A simple and frequently asked 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 “heating pad” 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 is actually not much different from testing other devices. There are also a number of utilities for them, some specialize in SSDs, some, in general, in information storage systems.
Purchased usedSSD, what to pay attention to?
Buying a used SSD is not recommended, if only because this device has the effect of weakening or deteriorating its performance over time to varying degrees. The main reason is the limited number of write cycles, although (as of yet) there are no known cases where the memory on an SSD failed due to its “old age”; it is better to use a new drive anyway.
The time a device is used may not always provide 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 regularly performed useless and even destructive 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 purchase a used 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 marks from screwdrivers on the screws.
There is simply no reason to open the SSD, except for testing laboratories in order to take high-quality photos internal elements, microcircuits and controllers. Any opening, even a “careful” one, will be noticed by a vigilant team of service engineers who will refuse to provide a warranty.
Opening an SSD can also mean an attempt to resolder some elements, or even worse, when scammers simply use the drive case to replace a working drive board with a obviously defective one, be more vigilant.
typical USB-SATA adapter
In order to determine the functionality of an SSD, fortunately, you do not need to have a PC; any laptop or netbook with USB ports will do. An average adapter from a SATA interface to USB 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 will not be able to test its speed. SSDs react very sharply to the package of installed drivers, controller, interface type, etc. When connecting USB 2.0 (and version 3.0 too), the speed of the drive will seriously decrease, relatively comfortable conditions, up to 30 MB/s for USB 2.0 interface.
However, you can still run some utilities that will show device wear, number of starts, storage capacity and other characteristics.
For example, we use the Crystal Disk Info utility, if possible, the latest version. This free program, which can be taken from the developer’s website. Not to be confused with Crystal Disk Mark, which is used to test device speeds (on at this stage we don't need).
Let's pay attention to three main points that interest us:
- Indicated 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!” then it’s worth clarifying what the reason is. Sometimes this happens due to some kind of failure in the utility itself, or incorrect reading of S.M.A.R.T indicators, but most often it symbolizes some serious flaw.
- We need to make sure that we have purchased the right SSD by looking at the device name and its capacity.
- The seller's honesty can also be verified by the total time of work. If you verbally bought it a week ago, but total time working for ten hours, then something is wrong here.
Important: Even new SSDs unpacked in front of you have a certain number of inclusions that are performed during factory checks.
In a word, you can see for yourself if there is “something wrong” with the drive.
TestingSSDat home.
First of all, even before using the SSD, make sure that you have performed small optimizations, updated drivers for the controller, etc., for example, as indicated in this article, so you will save yourself some nerves and be sure that the device is fully functional (or, conversely, has any some problems).
After this, you can move on to full testing; in general, there is nothing complicated. Examples of useful utilities and their use can be “seen” in the “” section.
For example, free utility, will show the indicators closest to the declared characteristics, and the Crystal Disk Mark test will be close to the real ones. A comprehensive performance assessment can be obtained from PCMark Vantage.
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Sequence of actions in the presence of S.M.A.R.T. errors hard drive or SSD. How to fix a disk and recover lost data. When you boot your computer or laptop, S.M.A.R.T appears. Hard drive or SSD error? After this error, your computer does not work as before, and you are worried about the safety of your data? Don't know how to fix the error?
Relevant for OS: Windows 10, Windows 8.1, Windows Server 2012, Windows 8, Windows Home Server 2011, Windows 7 (Seven), Windows Small Business Server, Windows Server 2008, Windows Home Server, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT.
What to do with a SMART error?
Step 1: Stop using the failed HDD
Receiving an error diagnosis message from the system does not mean that the disk has already failed. But if there is S.M.A.R.T. errors, you need to understand that the disk is already in the process of failure. Complete failure can occur within a few minutes or after a month or a year. But in any case, this means that you can no longer trust your data to such a drive.
You need to take care of the safety of your data, create a backup copy or transfer files to another storage medium. Along with the safety of your data, it is necessary to take action to replace the hard drive. The hard drive on which the S.M.A.R.T. errors cannot be exploited - even if it does not completely fail, it can partially damage your data.
