Epigraph
"Never trust a computer that you can't throw out of your window."
Steve Wozniak
Two months ago I installed an SSD drive in my laptop. He worked great, but he died suddenly last week due to depletion of cells (as I suppose). This article is about how it happened and what I was doing wrong.
Description of the environment
- User: Web developer. That is, such things as virtual machines, eclipse, frequent updates of repositories are in use.
- OS: Gentoo. That is, the world is often rebuilt.
- FS: ext4. That is, a journal is being written.
So, the story begins in April, when finally I got around to copying partitions to a 64GB SSD broom I bought back in September. I deliberately do not inform the manufacturer and the model, because while I have not yet fully figured out what happened, and it does not really matter.
What did I do to make it last longer
Of course, I have studied numerous publications on how to take care of SSD drives. And here's what I did:- Put noatime for sections, so that when the file is accessed, the record about the time of the last access is not updated.
- I increased the RAM to the maximum and disabled the swap.
S.M.A.R.T.
Three days before the fall, I was concerned with the question: how do I know how much happiness I have? I tried the utility smartmontoolsbut it was displaying incorrect information. I had to download the Datasheet and write a patch for them.Having written the patch, I dug up one interesting parameter: average_number_of_erasures / maximum_number_erasures \u003d 35000/45000. But after reading that MLC cells can only withstand 10,000 cycles, I decided that these parameters do not mean exactly what I think, and I hammered on them.
Chronicle of the fall
Suddenly, during the work, inexplicable things began to happen, for example, new programs did not start. For the sake of interest, I looked at the same S.M.A.R.T. parameter, it was already 37000/50000 (+2000/5000 in three days). It was not possible to restart, the file system of the main partition could not be read.I started from the compact and started checking. The check showed a lot of broken nodes. In the process of repairing, the utility began testing for bad sectors and marking them. It all ended the next day with the following result: 60GB out of 64GB were marked as bad.
Note: In SSD hard drives, a cell is considered a bit if new information cannot be written there. Reading from such a cell will still be possible. Therefore, run the utility badblocks in read-only mode, it is unlikely that she will find anything.
I decided to run the flashing utility, because it not only reflashes, but also reformats the disk. The utility began to format, groaned and gave out that the reasonable number of bad sectors was exceeded, and also that there are failures, so it is not possible to complete the formatting.
After that, the drive began to be identified as a drive with a very strange name, model number and 4GB in size. And, in the future, except for specialized utilities, no one sees it.
I wrote a letter to support the manufacturer. They recommended that I reflash, if it does not work, then return it to the seller. Warranty for another 2 years, so I'll try.
I conclude this section with thanks to Steve Wozniak, who taught me how to make periodic backups.
What happened
To be honest, I don't know myself. I assume the following: S.M.A.R.T. I didn't lie and the cells were really worn out (this indirectly confirms the backup that I made two days before the fall, when unpacking it showed that the dates of creation of some files were zeroed). And when checking for bad sectors, the disk controller simply allowed to mark all cells as broken, in which the permissible number of write cycles was exceeded.What to do if you have an SSD
Windows
Put Windows 7 in it as much as possible, everything is optimized for such disks. Also put a lot of RAM.MacOs
Most likely, only those computers that will be immediately sold with SSD are optimized.FreeBSD
Install 9.0. Read tips for Linux, think about what can be done from them.Linux
- Install kernel 2.6.33, which has an optimization for such disks in the form of the TRIM command.
- Increase memory so that you can painlessly disable swap.
- Supply for mounted partitions noatime.
- Used a copy-on-write filesystem or a non-journaling filesystem (eg ext2).
At the moment, copy-on-write FS is difficult to use. ZFS currently only works through FUSE. And nilfs and btrfs, when mounting, swear that their format has not yet been finally finalized.
- Enable NOOP IO Scheduler, it will allow you not to perform unnecessary useless actions for the SSD.
- Conceptually correct, but not much help to the disk - transferring temporary files to tmpfs.
- For systems intensively logging should be stored elsewhere. This is mainly relevant for servers for which the server log is raised without problems.
- Get S.M.A.R.T.-utilities that correctly display the state of the SSD-disk so that you can periodically monitor the disk.
- Just spare the drive. And for the gentlemen, this additionally means not "rebuilding the world."
