossible) that the disk itself was culprit.
Grateful as I am for the assistance, I’m not going to get too stressed over this. If I’m stuck with a disk that I can’t return because it’s too much bother then I’ll do just that ...not bother, and move on with life.