Of course, a hard drive can fail without S.M.A.R.T warnings. But this technology gives you the advantage of warning you when a drive is about to fail.
Step 2: Recover deleted disk data
If a SMART error occurs, it is not always necessary to recover data from the disk. In case of an error, it is recommended to immediately create a copy of important data, since the disk may fail at any time. But there are errors in which it is no longer possible to copy data. In this case, you can use a program to recover hard drive data - Hetman Partition Recovery.
To do this:
- Download the program, install and run it.
- By default, the user will be prompted to use File Recovery Wizard. By pressing the button "Next", the program will prompt you to select the drive from which you want to recover files.
- Double-click on the failed disk and select the required analysis type. Choose "Full Analysis" and wait for the disk scanning process to complete.
- After the scanning process is completed, you will be provided with recovery files. Select the files you need and click the button "Restore".
- Select one of the suggested ways to save files. Do not save recovered files to a disk with an error.
Step 3: Scan the disk for bad sectors
Run a scan of all hard drive partitions and try to fix any errors found.
To do this, open the folder "This computer" and right-click on the disk with the SMART error. Select Properties / Service / Check in section Checking the disk for errors.
As a result of scanning, errors found on the disk can be corrected.
Step 4: Reduce disk temperature
Sometimes, the cause of the “S M A R T” error may be exceeding the maximum permissible temperature disk operation. This error can be resolved by improving the ventilation of the computer. First, check whether your computer is equipped with sufficient ventilation and that all fans are working properly.
If you have discovered and corrected a ventilation problem, after which the operating temperature of the disk has dropped to normal level, then the SMART error may no longer occur.
Step 5:
Open the folder "This computer" and right-click on the disk with the error. Select Properties / Service / Optimize in section Disk optimization and defragmentation.
Select the drive you want to optimize and click Optimize.
Note. In Windows 10, disk defragmentation and optimization can be configured so that it occurs automatically.
Step 6: Buy a new hard drive
If you are faced with a SMART hard drive error, then purchasing a new drive is only a matter of time. What kind of hard drive you need depends on your style of working with a computer, as well as the purpose for which it is used.
What to look for when purchasing a new drive:
- Disk type: HDD, SSD or SSHD. Each type has its own pros and cons, which are not critical for some users and very important for others. The main ones are the speed of reading and writing information, volume and resistance to repeated overwriting.
- Size. There are two main drive form factors: 3.5 inches and 2.5 inches. The disk size is determined in accordance with the installation location of a particular computer or laptop.
- Interface. Main hard drive interfaces:
- SATA;
- IDE, ATAPI, ATA;
- SCSI;
- External drive (USB, FireWire, etc.).
- Specifications and performance:
- Capacity;
- Read and write speed;
- Memory buffer or cache size;
- Response time;
- Fault tolerance.
- S.M.A.R.T. The presence of this technology on the disk will help determine possible errors its work and prevent data loss in time.
- Equipment. This item includes the possible availability of interface or power cables, as well as warranty and service.
How to reset SMART error?
SMART errors can be easily reset in the BIOS (or UEFI). But the developers of all operating systems categorically do not recommend doing this. If the data on your hard drive is not valuable to you, then the SMART error output can be disabled.
To do this you need to do the following:
- Restart your computer, and by pressing the key combination indicated on the boot screen (they are different for different manufacturers, usually "F2" or "Del") go to BIOS (or UEFI).
- Go to: Advanced > SMART settings > SMART self test. Set value Disabled.
Note: The location of disabling the function is indicated approximately, since depending on the BIOS or UEFI version, the location of this setting may differ slightly.
Is HDD repair worthwhile?
It is important to understand that any of the methods for eliminating SMART errors is self-deception. It is impossible to completely eliminate the cause of the error, since the main reason for its occurrence is often physical wear and tear on the hard drive mechanism.
To eliminate or replace malfunctioning hard drive components, you can contact service center a special laboratory for working with hard drives.
