How to check Ssd disk (Methods / Programs)
In this article, we will look at methods of how to check an SSD drive and disclose information on what methods can be used to check an SSD drive, describe various methods and programs. SSD drive (from the English solid-state drive) is not a mechanical storage device, unlike the HDD (from the English Hard disk drive) has higher time rates
access to information. SSD drives are less susceptible to aggressive environments because they do not have 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.
Methods for diagnosing an SSD drive differ from a more familiar HDD drive, since they basically work in completely different ways, in a hard drive the data plates spin on a spindle and are read by a magnetic head, and a solid state drive works based on a high-speed FLASH drive.
How to test an SSD drive. Important points and principles of testing.
To check an SSD drive, you need to clearly understand the principles and methods of diagnostics! A very important point and a common mistake of a non-professional when checking an SSD drive is the fact that a solid-state drive cannot be checked for BAD sectors (bad, damaged disk sectors) since these tests do not give anything and negatively affect the service life, absolutely not defragment the disk.
You can use various diagnostic programs to diagnose a solid state drive. All programs are similar and the main thing is to understand the essence of the work 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 drive hardware that allows you to view the current state of the drive, as well as predict the possible time of a drive failure. S.M.A.R.T is the simplest and really good method for diagnosing a drive. After launching the Crystal Disk Info program, all information about your SSD will be displayed in its window, this is the firmware version, the operating interface, as well as what features and technologies the disk supports. If there are several disks installed in the system, then the program will display tabs with the names of disk models, between which you can switch accordingly and view information. To update information about disks, go to the drop-down menu Service and select the Update item, or press the F5 key on the keyboard.
The most important and significant item of the program is the area called “Status”, which shows the current state of the disk as a percentage. To start the check, you must click on the button located just below the status inscription. An excellent indicator is 100%, with such indicators the icon is blue and the inscription is displayed in the program window is good. One hundred percent status means that there are no problems with the currently tested disk, 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 cautious or bad, respectively, and the state is no longer 100%, then this indicates that the disk has some problems. The red color indicates 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 rely on its replacement.
A very important parameter SSD disk, which also needs to be paid close attention to is its operating temperature, which greatly affects the service life. In the Crystal Disk Info program, the temperature is shown in the program area called “Temperature”. The normal operating temperature of an SSD drive is 30 degrees Celsius. Values of 40 degrees and above are overheating. Overheating negatively affects the life of the SSD, and if the disk temperature is above normal, then it is necessary to find out the causes of this overheating and eliminate them.
The Crystal Disk Info disk test 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, you must select Service-Graph in the menu and select the parameter of interest in the new window that opens. Rating 5.00 Vote - support the service!
Solid State Drives (SSDs) have become an integral part of our lives. Giving the user many advantages compared to traditional HDDs (higher read and write speed, quiet operation, low power consumption and high resistance to mechanical damage), they, however, are not without a number of disadvantages (for example, shorter operating time compared to from the HDD). Accordingly, their condition must be monitored from time to time in order to track negative changes in their functionality in time. In this article, I will tell you how to check an SSD disk for errors, how tools will help us find out if they are working and how to use them.
SSD resource limitation
If you wondered about checking an SSD disk for errors and performance, then a situation could arise in which your SSD stopped functioning normally. This is primarily due to the fact that SSD ( Solid State Drive - solid state drive) allows you to write information to yourself a limited number of times (the resource of competitors SSD - HDD-drives in this regard is not limited). Typically, manufacturers give a 3-year warranty on their SSDs (or 35 terabytes of data to be written, which is about 20 gigabytes per day). Those who actively use their SSD drive (on various round-the-clock servers and so on) may experience faster failure of SSD devices.
Well, those users who work with their PC in the usual, "household" mode, can enjoy the fast operation of their SSD for 5 years or more. In the last article, I described in detail the configuration of the SSD under Windows 10, for whom I recommend setting up the disk for this OS.
