• SSD status program. Checking SSD drives and restoring MicroSD cards

    An SSD, like any other, is subject to errors and failures. The user may experience the inability to write or delete files, reduced memory, or the need to know the service life. The latter is limited to 3-5 thousand cycles. On average we get 7-13 years of activity.

    When purchasing a used storage unit, this is one of the most important details. You can find out the exact figure and check the SSD disk for errors using special software.

    The best software for diagnosing SSD errors, speed, operating time, optimization

    Today there are a large number of programs for working with SSD drives. First, we recommend installing proprietary software from the manufacturer.

    This will solve most of your problems: check the disk status, operating speed, update the firmware, activate RAID mode, and more. It can be downloaded from the official website of your drive manufacturer, usually by going to the support section. Names of programs from popular SSD manufacturers.

    • Intel Solid-State Drive Toolbox
    • Samsung Magician
    • Kingston Manager
    • SanDisk Dashboard
    • ADATA ToolBox
    • Transcend Scope

    Among the wide variety of software, choosing the best is not so easy. One popular application is SSDLife and Cristal Disk Info. They can often be found in reviews on popular YouTube channels.

    We already had articles on our website about testing PC components, we recommend you read them.

    SSD Life

    This is a shareware application that can calculate the “death” period of a drive based on the intensity of work. Supports almost all well-known brands of SSD. The program displays the following parameters:

    • Manufacturer's logo and name
    • Presence of decreased performance
    • Amount of free and used memory
    • Usage statistics for today, yesterday, last 7 days and all time

    Crystal Disk Info

    Free software made in Japan. Supports Russian language. Using Crystal Disk Info, you can check the speed of an SSD drive. The program displays the temperature of the drive in numbers and color indication, as well as the following parameters:

    • Opening hours
    • Malfunctions
    • Promotion time
    • S.M.A.R.T. schedule
    • Reading and positioning errors

    In total there are over 25 types of data displayed on the screen. The user is prompted to change the design themes. The program also supports external drives and can control noise reduction and energy saving. She was awarded three times by famous publications.

    SSD Ready

    User-friendly software with many free features. The storage life is calculated through an online service using constantly updated databases. To obtain the most accurate information, the creator recommends launching the application at the beginning of the day, and at the end of the day, click on the Estimate SSD Life button. A website page will open where your data will be displayed. Otherwise, the set of features is similar to those present in SSD Life.

    Tweak SSD

    A powerful tool that allows you to optimize your drive and manage its performance. The interface offers a convenient setup wizard. You will be able to do the following:

    • Change FS cache size
    • Overcome NTFS limits
    • Perform TRIM optimization
    • Disable application and system loading
    • Prohibit defragmentation, paging, indexing, and other tasks

    The free version has almost a complete set of functions. Access to the TRIM optimization tab is purchased separately.

    Disk Check up

    Tracks S.M.A.R.T attributes. to calculate disk lifespan. There is an automatic check of the SSD disk for errors, after which you can view detailed reports. In addition, DiskCheckup can run capacity self-tests to detect failures and changes in the size of the HPA and DCO areas. The following information is displayed:

    • Model number
    • Interface type
    • Geometry Options
    • Storage capacity
    • Start time, stop time, etc.

    The application cannot work with disks connected using SCSI or RAID, only storage devices that support S.M.A.R.T technology. The rest simply will not appear in the menu.

    Checking an SSD disk for errors in Windows

    Windows 8 and 10 provide storage checking for errors. To conduct testing, we need to log into this computer, then right-click on the local disk that we want to check. In the drop-down list, go to properties.

    Once in properties, switch to the “Service” tab. There are two items in this tab; select the first one, “Check the disk for errors in the file system.” To make it easier for you to understand, we recorded a video.

    Conclusions

    First of all, be sure to install proprietary software. If its functions are not enough, you can choose the third-party applications that we discussed above. Choosing the right application requires trial and error.

    Crystal Disk Info and SSD Life are considered in demand. DiskCheckup is quite easy to use software. Tweak SSD and SSD Ready have a nice interface. If you find errors, you can correct them using the time-tested Victoria program, you should understand that you will correct errors at your own peril and risk. Otherwise, the drive may fail.

    Just a few years ago, you could find a regular hard drive in almost every home computer. Nevertheless, today many users prefer to install SSD drives in their PC for a number of very obvious reasons: compactness, reliability, temperature and read/write speed. Yes, their price is significantly higher compared to HDDs, but it's worth it. Installing even the cheapest solid-state drive can increase the performance of an old computer several times.