But the cost of work in this case will be higher than the cost of a new device. Therefore, it makes sense to perform repairs only if it is necessary to restore data from an already inoperative disk.
SMART error for SSD drive
Even if you have no complaints about the operation of the SSD drive, its performance is gradually decreasing. The reason for this is the fact that the memory cells of an SSD disk have a limited number of rewrite cycles. Wear resistance feature minimizes this effect, but does not eliminate it completely.
SSD drives have their own specific SMART attributes that indicate the state of the drive's memory cells. For example, “209 Remaining Drive Life”, “231 SSD life left”, etc. These errors can occur if the performance of the cells decreases, and this means that the information stored in them may be damaged or lost.
In the event of failure, SSD disk cells cannot be restored and cannot be replaced.
Hi all! I think it’s no secret that one of the most important components inside your computer or laptop is the drive that contains the operating system. A completely logical consequence is the question of how to perform a hard drive (or SSD, if the computer is newer) speed test.
If your operating system is installed on a slow hard drive, it doesn't matter how powerful your CPU or RAM- Windows itself and installed programs will be launched very reluctantly and you won’t be able to enjoy full multitasking.
In the age of the Internet, there are quite a lot of publications that will tell you about almost any drive model on sale. In addition, there are a huge number of programs for checking the speed of a hard drive, the result of which will be an understanding of what your drive is capable of.
There are many paid utilities, like PCMark or PassMark, that can test the entire system and can often be found in tests from well-known publications. We're going the other way and I'm going to tell you about four free ways to test the speed of your hard drive or SSD.
The real performance of an HDD or SSD in a Windows environment (and not only) is determined not only by the rotation speed of the magnetic disk or the memory of the drive chips, but also by many other important factors. The drive controller, the SATA version on the motherboard, the drivers of the controller itself, the operating mode (ACHI or IDE) - all this affects the performance of the disk subsystem (even the CPU or RAM can affect the performance)
Method 1: CrystalDiskMark is our main tool
Probably the most popular tool for testing hard drive speed is CrystalDiskMark. Almost no drive testing is complete without this utility - this situation will help you compare your results and draw the right conclusions. A big plus is the program’s ability to test not only HDD/SSD, but also flash drives and other storage media.
The application has both a distribution and a portable version that does not require installation. You can download it as usual on the official website (I, as always, recommend portable).
CrystalDiskMark is incredibly easy to use. We launch the utility, select the size of the test block (in the picture below we chose 1 GB), the number of test repetitions (I chose 5 - the more repetitions, the more accurate the result) and the drive itself. We press the “all” button and wait until the program runs all the tests (by the way, you can run a separate test for each mode).
In the screenshot on the left is the SSD speed test, and on the right is the HDD. Just so you know how big the difference is between them and what kind of performance gain you will get by replacing just one component in the system
Method 2. CrystalDiskInfo - detailed information about the HDD/SSD drive
At the very beginning of the note, I already wrote that the speed test of a hard drive or SSD will not be entirely correct if we do not find out the factors affecting the performance of the disk subsystem. The CrystalDiskInfo utility will tell you a lot of interesting things about your drive, but we are interested in just one nuance - download the application from the official website and run it.
Pay attention to the line “Transfer mode”, in the picture below I have it (SATA/600 | SATA/600). These parameters must match, i.e. By connecting the SSD drive to the SATA/300 port (this is the SATA II standard), we will get a maximum exchange speed with the disk of 300 MB, and if we look at the performance test in the first method, we see that maximum speed reading was well over 300...
By connecting such a high-speed drive to a SATA or SATA II port, its performance will simply be limited by the performance of the controller (with classic HDDs it is not so critical, since even SATA capabilities are abundant)
In general, CrystalDiskInfo can tell you about the temperature, operating time of the drive and many other useful indicators. For owners of classic HDDs, the Reallocate Sector item will be useful - thanks to it you can predict the failure of the device
Method 3. AS SSD Benchmark - a healthy competitor to CrystalDisk from the Germans
The Germans know how to make not only films for adults, but also excellent utilities for testing the speed of a hard drive or SSD. IN in this case I want to introduce you to the AS SSD Benchmark application, the functionality of which is very similar to CrystalDiskMark, but unlike it, it also shows data access time (and in general there are still minor differences).