How to check an SSD disk for errors and performance - a list of programs
If you do not need to know the health of the SSD drive, then you should use the functionality of the relevant programs that will allow you to test the ssd for errors. Below I will list these programs, and give their respective characteristics:
CrystalDiskInfo program
It is a free utility that will check your drive's read/write speed, display its overall health, temperature, support S.M.A.R.T (hard drive health assessment technology), and more. This CrystalDiskInfo program has two main versions (installable and portable), and in the case of the installable version, you can monitor the status of your disks in real time using the program icon in the system tray. If there is an urgent question of how to check ssd for bad sectors, then the CrystalDiskInfo program will effectively help you with this.
- To use the program, download it, install and run it.
- The program will scan your hard drive to evaluate its status, errors, and so on, and then give you the result.
- All the main actions are concentrated in the "Service" tab of the main menu (in particular, if necessary, you can set the function of rescanning the disk there).
SSD Life Program
To determine the health and errors of the SSD, the SSD Life program can also help us. This shareware utility is written specifically for working with SSD drives, allowing you to monitor in advance the decline in their performance. As in the case of CrystalDiskInfo, this program has two versions - portable (provides a report on the status of the disk immediately when it is launched, without additional installation), and an installation version that displays the status of the disk in real time so that the user monitors the situation in advance.
The working window of the program is extremely simple, on it you will see the predicted operating time of your disk, an assessment of its condition, how long it has already worked, and so on. To update the report data, use the corresponding buttons at the bottom.
SSDReady program
SSD diagnostics can also be done using the SSDReady program, created specifically to monitor the health of your SSD drive, estimate its potential lifespan, and other related statistics. It keeps track of the volume of data written to and read from the disk daily, requires its permanent work in the background and is a good option in checking the SSD disk for errors and overall performance.
DiskCheckup program
In testing an SSD hard drive for speed and performance, the DiscCheckup utility can also help us, which allows you to monitor the S.M.A.R.T attributes of an individual hard drive. As in the case of the above programs, this application shows hard disk statistics that allow you to track the health status of the latter. The functionality of this product, in fact, does not differ from the programs described above.
A simple and often pop-up question: how can we check a newly purchased new or used solid-state drive? With some other components, everything is simple. To check, for example, a video card, we run modern games, or “warmer” tests from the Furmark series, you can also make sure that the video card delivers its nominal performance by “running” one of the 3DMark tests. For processors, there are also tests that measure performance and stress tests that warm it up during operation, and even for hard drives there are a large number of utilities that show bad sectors.
Testing semiconductor drives, in fact, is not much different from checking other devices. There are also a number of utilities for them, some specialize in SSDs, some, in general, in information storage systems.
Purchased BUSSDwhat to pay attention to?
Buying used SSDs is not recommended, if only because this device has the effect of easing or degrading its performance over time to one degree or another. The main reason is the limited number of write cycles, although (yet) there are no known cases when the memory on the SSD failed due to its “old age”, it is better to use a new drive anyway.
The usage time of the device may not always give an adequate estimate of the theoretical load on the disk. Where one user installed only the system and some applications on the SSD (and also carried out a number of optimizations), the second one performed regularly useless and even fatal defragmentation of the drive, kept “torrents” on the chips, and so on. Accordingly, the same device with different users will have a different percentage of wear.
First of all (especially if you buy an SSD with a warranty from some store), pay attention to the warranty stickers and stickers on the case. They should be intact, and there should be no traces of screwdrivers on the screws.
There is simply no need to open an SSD, except for test labs in order to take high-quality photos of internal elements, microcircuits and controllers. Any opening, even a "neat" one, will be noticed by a vigilant team of service engineers who will refuse to provide warranty obligations.
Opening an SSD can also mean an attempt to re-solder some elements, or even worse, when scammers simply use the drive case to replace a working drive board with a deliberately defective one, be more vigilant.
typical USB-SATA adapter
In order to determine the performance of an SSD, fortunately, it is not necessary to have a PC, any laptop or netbook with USB ports will do. An average SATA to USB adapter can cost about 500 rubles, which is not so much if you buy a capacious SSD.
Immediately after connection.
Once you connect the drive to your laptop, you won't be able to test its speed. SSDs are very sensitive to the package of installed drivers, controller, interface type, and so on. When connecting USB 2.0 (and version 3.0 too), the speed of the drive will seriously decrease, relative to comfortable conditions, up to 30 MB / s for the USB 2.0 interface.
However, you will still be able to run some utilities that will show the wear of the device, the number of turns on, the size of the drive, and other characteristics.