    However, unfortunately, SSD drives are not as durable as classic HDDs, which can live in quite harsh conditions for literally years. SSDs have their own limited resource, which, by the way, is usually indicated by the disk manufacturers. And therefore, all users from time to time need to conduct tests of various types for their SSD in order to make sure that it is in satisfactory condition.

    In today's article we will look at how you can check an SSD disk for errors, bad sectors, how to check the read/write speed of an SSD disk, and also briefly look at a small additional section - restoring MicroSD cards. So let's get started.

    Checking an SSD disk for bad sectors and errors

    Unfortunately, even solid-state drives are not immune to various errors and bad blocks. Therefore, users need to diagnose SSD drives for all sorts of problems. It is especially important to perform diagnostics on SSDs that are not new and on which various operations were carried out every day.

    But how is diagnosis done? The answer is with the help of specialized software. There is an incredibly huge amount of software on the Internet, both from the drive manufacturers themselves and from third-party developers, that can check the status of the SSD. Now we will look at the three best programs for diagnosing SSD drives. Let's go.

    CrystalDiskInfo

    Perhaps the most popular choice among software for this purpose is a program called CrystalDiskInfo. This utility was developed by a talented Japanese programmer and is distributed completely free of charge. Moreover, the program has been translated into 32 languages, including Russian, which is undoubtedly a huge plus.

    CrystalDiskInfo is able to display general information about the SSD, which also includes the health of the media, monitor S.M.A.R.T. values. and even monitor/control the operating temperature of the disk. All in all, an extremely useful and lightweight utility that will help you diagnose your SSD drive in a matter of minutes.

    The author of the program understood that the average user, having opened the CrystalDiskInfo window, would get confused in the variety of different attributes of his disk, so he decided to summarize them all, collecting them in the “Technical Condition” section, which shows the disk condition as a percentage. We launched CrystalDiskInfo and looked at the information in the left corner - it’s as simple as that.

    Let's move on to the second program on our list. SSDLife is a small application with a fairly simple user interface. After launching the utility, you will see a small window in front of you in which you can see the model of your disk, its total capacity and remaining space, total operating time, number of starts, health, and even the estimated remaining service life.

    Unlike CrystalDiskInfo, the SSDLife utility is designed primarily for the most ordinary user who wants to make sure that everything is in order with his SSD disk. However, you can familiarize yourself with the S.M.A.R.T. information by clicking on the appropriate button if the need arises. The utility is distributed in two versions: a free version and a professional version, which costs about 300 rubles. It was in prof. version there is a view of S.M.A.R.T parameters.

    Data Lifeguard Diagnostic

    And let's move on to the last program to check the status of the SSD drive. Data Lifeguard Diagnostic is another utility that you can use to check your drive. However, it is worth noting that its user interface is somewhat more complex than that of the previous two programs on this list. The program was developed by Western Digital, however, it is excellent at diagnosing third-party drives.

    Like other programs on the list, Data Lifeguard Diagnostic will automatically run a quick diagnostic of your disk, the results of which you can view in the main window. However, it is worth noting that the details of this check are quite sparse and you will need to perform another check manually. To do this, double-click with the left mouse button on your drive in the program window.

    Another small window with several options will appear in front of you. Here you will need to select a quick or advanced (in-depth) disk scan. Having selected the desired type of test, for example, extended, upon completion you will need to click on the “VIEW TEST RESULT” button. Then another window will appear in front of you, where you can view the results of the check.

    In this window you should pay attention to the line “TEST RESULTS” (test results). PASS - means that your SSD drive is in perfect order and there is no need to worry. Well, if the value FAIL is located there, then there is really something wrong with your drive.

    SSD speed test software - CrystalDiskMark

    Let's now look at a utility that will help you test the speed of your SSD. Have you forgotten about a program called CrystalDiskInfo? So, the developer of this program has another program, but only to check the speed of the disk.

    CrystalDiskMark is rightfully the best program for testing HDD and SSD speed. It supports the Russian language and can be run on all modern Windows operating systems, from Windows XP to the latest versions of Windows 10.

    To perform a speed test, you will need to do the following:

    • download and open the CrystalDiskMark program;
    • select the number of read/write cycles you need;
    • select the size of the tested file;
    • select disk partition;
    • click on the “All” button;

    The speed test may take some time, so you may want to get distracted by something else. However, we do not recommend that you boot your computer or SSD in any way while CrystalDiskMark is running, because... this may affect the test results. We look at the results and find out if there are any problems with your SSD drive. And the programs from the list above will help you with this.