You can download it from the official website (it’s in German, the download link is at the end of the page), the application itself has English language(many bloggers have a version exclusively in German)
The utility is portable and does not require installation, just run the application, select the required tests and press START, just like in the first method. On the left is my home SSD, on the right is the classic HDD.
Please note that in the TOOLS menu there are a couple interesting tests, which can predict the performance of the drive when copying ISO files, programs or various toys - CrystalDiskMark does not have such functionality
Method 4. HD Tune is a good tool with a visual graph
HD Tune is most likely the most famous application for testing hard drive speed, but it is in last place in today's ranking for a reason. The point is that free version HD Tune hasn't been updated since February 2008... but still works in 2k17 on latest Windows 10. As always, you can download from the official website (unfortunately there is no portable version)
After passing the test, we will have access to a visual reading graph (along with the maximum and minimum values, as well as the speed of data access). In general, the information is useful, but there is no way to test the disk writing speed, which is a little disappointing...
Due to its antiquities the application may not correctly detect modern drives, but this does not affect the test results in any way
Conclusion about hard drive speed testing programs
It's time to draw conclusions. We performed a hard drive or SSD speed test using four different programs (or rather, there are only three testing applications, and one more utility to make sure that the tests will be objective).
In reality, programs that allow you to check the speed of a hard drive are many times faster, but I decided to introduce you to the leaders of this niche... but if you have anything to add, I’m waiting for you in the comments.
Hello admin! I decided the other day to buy a solid state drive! I came to a computer store and told the seller:
Sell me the fastest SSD!
and they answered me:
Here you go, Kingston HyperX 3K (120 GB, SATA-III) speed 555 MB/s, excellent SSD, it doesn’t get any faster.
Prove it!
Apparently they wanted to sell me this SSD so much that they installed it on the computer and ran the test in the CrystalDiskMark program, then showed the test result, here is the screenshot:
Sequential read speed of 541 MB/s and write speed of 493 MB/s, I even took a photo of it with my phone.
In short, I bought this SSD, came home, connected it to my computer, then downloaded and launched the “CrystalDiskMark” program and ran the same test, but the result was worse!
Sequential read speed of 489 MB/s and write speed of 127 MB/s. Why?
In the store, the test was carried out on a computer with an Intel® Core™ i5 processor and 4GB of memory, but my computer is more powerful and is built on an Intel® Core™ i7 processor and has 8GB of memory.
Explain to the admin what the catch is, otherwise I won’t sleep, after all, this SSD costs 3 and a half rubles.
Hi all! Yes, this can happen, friends, you just need to know how to use the CrystalDiskMark program. Now I will show you everything.
- Note: You may be interested in our other articles on SSDs
We will conduct the SSD test in the CrystalDiskMark 3 0 3 program
The program can be downloaded from the official website http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html
CrystalDiskMark tests our SSD this way:.
All: All 4 tests are performed (Seq, 512K, 4K, 4K QD32);
Seq: Sequential write/read test (block size= 1024Kb);
512K: Random write/read test (block size = 512Kb);
4K: Random write/read test (block size = 4Kb);
4K QD32: Random write/read test (block size = 4Kb, queue depth = 32) for NCQ and AHCI;
The final result.
First, test your SSD or any other hard drive correctly! The fastest SSD will read and write information is the area filled with only zeros. To do this, in CrystalDiskMark, select file from the menu File->Test Data->All 0x0000 (Fill).
I also have this Kingston HyperX 3K SSD (120 GB, SATA-III) and now I will do a simple test.
IN operating system SSD drive under the letter D:, which means in the program settings select the letter D: and click
The test of our SSD for sequential read and write speed begins!