For example, we use the Crystal Disk Info utility, if possible, the latest version. This is a free program that can be downloaded from the developer's website. Do not confuse with Crystal Disk Mark, which is used to test device speeds (we don't need them at this stage).
Let's pay attention to three main points that interest us:
- The one shown in the figure above symbolizes all drives connected to a computer or laptop. The condition of the purchased SSD, of course, must be "good". If the program shows "alarm!" it is worth clarifying the reason. Sometimes this happens due to some failures in the utility itself, incorrect reading of S.M.A.R.T indicators, but most often it symbolizes some serious flaw.
- We have to make sure we have purchased the correct SSD by looking at the name of the device and its capacity.
- The honesty of the seller can also be checked by the total working time. If in words I bought a week ago, and the total operating time is about a dozen hours, then something is not right here.
Important: Even new SSDs unpacked in front of you have a number of inclusions that are performed during factory checks.
In a word, you yourself will be able to see for yourself if there is “something wrong” with the drive.
TestingSSDat home.
First of all, even before using an SSD, make sure that you have performed small optimizations, updated drivers for the controller, etc., for example, as indicated in this one, so you will save yourself some nerves and be sure that the device is fully functional (or vice versa, has some - problems).
After that, you can proceed to full testing, in general, there is nothing complicated. Examples of useful utilities and their use can be "peeped" in the "" section.
For example, a free utility will show the indicators closest to the declared characteristics, and the Crystal Disk Mark test is close to real. Comprehensive performance evaluation can be obtained in PCMark Vantage.
Share On
How to check ssd drive for errors? Currently, the most popular alternative to traditional hard drives (HDDs) are solid state drives (SSDs). A distinctive feature of an SSD is that it is a non-mechanical drive based on memory chips.
The main advantages of SSD drives include:
- high speed of work (speed of reading/writing information);
- stable time of reading files;
- high mechanical resistance (shock and vibration resistance);
No noise during operation;
- low power consumption;
- small dimensions and weight.
However, despite all the advantages, SSD drives also have significant disadvantages:
- higher cost per gigabyte compared to HDDs;
- limited number of rewriting cycles;
- the impossibility of recovering deleted information and information after electrical damage.
Given the main drawback of SSD drives (a limited number of rewrite cycles), you should timely diagnose and monitor the status of your SSD drive.
Checking the status of SSD drives includes diagnosing the drive for errors, analyzing operation statistics and the expected service life. All these factors make it possible to assess the real state of the tested disk and take the necessary measures to prevent the loss of valuable information.
To solve the problem of diagnosing and monitoring the status of SSD drives, there are specialized programs. In this case, consider free programs that support the Russian interface:
-SS Life
-Hard Disk Sentinel
- CrystalDiskInfo
SSD Life
The SSD Life software allows you to assess the health of your SSD drive and display this information in a simple and convenient way. After starting, based on the data received from the controller, depending on the intensity of disk usage, the utility calculates and displays the percentage of health and the estimated remaining life of the disk. In addition to general information about the state of the disk, by clicking on the “S.M.A.R.T.” button, the results of the analysis of various S.M.A.R.T parameters will be displayed in a separate window.
On the official website, you can download a free portable version (does not require installation and provides disk status statistics immediately after launch) and an installation version (requires installation and allows you to check disk status in the background).
Hard Disk Sentinel
The Hard Disk Sentinel program is designed to monitor and analyze the status of hard drives. Allows you to diagnose and warn about problems caused by performance degradation and possible failures. The program runs in the background and constantly monitors the status of disks in real time, including temperature indicators and S.M.A.R.T. parameters, and also measures the current data transfer rate. The program has a wide range of additional options that allow you to configure various settings.
On the official website you can download a free Trial version.
CrystalDiskInfo
CrystalDiskInfo program - allows you to evaluate the status of hard drives that support S.M.A.R.T. Monitors and determines the health status and current temperature of your drive.
The program displays detailed information about the drives (firmware, serial number, interface, power-up cycles, total operating time, etc.), as well as the characteristics of the S.M.A.R.T self-diagnostic system. (read errors, performance, operating time, number of on-off cycles, temperature, etc.). The program allows you to effectively check your disk for bad sectors.