    How to recover a MicroSD card?

    Let's move on to the next section - restoring MicroSD cards. Many of the users of such storages, often used for mobile devices, often ask one question: is it possible to recover deleted or damaged data on a memory card? The answer is yes. However, there are some nuances here.

    Specialized software, which can easily be obtained in the public domain on the Internet, will help you recover the necessary data on such media. Let's look at several popular programs for recovering MicroSD cards.

    CardRecovery

    CardRecovery is an excellent free program from WinRecovery Software for recovering images, video and audio files. Unfortunately, using CardRecovery it is not possible to recover ordinary files, for example, text documents or disk images. So let's see how you can recover MicroSD:

    • download and install CardRecovery;
    • then run the program and wait for the window to appear;
    • in the program window you will need to do the following:
      • select in the “Drive letter” section (partition letter) the letter under which your microsd flash drive is located;
      • Next, you will need to select the device type in the section called “Camera Brand and File type” and the type of files you want to recover;
      • in the “Destination Folder” section, select the folder on your computer where the data recovered from the flash drive will be placed;
      • and finally, click on the “Next” button;
    • Next, a list of files that were recovered should appear in the CardRecovery program window. All you have to do is check the boxes next to the files you need (or all files) and click on the “Next” button again;

    As you can understand, working with the CardRecovery program is quite simple and it will not take up much space on your disk. An ideal option for most users who do not want to bother with many functions. However, if you need more, then let's move on.

    PC Inspector Smart Recovery

    If you need something more functional, then PC Inspector Smart Recovery is ideal for you. This software has a wider range of different functions and can recover almost all types of files. Among other things, it can work with non-removable storage.

    So, to use PC Inspector Smart Recovery, you will need to do the following:

    • download PC Inspector Smart Recovery and run it;
    • click on the first green arrow icon;
    • check the box next to “Select a logical drive” in the “Recovering deleted files” section;
    • in the disk selection window, select your memory card and click on the green checkmark to confirm;
    • Next you will need to set the range of sectors; set "0" in the starting sector and media volume in the ending range;
    • click on the green checkmark to confirm;
    • then a window will appear in front of you with the recovered files and folders on the flash drive;
    • Click on the floppy disk icon to save the recovered files.

    PC Inspector Smart Recovery is somewhat more difficult to work with than the previous program on the list, but everything is within the knowledge of ordinary Windows users. Let's move on to the latest program for “repairing” MicroSD cards.

    R-Studio

    Perhaps one of the most popular programs for restoring MicroSD cards (and not only) is a program called R-Studio. The software is a group of full-featured utilities for recovering data from HDD, SSD, flash drives and more. To use R-Studio, you will need to do the following:

    • download and install R-Studio on your computer;
    • run the program;
    • click on the microsd card in the “Drivers” section;
    • check the boxes next to the folders/files in the “Folders” and “Content” sections;
    • Click on the “Recover” button in the menu bar of the program window.

    That, in fact, is all you need to restore the necessary content on a MicroSD card. On the Internet you can find a whole bunch of different software with similar functionality, but users often advise using CardRecovery, PC Inspector Smart Recovery or R-Studio.

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    Greetings!
    Over time, the reliability of the SSD may decrease, and there will be a risk of various types of errors. And while some errors may indicate impending wear of the drive, others may be a sign of an impending failure of the drive’s SSD.

    This procedure will allow you not only to identify (and in some cases correct) 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 with what 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 an SSD, both self-developed algorithms for assessing the state of the media and reading with subsequent S.M.A.R.T analysis are used. data from the SSD disk controller.

    S.M.A.R.T.– a technology whose task is to control numerous parameters of the media. Based on these technical data, the current state and the probability of failure (breakage) are calculated. The emergence of S.M.A.R.T. mistakes don't bode well.

    First method, CrystalDyskInfo utility

    In order to test the SSD disk, we will resort to using a free and at the same time quite informative solution - the CrystalDiskInfo utility.

    This utility displays comprehensive information about the status of 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 and read S.M.A.R.T information from it. Upon completion, 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, which is why the developers introduced a generalized 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, backup) important data from it as soon as possible. There is only a chance that the SSD disk you have at your disposal will soon fail.

    Of course, you can also view each technical attribute, its current and threshold value.

    The parameters in the table are read as follows:

    If the current or worst parameter approaches what is located in the threshold column, then this may indicate a possible media failure. 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 column 10. When a value of 10 units is displayed in the current/worst column, this 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 issue of backup.

