How can I verify that my DVD drive is up to the task ?

[Aarick]

I have this 7 y/o DVD-RW drive.

I've had several mishaps (such as OS not installing properly, etc.) which led me to consider the hypothesis that this drive does not function properly anymore.

Does there exist software tools that could assess the reliability of this drive ?

[cds60601]

If you have had issues in the past with numerous OS/applications that require installation via your DVD drive, its a good bet that it is failing.
Considering you have gotten 7 or more years out of it - you are lucky.

I just purchased a new external DVD for the Mrs for 22.00 from Amazon. This may be an option for you also. It's not like it was years ago when the cost was much more than it is today.

[p.H]

For which task ? Writing or reading ?
For reading, you can test it with badblocks and different media types (CD/DVD-ROM/R/RW...).

[canci]

OS not installing properly

Is buying a good quality USB key of, let's say 8GB not an option? Seems like much less hassle than installing your OS from failing optical disks.

[oswaldkelso]

Have you cleaned it?

https://invidious.snopyta.org/search?q= ... 2Fdvd+lens

[steve_v]

Get an iso, md5sum it, burn it, read it back to an iso, compare checksums. dd, cdrecord (among others) and md5sum are all in the repos.
For a read-only test, I'll second badblocks. Same goes for pretty much any other kind of drive too.

As for reliability of optical drives in general, it all comes down to build quality. IME cheap optical drives suck quite hard.

Considering you have gotten 7 or more years out of it - you are lucky.

Perhaps, assuming we're talking about cheap Chinese junk.
I have 2 Pioneer DVDRW drives here, manufactured in 2004 and 2007 respectively, and they both still work flawlessly. The older model in particular has served me rather well, and I've archived hundreds of disks with it over the years.
I still keep that one around as it will read beat up disks nothing else I have can, despite its obsolete IDE/PATA interface becoming a little problematic on modern hardware.
I also have a number of cheap OEM drives (mostly lite-on rebrands IIRC), some only a few years old, all pending disposal...

[NorthEast]

I've had good experience also with Pioneer DVDRWs. Nevertheless, it's a technology that has a multitude of intervening variables compared to usb for installation of OSs which create multiple points of possible failure. In times past I used DVDRW for back up and storage, but that's been supplanted by usb too. DVD are still useful to me for running films on DVDs.

[Aarick]

For reading, you can test it with badblocks

Thanks a lot, that the piece of information that I was lacking

[Aarick]

Get an iso, md5sum it, burn it, read it back to an iso, compare checksums. dd, cdrecord (among others) and md5sum are all in the repos.

Thanks a lot : I do like this line of thinking. I'm still a bit shy with md5sum : I guess that it is high time that I learnt.