Questions to the Habrascommunity
- Is it really possible to kill MLC cells in 2 months? Of course, I understand that I didn’t regret the disc, but I didn’t do anything supernatural, I just worked as usual.
- Is this a warranty case?
UPD: The disk I had was Transcend TS64GSSD25S-M.
UPD2: In the comments, there are very good reviews of Intel SSD and SAMSUNG. In addition, people wonder how you can kill an SSD broom so quickly. Trust me, I was puzzled in the same way. However, it is possible that this is a hastily tailored SSD series and can be quickly killed.
UPD3: In the comments and
Not so long ago I bought myself a solid-state hard drive on aliexpress, in other words, an SSD, and even. The disk came in, was installed and worked great for several months. But lately I began to notice that the disk began to "choke" often, and sometimes I just had to RUDE to turn off the laptop. Doubt crept in: is my Chinese "friend" covered? How do I test an SSD for performance?
In the beginning I started to sin on Ubuntu, maybe it became buggy? I often install new programs, and although Linux is much more stable in this respect than Windows, it can be ditched.
And yesterday I decided to reinstall the system so that I had time. I decided . But it was not there! After the first installation, I could not go to my home folder, which is encrypted.
Although I didn't scan (maybe in vain) to the end, it was clear that in general all the cells are working fine. But I didn't calm down and downloaded another program - HDDScan, and scanned it to her.
And this program showed that my first sector was killed! Only one, can there be such problems because of him? Or is this program only suitable for regular HDD? I don't know yet, but I know what I will do.
Since this is the first sector, when marking the disk, I will leave an unaligned area at its beginning so that this sector does not work. If this does not help, then I already do not know what to do.
How to check an SSD for errors in Linux?
In Linux, for this purpose, as I understand it, there is only a console program (although maybe I was looking badly), everything is checked like this:
Sudo badblocks -v / dev / sdc\u003e ~ / test.list
The badblocks utility will check the disk for bad sectors and report to the test.list file, which will appear in the home directory. Yes, this is not very clear, but you can still check it. Do you know the programs better?
I will try to put a Linux 15.04 disk on this SSD, I will test both the new Ubuntu (I have not tried to install it yet) and at the same time the disk. In the comments I will unsubscribe what came out of all this ...
Many articles and manuals have already been written about vim, its documentation is also translated in Russian, it is discussed on forums and LUGs "ah. I'm in this article ...
Well, friend, you've got it! The disk on which the windows system is installed is locked, are you in a panic and do not know what to do? There is a banner in the middle of the screen ...
Did not find an answer to your question? Use the site search:
10 comments
Today I tried to install Ubuntu 15.04 on this SSD disk, leaving the initial disk area unmarked - the installation hangs.
I did not continue and decided to install Windows 7 - everything was installed, though I don’t know yet if it will work without interruptions.
I decided to do this: I inserted an SSD with Windows 7 into the laptop, and installed Linux on the external HDD. Now I can work in Windows if needed, or I can boot into Linux from an external drive, so that everything is simple with Linux.
I had some kind of strange problem with the disk (only it was a simple disk), it wrote in lninukh that he was restarting something there, although it works. In Windows, he just started to dull on the terrible and furiously crawled across the disk. Although everywhere it showed that everything was fine with the disk.
It turned out that it was necessary to switch to the IDE controller in the BIOS, instead of some strange new one, and everything became okay.
And this happens, but SSD disks are still very different from ordinary ones and the technology is not yet very developed, therefore there are problems, especially on Chinese ones. But we need a cheaper one!
I personally have been using an SSD as a system one for about six months now. I had a Sony VAIO laptop with the usual hard drive. Then I put my SSD there. I sit under Ubuntu 14.04.3, if necessary, reboot takes 11-12 seconds - I personally measured it with a stopwatch :-) In the laptop, instead of a drive, there is an additional 1TB hard drive (mount point home directory) ...
I use BTRFS everywhere. Previously used Ext4. I did not notice any glitches.
Oh yes! ssdshka I have from Kingston for 120 gigs. Mounted as root.
HDDScan
The program is designed to check hard drives and SSDs for bad sectors, view S.M.A.R.T. attributes, changing special settings, such as: power management, start / stop of the spindle, adjusting the acoustic mode, etc. The output of the drive temperature value to the taskbar is provided.
Capabilities and requirements
Supported drive types:- HDD with ATA / SATA interface.
