Written .
Hard disk drives (HDDs) can only really catch
bad disk sectors during read-time and not during
write-time as discussed in the last
blogpost
on activating Write-Read-Verify with
FreeBSDs camcontrol(8)
command.
This just leaves the question of how to run
FreeBSD's camcontrol(8) command
on an MS Windows laptop or PC.
Booting NomadBSD
from a cheap USB stick provides a solution.
Additionally, it also provides a way to
run smartctl --test=long.
On a side note, MemTest86 is also an interesting testing tool if a laptop or PC flakes out in weird ways and it isn't disk related.
On another side note, linking to NomadBSD from FreeBSD's download page makes it discoverable. Whoever placed it there seemingly was successful.