On the official website, you can download a free portable version (does not require installation) and an installation version (requires installation and allows you to check the disk status in the background).
The programs discussed above are designed to diagnose and control disks, have different functionality, and the final choice depends only on your preferences. By analyzing the information received, you can draw appropriate conclusions about the reliability of the disk and thus protect yourself from possible problems in the future.
The only recommendation that you should definitely follow is to regularly monitor the status of your disk and back up valuable information.
How I Ditched an SSD in Two Months
- computer hardware
Epigraph
"Never trust a computer that you can't throw out the window"
Steve Wozniak
Two months ago I installed an SSD in my laptop. He worked great, but last week he suddenly died due to cell depletion (I believe). 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 reassembled.
- FS: ext4. That is, a journal is being written.
So the story begins in April, when I finally got around to copying partitions to a 64GB SSD broom I bought back in September. I deliberately do not tell the manufacturer and model, because so far I have not figured out much what happened, and it does not really matter.
What can I do to make it last longer?
Of course, I have studied numerous publications on how to take care of SSDs. And here's what I did:- Put no time for partitions, so that when the file is accessed, the record of the last access time is not updated.
- Increased the RAM to the maximum and turned off the swap.
S.M.A.R.T.
Three days before the fall, I preoccupied myself with the question: how do I know how much happiness will be enough for me? I tried the utility smartmontools, but it was displaying incorrect information. I had to download the Datasheet and write a patch for them.After writing the patch, I dug up one interesting parameter: average_number_of_erases / maximum_number_of_erases = 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 scored on them.
Chronicle of the fall
Suddenly, inexplicable things began to happen during work, 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 no longer possible to restart, the file system of the main partition was not read.I started from the compact and started checking. The check showed a lot of broken nodes. During the repair process, 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. For this eli run the utility bad blocks in read-only mode, it is unlikely that it will find something.
I decided to run the flashing utility, because it not only flashes, but also reformats the disk. The utility started formatting, groaned and gave out that the reasonable allowable number of bad sectors was exceeded, and also that there were failures, so it was not possible to complete the formatting.
After that, the disk began to be detected as a disk with a very strange name, model number and size of 4GB. And, in the future, except for specialized utilities, no one sees it.
I wrote a letter to the manufacturer's support. They recommended that I reflash, if it doesn't work out, then return it to the seller. The warranty is still 2 years, so I'll give it a 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 guess the following: S.M.A.R.T. I didn’t lie and the cells really got worn out (this indirectly confirms the backup that I did two days before the fall, when unpacking it showed that the creation dates of some files were reset to zero). And when checking for bad sectors, the disk controller simply allowed all cells to be marked as broken, in which the allowable number of write cycles was exceeded.What to do if you have an SSD
Windows
Install 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 an SSD are optimized.FreeBSD
Put 9.0. Read tips for Linux, think about what you can do with them.linux
- Install kernel 2.6.33, which has an optimization for such disks in the form of the TRIM command.
- Increase the memory so that you can painlessly turn off the swap.
- Set for mounted partitions no time.
- Used a copy-on-write file system or a non-journaled file system (eg ext2).
At the moment, copy-on-write file systems are quite difficult to use. ZFS only works through FUSE so far. And nilfs and btrfs, when mounted, swear that their format has not yet been finalized.
- Turn on 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 - moving temporary files to tmpfs .
- For systems that write intensively to the log, you need to store it elsewhere. This is mainly true for servers for which the log server is raised without problems.
- Get S.M.A.R.T. utilities that correctly display the status of the SSD so that you can periodically monitor the disk.
- Just spare the disk. And for the Gentushniks, this additionally means not “rebuilding the world”.
Questions to the habra community
- Is it really possible to kill MLC cells in 2 months? Of course, I understand that I did not spare the disk, but I did not do anything supernatural, I just worked as usual.
- Is this a warranty case?
UPD: The drive I had was Transcend TS64GSSD25S-M.
UPD2: There are very good reviews about Intel and SAMSUNG SSDs in the comments. In addition, people wonder how you can kill the SSD broom so quickly. Trust me, I wondered exactly the same. However, it is possible that this is a hastily tailored SSD series and can be quickly killed.
UPD3: In the comments and