- HDD with SCSI interface.
- HDD with USB interface (see Appendix A).
- HDD with FireWire or IEEE 1394 interface (see Appendix A).
- RAID arrays with ATA / SATA / SCSI interface (tests only).
- USB flash drives (tests only).
- SSD with ATA / SATA interface.
- Linear verification test.
- Test in linear reading mode.
- Linear recording test.
- Butterfly Reading Test (Artificial Random Reading Test)
- Reading and Analyzing S.M.A.R.T. parameters from drives with ATA / SATA / USB / FireWire interface.
- Reading and analyzing log tables from SCSI disks.
- S.M.A.R.T. launch tests on ATA / SATA / USB / FireWire drives.
- Temperature monitor on ATA / SATA / USB / FireWire / SCSI drives.
- Read and analyze identification information from ATA / SATA / USB / FireWire / SCSI drives.
- Changing the AAM, APM, PM parameters on ATA / SATA / USB / FireWire drives.
- View information about defects on a SCSI drive.
- Spindle start / stop on ATA / SATA / USB / FireWire / SCSI drives.
- Saving reports in MHT format.
- Printing reports.
- Support for "skins".
- Command line support.
- Support for SSD drives.
- Operating System: Windows XP SP3, Windows Server 2003, Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 (NEW).
- The program should not be run from a read-only drive.
User interface
The main view of the program at startup
Figure: 1 Main view of the program
Main window controls:
- Select Drive is a drop-down list that contains all supported drives in the system. The drive model and serial number are displayed. There is an icon next to it that determines the type of the drive.
- S.M.A.R.T. button - allows you to get a report on the state of the drive, based on the attributes of S.M.A.R.T.
- TESTS button - shows a pop-up menu with a choice of read and write tests (see Fig. 2).
- TOOLS button - Shows a pop-up menu for selecting available controls and functions on the drive (see Figure 3).
- More button - Shows a drop-down menu with program controls.
When you press the TESTS button, a pop-up menu offers you one of the tests. If you select any test, the test dialog box will open (see Figure 4).
Figure: 2 Test menu
When you press the TOOLS button, a pop-up menu will prompt you to select one of the following options:
Figure: 3 Function menu
- DRIVE ID - Generates a DRIVE ID report.
- FEATURES - opens a window of additional program features.
- S.M.A.R.T. TEST - opens S.M.A.R.T. tests: Short, Extended, Conveyance.
- TEMP MON - Starts the temperature monitoring task.
- COMMAND - opens a command line build window.
Test Dialog Box
Figure: 4 Test Dialog Box
Control elements:
- The FIRST SECTOR field is the starting logical sector number for testing.
- The SIZE field is the number of logical sector numbers to test.
- BLOCK SIZE field - block size in sectors for testing.
- Previous button - returns to the main program window.
- Next button - adds a test to the task queue.
- Only one surface test can be run at a time. This is due to the fact that the author of the program has not yet managed to obtain stable high-quality results when running 2 or more tests simultaneously (on different drives).
- The Verify test may have a block size limit of 256, 16384, or 65536 sectors. This is due to the peculiarities of Windows.
- Verify test may not work properly on USB / Flash drives.
- When testing in the Verify mode, the drive reads the data block into the internal buffer and checks their integrity; no data is transferred through the interface. The program measures the readiness time of the drive after performing this operation after each block and displays the results. Blocks are tested sequentially - from minimum to maximum.
- When testing in the Read mode, the drive reads data into the internal buffer, after which the data is transmitted via the interface and stored in the temporary program buffer. The program measures the total readiness time of the drive and data transfer after each block and displays the results. The blocks are tested sequentially - from minimum to maximum.
- When testing in Erase mode, the program prepares a data block filled with a special pattern with a sector number and transfers the data to the drive, the drive writes the received block ( information in the block is irretrievably lost!). The program measures the total block transfer and write time and drive readiness after each block and displays the results. Blocks are tested sequentially - from minimum to maximum.
- Testing in Butterfly Read mode is similar to testing in Read mode. The difference lies in the order in which the blocks are tested. Blocks are processed in pairs. The first block in the first pair will be Block 0. The second block in the first pair will be Block N, where N is the last block of the given section. The next pair will be Block 1, Block N-1, etc. Testing ends in the middle of the specified area. This test measures the reading and positioning times.
