Abstract: Disclosed is a system and method for disk drive grouping in a multi-cell disk drive test system. A test platform includes a plurality of cells. Each cell is configured to receive and to provide communication with a disk drive. An automated loader/unloader is coupled to a test computer and is responsive to the test computer. The automated loader/unloader is configured to identify disk drives and to selectively load and unload disk drives into and out of the plurality of cells. Particularly, once the automated loader/unloader has identified a first disk drive, the test computer is configured to: determine a grouping criteria based upon the first disk drive; detect a subsequent disk drive having the same grouping criteria as the first disk drive; and cause the automated loader/unloader to load the subsequent disk drive into one of the plurality of cells.

Abstract: A multi-cell disk drive test system that provides for asynchronous software module updates that includes a test platform, one or more test manager computers (TMCs), and a test coordinator computer (TCC). The test platform includes a plurality of cells in which each cell is configured to receive and to provide communication with a disk drive. The TCC is configured to communicate with one or more TMCs and to store a plurality of updated software module versions. After a disk drive is determined to be in an appropriate cell, the TMC: determines a test step to be performed on the disk drive and a cell software module currently stored for the cell; determines if an updated software module version associated with the test step is stored on the TCC, and if so, downloads the updated software module version, and updates the TMC with the updated cell software module version.