Patent ID: 7076391

Claim:
A method of testing a plurality of disk drives in a test platform configured to administer a sequential series of tests on the plurality of disk drives, the test platform including a plurality of slots that are configured to receive and to provide communication with respective ones of the plurality of disk drives, the plurality of slots being segregated into a plurality of groups, each group being configured to satisfy predetermined environmental, communication bandwidth and test schedule requirements of the disk drives to be loaded therein, the method comprising: identifying disk drives that are ready to undergo designated ones of the series of tests; loading the identified disk drives into empty slots of groups appropriate to the designated ones of the sequential series of tests and administering at least one test of the sequential series of tests to the loaded disk drives; without compromising the environmental, communication bandwidth and test schedule requirements of each group, asynchronously: moving each disk drive, upon having passed the at least one administered test, to an empty slot of another selected group of the plurality of groups for administration of a next test within the sequential series of tests; moving each disk drive that completes the sequential series of tests out of the test platform; and moving any drive that fails any of the sequential series of tests out of the test platform.