Task management window
Figure: 5 Task manager
This window contains the task queue. This includes all tests that the program runs, as well as the temperature monitor. The manager allows you to remove tests from the queue. Some tasks can be paused or stopped.
Double-clicking on an entry in the queue brings up a window with information about the current task.
Test information window
The window contains information about the test, allows you to pause or stop the test, and also generates a report.
Graph Tab:
Contains information about the dependence of the testing speed on the block number, which is presented in the form of a graph.
Figure: 6 Graph Tab
Map Tab:
Contains information about the dependence of the testing time on the block number, which is presented in the form of a map.
Figure: 7 Map Tab
You can select “Block Processing Time” in milliseconds. Each block tested that took longer than the "Block Processing Time" will be logged in the "Report" tab.
Report tab:
Contains information about the test and all blocks whose test time is longer than "Block Processing Time".
Figure: 8 Report Tab
Identification information
The report contains information about the main physical and logical parameters of the drive.
The report can be printed and saved to an MHT file.
Figure: 9 Sample Identity Window
S.M.A.R.T. report
The report contains information about the performance and health of the drive in the form of attributes. If, according to the program, the attribute is normal, then next to it is a green icon. Attributes that you should pay special attention to are indicated in yellow, as a rule, they indicate some kind of malfunction of the drive. Attributes that are outside the normal range are shown in red.
Reports can be printed or saved to an MHT file.
Figure: 10 Sample S.M.A.R.T. report
Temperature monitor
Allows you to evaluate the temperature of the drive. Information is displayed in the taskbar, as well as in a special window for information about the test. Figure: 11 contains readings for two drives.
Figure: 11 Temperature monitor in taskbar
For ATA / SATA / USB / FireWire drives, the information window contains 2 values. The second value is displayed in the taskbar.
The first value is taken from the Airflow Temperature attribute, the second value is taken from the HDA Temperature attribute.
Figure: 12 Temperature monitor for ATA / SATA disk
For SCSI drives, the information window contains 2 values. The second value is displayed in the taskbar.
The first value contains the maximum allowable temperature for the drive, the second shows the current temperature.
Figure: 13 Temperature Monitor for SCSI Disk
S.M.A.R.T. tests
The program allows you to run three types of S.M.A.R.T. tests:
- Short test - usually lasts 1-2 minutes. Checks the main nodes of the drive, and also scans a small area of \u200b\u200bthe drive surface and sectors in the Pending-List (sectors that may contain read errors). This test is recommended for quick assessment of the drive's health.
- Extended test - usually lasts from 0.5 to 60 hours. Checks the main components of the drive, and also scans the entire surface of the drive.
- Conveyance test - usually lasts a few minutes. Checks drive nodes and logs that may indicate improper storage or shipping of the drive.
A SMART test can be selected from the SMART Tests dialog, invoked by pressing the SMART TESTS button.
Figure: 14 SMART Tests Dialog Box
Once selected, the test will be added to the Tasks queue. S.M.A.R.T.information window test can display the progress and completion status of the task.
Figure: 15 S.M.A.R.T.information window test
Additional features
For ATA / SATA / USB / FireWire drives, the program allows changing some parameters.
- AAM - the function controls drive noise. Enabling this function allows you to reduce drive noise due to smoother head positioning. At the same time, the drive loses a little in performance during random access.
- APM - the function allows you to save power to the drive by temporarily reducing the rotation speed (or complete stop) of the drive spindle during idle time.
- PM - the function allows you to set the spindle stop timer for a specific time. When this time is reached, the spindle will be stopped, provided that the drive is in idle mode. Any program accessing the drive will force the spindle to spin up and reset the timer to zero.
- The program also allows you to stop or start the drive spindle forcibly. Any program accessing the drive will force the spindle to unwind.
Figure: 16 Information window of additional features of the ATA / SATA drive
For SCSI drives, the program allows you to view defect lists and start / stop the spindle.
Figure: 17 Information window of additional features of SCSI drive
Using the command line
The program can build a command line to control some drive parameters and save this line to a .bat or .cmd file. When such a file is launched, the program is called in the background, changes the drive parameters in accordance with the specified ones, and closes automatically.
Figure: 18 Command line build window
Appendix A: USB / FireWire Drives
If the drive is supported by the program, tests are available for it, S.M.A.R.T. functions and additional features.
If the drive is not supported by the program, then only tests are available for it.