    In general, reading and deciphering 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 drive manufacturers limit the amount of S.M.A.R.T. coming from the disk controller. information. Such disks often send only a general “health” status - everything is fine or there is a serious malfunction in the operation of the media.

    In this regard, it is better to focus on the general conclusion about “health”, which is highlighted in the program.

    Second method, SSDLife utility

    Using this utility, you can evaluate the condition and performance of the SSD disk, find out if there are any errors in its operation, view S.M.A.R.T. information from it.

    The utility has a friendly and very visual interest that even a beginner will appreciate.

    Official website of the SSDLife utility

    Like the program described just above, SSDLife begins analyzing the hard drive immediately after launch, and then displays the results of its operating 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, in fact, is presented in the main window:

    At the top of the window, information about the current state of the SSD and its approximate service life is displayed.

    Immediately behind it is an information block, which displays information about both the SSD itself and its “health”. The closer this figure is to 100%, the better.

    For those who like to watch S.M.A.R.T. information in the same block there is a button of the same name - press it and you will see all the S.M.A.R.T. parameters that come from the disk controller.

    Going a little lower, we can see the total amount of data that was written and read from the SSD drive you are using. This information is provided for your reference only.

    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 disk.

    Third method, Data Lifeguard Diagnostic utility

    This utility is also designed to assess the condition of the SSD drive being used. It was developed by the well-known company Western Digital, which specializes in the development and production of HDD\SSD drives. The Data Lifeguard Diagnostic utility tests both its own drives and SSD drives from third-party manufacturers equally well.

    Official website of the Data Lifeguard Diagnostic utility

    Once you launch the utility, it will immediately perform a quick diagnostic of all drives connected to the system. The result will be displayed in the main program window. The program's interface is very ascetic and displays the status of connected media, without any details or calculations, assessing the “life expectancy” of the drive, etc.

    The program provides the ability to conduct 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: advanced or quick.

    At the end of the test, you must click on the button that appears VIEW TEST RESULT to see the result of testing the drive. If you see in the results PASS, then your drive is in good health and has no errors during operation.

    Brief summary

    Based on the results of this review, it becomes clear that there are quite a lot of utilities with which you can check the performance of your SSD drive and assess its health. You can choose from the list presented the most convenient solution that meets your requirements for diagnosing and monitoring the operation of an SSD drive.

    If you have any questions, you can ask them in the comments.

    There is an opinion that one of the most significant disadvantages of solid-state drives is their finite and, moreover, relatively low reliability. Indeed, due to the limited resource of flash memory, which is caused by the gradual degradation of its semiconductor structure, any SSD sooner or later loses its ability to store information. The question of when this can happen remains key for many users, so many buyers, when choosing drives, are guided not so much by their performance as by reliability indicators. Manufacturers themselves add fuel to the fire of doubts, who, for marketing reasons, stipulate relatively low volumes of permitted recording in the warranty conditions for their consumer products.

    However, in practice, mass-produced solid-state drives demonstrate more than sufficient reliability so that they can be trusted to store user data. An experiment that showed the absence of real reasons for worrying about the finiteness of their resource was conducted some time ago by the website TechReport. They performed a test that showed that, despite all the doubts, the endurance of the SSD has already increased so much that you don’t have to think about it at all. As part of the experiment, it was practically confirmed that most models of consumer drives are capable of transferring records of about 1 PB of information before they fail, and especially successful models, like the Samsung 840 Pro, remain alive after digesting 2 PB of data. Such recording volumes are practically unattainable in a conventional personal computer, so the lifespan of a solid-state drive simply cannot come to an end before it becomes completely obsolete and is replaced by a new model.

    However, this testing failed to convince skeptics. The fact is that it was carried out in 2013-2014, when solid-state drives based on planar MLC NAND, which is manufactured using a 25 nm process technology, were in use. Such memory before its degradation is capable of withstanding about 3000-5000 programming-erasing cycles, but now completely different technologies are in use. Today, flash memory with a three-bit cell has come to mass-produced SSD models, and modern planar technological processes use a resolution of 15-16 nm. At the same time, flash memory with a fundamentally new three-dimensional structure is becoming widespread. Any of these factors can radically change the reliability situation, and in total, modern flash memory promises only a resource of 500-1500 rewrite cycles. Are drives deteriorating along with memory, and do we need to start worrying about their reliability again?

