Another SSD Life Question

A

ArtShapiro

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Aug 2, 2011
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I tend to spend a lot of time on my primary desktop machine, which was built about a year and a half ago with a 128GB SSD. SSDLife shows minimal aging and a projected lifetime to something like 2076. Needless to say, I'm not worried.

Immediately prior to building that box, I built a similar machine for a friend, using a 64GB SSD. That small drive is far, far bigger than this person will ever need. She is anything but a power user, with the machine used for web browsing and email. She does, however, like to look at videos. Programs are rarely installed on this machine.

I was over there yesterday to do some routine computer maintenance, and ran SSDLife for no particular reason. I was absolutely floored to see that the lifetime was down to 46%, with an estimated year and a half remaining life.

OK, I can replace the disk as DDay approaches, and by that time it will be an even less significant expense as SSD prices continue to plunge. But I'm having a hard time understanding what I just saw. Can anyone offer any hypotheses???

Art
 
I would verify the drivers are up to date on the SSD. And have you tried using another program? I have heard some false readings from SSDLife before depending on the type of SSD and driver.
 
Is the partition aligned ? Is the OS trim capable ? How many writes does SSDLife report ?
 
Also....How much is on that drive? Is it close to full? They may not be a "power user" but it is pretty easy to fill a drive that small.
 
The drive is a little fuller than I expected - about 61% full. It's aligned because I installed Win7 from scratch onto it. I don't have the exact write numbers, and probably won't be there for a while to get that information.

That's an interesting idea about the drivers. I hadn't thought about doing that on this particular drive, as it's as scary (brick-potential) as a BIOS update.

I wasn't aware of similar analysis programs; can one be suggested?

Appreciate everyone's input so far.

Art
 
Last edited:
When you get back over there for a booty call, let us know what brand/model of 64GB SSD it is also.
 
As I built the machine, I'm quite familiar with what went into it. It's a Kingston SSDNow V100

Art
 
Post a screenshot of the SSDLife info and we might be able to help you more...
 
Here we go.

LindaSnip.jpg
 
23.8 gb free over 64.0gb = 40.2 gb used or 62% drive usage

I'm not sure if this applies to SSDs also but from my understanding in mechanical HDDs the capacity should not exceed 60% (on top of my head im not sure of the exact numbers) to prolong the life/keep the drive health
 
There is a firmware update for that drive that you don't have, and it is not optional, because it is a fix for an issue that may cause drive failure, and Kingston strongly recommends it:

http://www.kingston.com/us/support/...roduct=SV100S2&filename=SV100S2_64_128_120229

Back up the drive before you update its firmware. That is also not optional. If there isn't a way to back it up, then you need to make one. Shouldn't be that hard or expensive; you can use dd on the PartedMagic disc to make a full image onto an external USB drive or even a USB stick.

After you have updated the firmware, use the latest version of SSDLife Free (now at 2.3.50) and report back what it tells you. For all we know, fixing the projected lifetime info may be part of the firmware fix.
 
Thanks for that info. It will be some time until I can get there. I have the machine backed up onto Windows Home Server that I bring every time I'm over there, so this shouldn't be an issue.

I appreciate the insight.

Art
 
Do you have anything on the computer that is causing a lot of writes?

For most computers that I install an SSD onto these days, I make sure to:

Disable scheduled defrag
Disable system restore
Disable Hibernate
Disable Hybrid-Sleep
 
I'm very cautious about experimenting on this person's machine. I had purchased two of the Kingstons at the time, putting one in the machine in question and one in one of my Thinkpad laptops. As it too has the older firmware that evilsofa recommended upgrading, it seemed like a good experiment to do mine first, and then - if things went smoothly - the 42% life machine. Mine estimated 95% life remaining.

So I burned the firmware CD and the update went quickly and smoothly. I restored the now-empty disk from Windows Home Server and it booted up without incident.

I ran SSDLife, and was quite distressed to see the following:

ssd.jpg


What have I gotten myself into???

Art
 
What have I gotten myself into???
Click to expand...

I would look at the smart attributes directly. The actual life left in the drive could not have gone from 42% to 0% that quickly.
 
What's the easiest way of doing that? BTW, this went from 95% to Red Alert in the hour it took to update the firmware and reload the image. This wasn't the friend's 42% machine.

I don't know whether to raise a support inquiry with Kingston or not.

Art
 
Use CrystalDisk for SMART values. I would call Kingston, that is not normal behavior.
 
I wouldn't give up on that drive yet. I would back up my data, secure erase, and then re-install. I always make a system backup to make this procedure almost painless. I noticed that you don't have much free space. IMO that isn't a good idea.
 
Just to follow up on this thread:

I contacted Kingston, and they are going to replace my disk, having no idea why the firmware update would have caused such a disaster. I got the RMA today. Dealing with them has unexpectedly been a pleasure.

They have no theory on the 42% disk; I'm going to leave well enough alone and not update its firmware to avoid the possibility of a similar failure. It turns out that a lot of data on that disk happens to be my pictures and documents - I must have somehow caused that to happen when I built the machine - and a technical issue is preventing the owner from removing that data. I'll handle it soon.

Art
 
ArtShapiro said:
They have no theory on the 42% disk; I'm going to leave well enough alone and not update its firmware to avoid the possibility of a similar failure.
Click to expand...

In exchange for the increased potential for failure if you do not do that firmware update on a SSDNow V100S2 (pointed out by evilsofa above).

Out of the two potentials, I'd go for the firmware update 10 times out of 10 (after backing up/cloning the drive; the update will wipe the drive). Be totally sure its applicable to your drive(s), though (text on that link).

Done properly, it will for sure fix one potential failure issue...and hopefully not create more. If you are not familiar with firmware updates, download and read the Firmware Update Procedure PDF from that page before doing it.

Also as noted by others, don't rely on a single tool alone for verification of your drive's health. Read SMART values from the free CrystalDiskInfo (download the Shizuku or portable editions to avoid adware). Or the non-adware GSmartControl (what I use; Windows download halfway down that page).
 
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