USB / FireWire drives supported by the program:
| Storage device | Controller IC |
| StarTeck IDECase35U2 | Cypress CY7C68001 |
| WD Passpopt | Unknown |
| Iomega PB-10391 | Unknown |
| Seagate ST9000U2 (PN: 9W3638-556) | Cypress CY7C68300B |
| Seagate External Drive (PN: 9W286D) | Cypress CY7C68300B |
| Seagate FreeAgentPro | Oxford |
| CASE SWEXX ST010 | Cypress AT2LP RC7 |
| Vantec CB-ISATAU2 (adapter) | JMicron JM20337 |
| Beyond Micro Mobile Disk 3.5 "120GB | Prolific PL3507 (USB only) |
| Maxtor Personal Storage 3100 | Prolific PL2507 |
| In-System ISD300A | |
| SunPlus SPIF215A | |
| Toshiba USB Mini Hard Drive | Unknown |
| USB Teac HD-15 PUK-B-S | Unknown |
| Transcend StoreJet 35 Ultra (TS1TSJ35U-EU) | Unknown |
| AGEStar FUBCP | JMicron JM20337 |
| USB Teac HD-15 PUK-B-S | Unknown |
| Prolific 2571 | |
| All Drives That Support SAT Protocol | Majority of Modern USB controllers |
USB / FireWire drives that the program may support:
| Storage device | Controller IC |
| AGEStar IUB3A | Cypress |
| AGEStar ICB3RA | Cypress |
| AGEStar IUB3A4 | Cypress |
| AGEStar IUB5A | Cypress |
| AGEStar IUB5P | Cypress |
| AGEStar IUB5S | Cypress |
| AGEStar NUB3AR | Cypress |
| AGEStar IBP2A2 | Cypress |
| AGEStar SCB3AH | JMicron JM2033x |
| AGEStar SCB3AHR | JMicron JM2033x |
| AGEStar CCB3A | JMicron JM2033x |
| AGEStar CCB3AT | JMicron JM2033x |
| AGEStar IUB2A3 | JMicron JM2033x |
| AGEStar SCBP | JMicron JM2033x |
| AGEStar FUBCP | JMicron JM2033x |
| Noontec SU25 | Prolific PL2507 |
| Transcend TS80GHDC2 | Prolific PL2507 |
| Transcend TS40GHDC2 | Prolific PL2507 |
| I-O Data HDP-U series | Unknown |
| I-O Data HDC-U series | Unknown |
| Enermax Vanguard EB206U-B | Unknown |
| Thermaltake Max4 A2295 | Unknown |
| Spire GigaPod SP222 | Unknown |
| Cooler Master - RX-3SB | Unknown |
| MegaDrive200 | Unknown |
| RaidSonic Icy Box IB-250U | Unknown |
| Logitech USB | Unknown |
USB / FireWire drives not supported by the program:
| Storage device | Controller IC |
| Matrix | Genesis Logic GL811E |
| Pine | Genesis Logic GL811E |
| Iomega LDHD250-U | Cypress CY7C68300A |
| Iomega DHD160-U | Prolific PL-2507 (modified firmware) |
| Iomega | |
| Maxtor Personal Storage 3200 | Prolific PL-3507 (modified firmware) |
| Maxtor One-Touch | Cypress CY7C68013 |
| Seagate External Drive (PN-9W2063) | Cypress CY7C68013 |
| Seagate Pocket HDD | Unknown |
| SympleTech SympleDrive 9000-40479-002 | CY7C68300A |
| Myson Century CS8818 | |
| Myson Century CS8813 |
Appendix B: SSD Drives
Support for a particular drive largely depends on the controller installed on it.