    Most likely not. The fact is that along with changes in semiconductor technologies, there is a continuous improvement of controllers that control flash memory. They introduce more advanced algorithms that should compensate for the changes occurring in NAND. And, as manufacturers promise, current SSD models are at least as reliable as their predecessors. But objective grounds for doubt still remain. Indeed, on a psychological level, drives based on the old 25 nm MLC NAND with 3000 rewrite cycles look much more solid than modern SSD models with 15/16 nm TLC NAND, which, all other things being equal, can guarantee only 500 rewrite cycles. The increasingly popular TLC 3D NAND, which, although produced according to higher technological standards, is also subject to stronger mutual influence of cells, is also not very encouraging.

    Taking all this into account, we decided to conduct our own experiment, which would allow us to determine what kind of endurance can be guaranteed by current drive models based on the currently most popular types of flash memory.

    Controllers decide

    The finite lifespan of drives built on flash memory has not surprised anyone for a long time. Everyone has long been accustomed to the fact that one of the characteristics of NAND memory is a guaranteed number of rewrite cycles, after exceeding which the cells can begin to distort information or simply fail. This is explained by the very principle of operation of such a memory, which is based on capturing electrons and storing charge inside a floating gate. The change in cell states occurs due to the application of relatively high voltages to the floating gate, due to which electrons overcome a thin layer of dielectric in one direction or the other and are retained in the cell.

    Semiconductor structure of a NAND cell

    However, this movement of electrons is akin to a breakdown - it gradually wears out the insulating material, and ultimately this leads to a breakdown of the entire semiconductor structure. In addition, there is a second problem that entails the gradual deterioration of cell performance - when tunneling occurs, electrons can get stuck in the dielectric layer, preventing the correct recognition of the charge stored in the floating gate. All this means that the moment when flash memory cells stop working normally is inevitable. New technological processes only aggravate the problem: with decreasing production standards, the dielectric layer only becomes thinner, which reduces its resistance to negative influences.

    However, to say that there is a direct relationship between the resource of flash memory cells and the life expectancy of modern SSDs would not be entirely correct. The operation of a solid state drive is not a straightforward process of writing and reading to flash memory cells. The fact is that NAND memory has a rather complex organization and special approaches are required to interact with it. Cells are organized into pages, and pages are organized into blocks. Writing data is only possible to blank pages, but in order to clear a page, the entire block must be reset. This means that writing, or even worse, changing data, turns into a complex multi-step process, including reading the page, changing it and re-writing it to free space, which must first be cleared. Moreover, preparing free space is a separate headache, requiring “garbage collection” - the formation and cleaning of blocks from pages that have already been used, but have become irrelevant.

    Scheme of operation of flash memory of a solid-state drive

    As a result, the actual volume of writes to flash memory may differ significantly from the volume of operations initiated by the user. For example, changing even one byte can entail not only writing an entire page, but even the need to rewrite several pages at once to first free a clean block.

    The ratio between the amount of writes performed by the user and the actual load on the flash memory is called write gain. This coefficient is almost always higher than one, and in some cases it is much higher. However, modern controllers, through buffering operations and other intelligent approaches, have learned to effectively reduce write amplification. Technologies useful for extending the life of cells, such as SLC caching and wear leveling, have become widespread. On the one hand, they transfer a small part of the memory to a sparing SLC mode and use it to consolidate small disparate operations. On the other hand, they make the load on the memory array more uniform, preventing unnecessary multiple rewrites of the same area. As a result, storing the same amount of user data on two different drives from the point of view of the flash memory array can cause completely different loads - it all depends on the algorithms used by the controller and firmware in each specific case.

    There is another side: garbage collection and TRIM technologies, which, in order to improve performance, pre-prepare clean blocks of flash memory pages and therefore can transfer data from place to place without any user intervention, make an additional and significant contribution to the wear of the NAND array . But the specific implementation of these technologies also largely depends on the controller, so the differences in how SSDs manage their own flash memory resources can be significant here too.

    Ultimately, all this means that the practical reliability of two different drives with the same flash memory can differ very noticeably only due to different internal algorithms and optimizations. Therefore, when talking about the resource of a modern SSD, you need to understand that this parameter is determined not only and not so much by the endurance of the memory cells, but by how carefully the controller handles them.

