NVME SSD how to test for failure

XcPNehVYlE4A3C

XcPNehVYlE4A3C

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 20, 2010
Messages
366
I had strange issues with my windows install on an older 950 pro. They all went away when i replaced it with a new 960 pro.

The question is: how do I test the older disk for errors, bad blocks, etc.?

I'd like to find out if i can re-use this disk or if i should RMA it.

I've searched all over the internet and can't find a definitive answer on this.

On a spinning disk i'd check SMART info before and after running badblocks, but i've read that SSD controllers dont work the same way.

thanks!
 
Hard Drive testing methods are not good for SSDs. I would try the vendor software ( which is the exact opposite as I say about hard drives ...)
 
yes i tried Magician, it has no testing or status aside from lifetime/wear amount ("Good") and a small set of raw SMART values, which they leave in hex (??)

Theres a performance benchmark and force TRIM and that's it. As far as I can tell, the only useful thing it does is update firmware.

I guess all that leaves me with is just to look at the number of remapped sectors and try to RMA based on that?

btw some of the issues i had in windows:
- efi files sometimes not found during boot
- CHKDSK showing filesystem problems
- broken start menu, and other apps that suddenly stopped running, weeks after installing
 
Would this work? Copy files to the drive then off of it and do a CRC check on the files. Or use a copy program like FastCopy that can do file validation during the copy process.
 
Its pretty tough for an NVME drive to go "bad". You either have physical damage to it (which means it wont work at all), or you write so much data to the drive that the cells go to read only. If neither of those things happened, then its not the drive. Your issues sound more like a driver, firmware, or BIOS/UEFI compatibility/configuration problem more than anything else.
 
I would try a secure erase then put some data on it and check after a period of time.
 
H2R2P2 said:
Its pretty tough for an NVME drive to go "bad". You either have physical damage to it (which means it wont work at all), or you write so much data to the drive that the cells go to read only. If neither of those things happened, then its not the drive. Your issues sound more like a driver, firmware, or BIOS/UEFI compatibility/configuration problem more than anything else.
Click to expand...

hrmm. I agree, the SSD's that have died on me in the past died all at once. but couldnt there be a scenario where an area of memory cells starts going bad and the controller constantly assigns fresh blocks but during this time you get a lot of file corruption / lost files?

anyway, thanks for the replies everyone, I think i'll try a secure erase to force a cleanup of bad blocks and then test copying some files.
 
XcPNehVYlE4A3C said:
hrmm. I agree, the SSD's that have died on me in the past died all at once. but couldnt there be a scenario where an area of memory cells starts going bad and the controller constantly assigns fresh blocks but during this time you get a lot of file corruption / lost files?

anyway, thanks for the replies everyone, I think i'll try a secure erase to force a cleanup of bad blocks and then test copying some files.
Click to expand...

Well, here is the thing.... The memory really has no way to go "bad" (again, other than physical damage). The only thing that can happen is it will lose its ability to write to memory cells. When that happens, those cells become read only and a spare area will take over for write duties, so you never lose data from this happening. If you completely run out of spare memory from excessive writes, then the facts dont change. You still dont lose data, you just lose the ability to write to the drive. You wont see any errors or chkdsk type filesystem problems either...

Still sounds like you have some kind of compatibility or configuration problem.. Make sure your UEFI has CSM disabled and that you dont have the NVME drive installed in a port that is shared with something else. You may have to check in your manual to determine if something is shared as its not obvious by looking at anything. For example, I have a Zenith Extreme that has 3 NVME slots yet they share PCIE lanes with my PCIE slots. I have to manually assign within the UEFI to "correctly" set it up, but it will still kinda sorta work even if I have lanes "shared" with an add in card (like a video card or other storage device).
 
How about this I have an A-data S40g 4TB that will NOT work with more than one partition I tried to do 2 partitions a C OS and a second 3.5 TB and had nothing but errors crashes and glitches but just a single partition C drive and no issues....never seen that before...
 
H2R2P2 said:
Its pretty tough for an NVME drive to go "bad". You either have physical damage to it (which means it wont work at all), or you write so much data to the drive that the cells go to read only. If neither of those things happened, then its not the drive. Your issues sound more like a driver, firmware, or BIOS/UEFI compatibility/configuration problem more than anything else.
Click to expand...
The 970 evo 2TB in my wife's PC lasted about 2 years, Samsung deprecated the drive at some point during that span and so issued a full refund. The system could not boot, and could boot to UEFI bios but you coudn't press anything. Changing the ssd fixed it.
 
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