SSD drives supported by the program:
| Storage device | Controller IC |
| OCZ Vertex, Vertex Turbo, Agility, Solid 2 | Indilinx IDX110M00 |
| Super Talent STT_FTM28GX25H | Indilinx IDX110M00 |
| Corsair Extreme Series | Indilinx IDX110M00 |
| Kingston SSDNow M-Series | Intel PC29AS21AA0 G1 |
| Intel X25-M G2 | Intel PC29AS21BA0 G2 |
| OCZ Throttle | JMicron JMF601 |
| Corsair performance series | Samsung S3C29RBB01 |
| Samsung SSDs | Samsung Controllers |
| Crucial and Micron SSDs | Some marvell controllers |
SSD drives that the program may support:
Additional Information
HDDScan 3.3 you can download version 2.8
| Support: |
How to check Ssd disk (Methods / Programs)
In this article, we will look at methods on how to check an SSD drive and disclose information on what methods can be used to check an SSD drive, we will describe various methods and programs. An SSD disk (from English solid-state drive) is not a mechanical storage device, unlike HDD (from English Hard disk drive) it has a higher time
access to information. SSD drives are less susceptible to harsh environments as they have no moving mechanical parts. SSD disks can be built using different technologies, NAND SSD is a disk made using non-volatile memory technology and RAM SSD - disks that are made using volatile memory technology, built on the principle of random access memory (RAM) of a personal computer.
The methods for diagnosing an SSD disk differ from a more familiar HDD disk, since they basically work in completely different ways, in a hard disk, data plates spin on a spindle and are read by a magnetic head, and a solid-state disk works on the basis of a high-speed FLASH drive.
How to check an SSD drive. Important points and principles of testing.
To check an SSD drive, you need to clearly understand the principles and diagnostic methods! A very important point and a frequent mistake of a layperson when checking an SSD disk is the moment that a solid-state disk cannot be checked for BAD sectors (broken, damaged disk sectors), since these tests do not give anything and negatively affect the service life, absolutely as it is impossible defragment such a disk.
You can use various diagnostic programs to diagnose your solid state drive. All programs are similar and the main thing is to understand the essence of the tested indicators, knowing which you can choose any program you like. In this article, we will describe the Crystal Disk Info program. The program exists for various platforms and bitness of the operating system, as well as with various installation options. With Crystal Disk Info, you can check for any S.M.A.R.T. S.M.A.R.T (self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology) is a self-monitoring and diagnostic technology built into the disk hardware that allows you to view the current state of a disk and predict the possible time of disk failure. S.M.A.R.T is the simplest and really good method for diagnosing a disk. After starting the Crystal Disk Info program, its window will display all information about your SSD, this is the firmware version, the operating interface, as well as what features and technologies the disk supports. If several disks are installed in the system, then the program will display tabs with the names of the disk models, between which you can switch and view information accordingly. To update information about disks, go to the drop-down menu Service and select the Refresh item, or press the F5 key on the keyboard.
The most important and significant point of the program is the area called “State”, which shows the current state of the disk in percentage terms. To start checking, you must click on the button located just below the status label. An excellent indicator is considered to be 100%, with such indicators the icon is blue and the inscription is displayed well in the program window. One hundred percent state means that there are no problems with the currently tested drive, and if we look at the list of tested SSD indicators in the program, we will see that no problems were found from all S.M.A.R.T parameters. If, after passing the test, the icon has a yellow or red color, and the inscription is accordingly cautious or bad, and the state is no longer 100%, then this indicates that the disk has some problems. The red color signals that the disk may fail in the near future, of course the SSD disk can be used, but there is already a huge probability of data loss and it is necessary to count on its replacement.
A very important parameter of an SSD drive, which also needs to be paid close attention to, is its operating temperature, which greatly affects its lifespan. In Crystal Disk Info, the temperature is shown in the program area named “Temperature”. The normal operating temperature for an SSD is 30 degrees Celsius. A value of 40 degrees and above is overheating. Overheating negatively affects the life of the SSD, and if the temperature of the disk is above normal, then it is necessary to find out the reasons for this overheating and eliminate them.
Crystal Disk Info disk testing program provides the user with the opportunity to view any of the available SSD disk indicators in the form of a graph. To display graphs of SSD indicators, select the Service-Graph in the menu and select the parameter of interest in the new window that opens. Rating 5.00 Vote - support the service!
Greetings!
Over time, the reliability of an SSD may decrease, and there will be a risk of various kinds of errors. And if some errors may indicate the impending wear of the drive, others may be a sign of an impending breakdown of the drive's SSD.
This procedure will allow you not only to determine (and in some cases correct) the errors that have appeared, but also to take care of copying valuable files to a media that is known to have no problems, so that they do not disappear in the event of a final failure of the SSD drive.
How and how to check an SSD drive for errors
To diagnose an SSD drive for errors, we will use utilities whose task is to check and determine the "health" of the connected SSD drive.