In a minute we get the result. Sequential read and write speed 543 MB/s (read), 507 MB/s (write)
Now we do the test differently. File->Test Data->Default (Random)
After a minute, we get a result completely different from when testing with the All 0x0000 (Fill) option. Sequential read and write speed 499 MB/s (read), 149 MB/s (write)
It is also important for the SSD to work properly to connect it to your motherboard correctly. All solid-state drives have a high-speed SATA 3.0 (6 Gb/s) interface, and your motherboard probably has such connectors. For example, my ASUS P8Z77-V PRO motherboard has four SATA 6 Gb/s ports and they are marked accordingly SATA 6G, which means we connect the SSD according to the marking.
To connect the SATA 6 Gb/s SSD interface, use a native SATA 6 Gb/s data cable!
Epigraph
“Never trust a computer that you can’t throw out the window.”
Steve Wozniak
Two months ago I installed an SSD drive in my laptop. It worked great, but last week it suddenly died due to cell depletion (I believe). This article is about how it happened and what I did wrong.
Description of the environment
- User: Web developer. That is, such things as virtual machines, eclipse, and 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 the partitions to a 64GB SSD broom, purchased back in September. I deliberately do not tell the manufacturer and model, because I haven’t really figured out what happened yet, and it doesn’t really matter.
What did I do to make it work longer?
Of course, I studied numerous publications on how to take care of SSD drives. And this is what I did:- Delivered noatime for partitions, so that when accessing a file, the record of the last access time is not updated.
- I increased the RAM to maximum and disabled swap.
S.M.A.R.T.
Three days before the fall, I was preoccupied with the question: how do I know how much happiness I have? I tried the utility smartmontools, but it displayed incorrect information. I had to download 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 did not mean exactly what I thought they meant, and I gave up on them.
Chronicle of the Fall
Suddenly, inexplicable things began to happen while working, for example, new programs did not start. Out of curiosity, I looked at that 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 could not be 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 of 64GB were marked as bad.
Note: In SSD hard drives, a cell is considered broken if new information cannot be written there. Reading from such a cell will still be possible. Using this, run the utility badblocks in read-only mode, it is unlikely to find anything.
I decided to run the flashing utility, because it not only flashes, but also reformats the disk. The utility started formatting, groaned and reported that the reasonable permissible amount had been exceeded bad sectors, and also that there are failures, so it is not possible to complete the formatting.
After this, the disk began to be identified as a disk with a very strange name, model number and size of 4GB. And, in the future, no one sees it except for specialized utilities.
I wrote a letter in support of the manufacturer. They recommended that I reflash it, and if it doesn’t work, then return it to the seller. The warranty is still 2 years old, 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 assume the following: S.M.A.R.T. I didn’t lie and the cells were really worn out (this is indirectly confirmed by the backup that I made two days before the fall; when unpacking it showed that the creation dates of some files had been reset). And when checking for bad sectors, the disk controller simply allowed all cells to be marked as bad, in which the permissible number of write cycles was exceeded.What to do if you have an SSD
Windows
Install Windows 7, everything is optimized for such disks as much as possible. Also install 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 you can do with them.Linux
- Install kernel 2.6.33, which has optimization for such disks in the form of the TRIM command.
- Increase memory so you can safely disable swap.
- Set for mounted partitions noatime.
- Used a copy-on-write file system or an unjournaled file system (such as ext2).
At the moment, copy-on-write FS is quite difficult to use. ZFS currently only works through FUSE. And nilfs and btrfs swear when mounting 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 it will not help the disk much - transferring temporary files to tmpfs.
- For systems that write intensively to the log, it should be stored in a different location. This is mainly true for servers for which the log server can be raised without any 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 disk. And for the gentushniks, this additionally means not “reassembling the world.”
Questions for the habra community
- Is it really possible to kill MLC cells in 2 months? Of course, I understand that I didn’t spare the disk, 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: The comments are very good reviews about SSD Intel and SAMSUNG. In addition, people are surprised how it is possible to kill an SSD with a broom so quickly. Believe me, I was perplexed in exactly the same way. However, it is possible that this is a hastily tailored SSD series and can be killed quickly.
UPD3: In the comments and