When assessing the state of the SSD, both self-developed algorithms for assessing the state of the media are used, as well as reading and subsequent analysis by S.M.A.R.T. data from the SSD controller.
S.M.A.R.T. - a technology whose task is to control multiple parameters of the carrier. Based on these technical data, the current state and the probability of failure (breakdown) are calculated. The emergence of S.M.A.R.T. mistakes do not bode well.
The first method, the CrystalDyskInfo utility
In order to test an SSD drive, we will use a free and at the same time quite informative solution - the CrystalDiskInfo utility.
This utility displays comprehensive information about the status of the connected drives, supports the Russian interface language and is very easy to use. After launching the utility, all the necessary data about the "health" of the drive (s) will be displayed almost instantly.
The program will collect information about the media, read the information from S.M.A.R.T. At the end, detailed information about the health of the SSD drive will be displayed.
Among this variety of S.M.A.R.T attributes, one can frankly get confused, because the developers introduced a generalizing status that displays the health of the hard drive as a percentage.
If this status is called "Good", then your SSD is in good health, and if "Alarm", then you need to copy (duplicate, make a backup) important data from it as soon as possible. There is only a chance that the SSD you have at your disposal will soon fail.
You can, of course, look at each technical attribute, its current and threshold value.
The parameters in the table are read as follows:
If the current or the worst parameter approaches that which is located in the threshold column, then this may indicate a possible malfunction of the media. For example, let's take the attribute "Remaining SSD resource" - in the current and worst column we have a value of 99, and in the threshold one 10. When a value of 10 is displayed in the current / worst column, it will indicate critical wear and the need to replace the drive.
It is also worth paying attention to the attributes: "software errors", "erase errors", "software failures" and "erase failures". If the existing value is greater than the threshold, then you should think about the security of the data stored on it. Take care of the backup issue.
In general, reading and decoding S.M.A.R.T parameters for a technically inexperienced user is a priori a thankless task. And in some cases, difficult to implement - some SSD manufacturers limit the amount of S.M.A.R.T. information. Such disks often send only a general "health" status - everything is fine or a serious failure in the media.
In this regard, it is better to focus on the general conclusion about "health" that is highlighted in the program.
Method two, SSDLife utility
With this utility, you will be able to assess the state and performance of the SSD drive, find out if there are any errors in its operation, see S.M.A.R.T. information from him.
The utility has a friendly and very visual interest that even a beginner will appreciate.
SSDLife official website
Like the program described just above, SSDLife starts analyzing the hard drive immediately after starting, and then displays the results of its operation status. Just run the utility and you will receive comprehensive information about the SSD and possible errors that may occur during its operation.
All the necessary information is, in fact, presented in the main window:
In the upper part of the window, information about the current state of the SSD and its approximate lifespan is displayed.
Right behind it is a block of information, which displays information about both the SSD itself and its "health". The closer this figure is to 100%, the better, respectively.
For those who like to watch S.M.A.R.T. information in the same block provides a button of the same name - press it and you will see all S.M.A.R.T. parameters that come from the disk controller.
Going down a little lower, we can see how much data was written and read from the SSD you are using. This information is provided "for reference".
Going down to the bottom of the program window, we see a menu with buttons, using which you can configure the program, get help on working with the utility, and re-analyze the SSD drive.
Method three, Data Lifeguard Diagnostic utility
This utility is also designed to assess the state of the SSD in use. It was developed by the well-known Western Digital company, which specializes in the design and manufacture of HDD / SSD drives. The Data Lifeguard Diagnostic utility tests both its own drives and third-party SSD drives equally well.
Data Lifeguard Diagnostic official website
After launching the utility, it will immediately conduct a quick diagnosis of all drives connected to the system. The result will be displayed in the main program window. The interface of the program is very austere and displays the status of the connected media, without any details and calculations for assessing the "lifespan" of the drive, etc.
The program allows for additional testing of the drive. To do this, you need to double-click on the desired drive, and in the window that opens, select the type of test: extended or fast.
At the end of the test, click on the button that appears VIEW TEST RESULTto see the result of testing the drive. If you see in the results PASSthen your drive is in good health and error free.
Short summary
Based on the results of this review, it becomes clear that there are many utilities, thanks to which you can check the performance of your SSD disk, assess its health. You can choose from the presented list the most convenient solution that meets your requirements for diagnosing and monitoring SSD operation.
If you have any questions, you can ask them in the comments.