    The operating algorithms of SSD controllers are constantly being improved. Developers are not only trying to optimize the volume of write operations in flash memory, but are also introducing more efficient methods of digital signal processing and read error correction. In addition, some of them resort to allocating a large reserve area on the SSD, due to which the load on the NAND cells is further reduced. All this also affects the resource. Thus, SSD manufacturers have a lot of leverage in their hands to influence what final endurance their product will demonstrate, and flash memory resource is only one of the parameters in this equation. This is precisely why endurance testing of modern SSDs is of such interest: despite the widespread introduction of NAND memory with relatively low endurance, current models do not necessarily have to be less reliable than their predecessors. Progress in controllers and the operating methods they use is quite capable of compensating for the flimsiness of modern flash memory. And this is precisely why the study of current consumer SSDs is interesting. Compared to SSDs of previous generations, only one thing remains unchanged: the resource of solid-state drives is finite in any case. But how it has changed in recent years is precisely what our testing should show.

    Testing methodology

    The essence of SSD endurance testing is very simple: you need to continuously rewrite data in the drives, trying to practically establish the limit of their endurance. However, a simple linear recording does not quite meet the purpose of testing. In the previous section, we talked about the fact that modern drives have a whole bunch of technologies aimed at reducing the write amplification factor, and in addition, they perform garbage collection and wear leveling procedures differently, and also react differently to the TRIM operating system command . That is why the most correct approach is to interact with the SSD through the file system with an approximate repetition of the profile of real operations. Only then can we get a result that ordinary users can consider as a guide.

    Therefore, in our endurance test we use drives formatted with the NTFS file system, on which two types of files are continuously and alternately created: small - with a random size from 1 to 128 KB and large - with a random size from 128 KB to 10 MB. During the test, these randomly filled files are multiplied until more than 12 GB of free space remains on the drive; when this threshold is reached, all created files are deleted, a short pause is made, and the process is repeated again. In addition, the tested drives simultaneously contain a third type of file - permanent. Such files with a total volume of 16 GB are not involved in the erase-rewrite process, but are used to check the correct operation of the drives and the stable readability of the stored information: each cycle of filling the SSD, we check the checksum of these files and compare it with a reference, pre-calculated value.

    The described test scenario is reproduced by the special program Anvil’s Storage Utilities version 1.1.0; the status of drives is monitored using the CrystalDiskInfo utility version 7.0.2. The test system is a computer with an ASUS B150M Pro Gaming motherboard, a Core i5-6600 processor with integrated Intel HD Graphics 530 and 8 GB DDR4-2133 SDRAM. Drives with a SATA interface are connected to the SATA 6 Gb/s controller built into the motherboard chipset and operate in AHCI mode. The driver used is Intel Rapid Storage Technology (RST) 14.8.0.1042.

    The list of SSD models taking part in our experiment currently includes more than five dozen items:

    1. (AGAMMIXS11-240GT-C, firmware SVN139B);
    2. ADATA XPG SX950 (ASX950SS-240GM-C, firmware Q0125A);
    3. ADATA Ultimate SU700 256 GB (ASU700SS-256GT-C, firmware B170428a);
    4. (ASU800SS-256GT-C, firmware P0801A);
    5. (ASU900SS-512GM-C, firmware P1026A);
    6. Crucial BX500 240 GB (CT240BX500SSD1, firmware M6CR013);
    7. Crucial MX300 275 GB (CT275MX300SSD1, firmware M0CR021);
    8. (CT250MX500SSD1, firmware M3CR010);
    9. GOODRAM CX300 240 GB ( SSDPR-CX300-240, firmware SBFM71.0);
    10. (SSDPR-IRIDPRO-240, firmware SAFM22.3);
    11. (SSDPED1D280GAX1, firmware E2010325);
    12. (SSDSC2KW256G8, firmware LHF002C);

    Solid-state drives (SSDs) have become a fixture in our lives. Granting the user many advantages compared to traditional HDDs (higher speed of reading and writing information, quiet operation, low power consumption and high resistance to mechanical damage), they are, however, not without a number of disadvantages (for example, shorter operating time compared to from HDD). Accordingly, their condition must be monitored from time to time in order to timely track negative changes in their functionality. In this material I will tell you how to check an SSD disk for errors, how tools will help us find out its performance and how to use them.

    If you are wondering about checking an SSD disk for errors and performance, it means that a situation may have arisen in which your SSD has 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 SSDs - HDDs in this regard is not limited). Typically, manufacturers provide a warranty on their SSD drives for a period of 3 years (or for the volume of recorded data of 35 terabytes of data, which is approximately equal to 20 gigabytes per day). Those who actively use their SSD drive (on various 24/7 servers, etc.) may experience faster failure of SSD devices.

    Well, those users who work with their PC in normal, “household” mode can enjoy the fast operation of their SSD for 5 years or more. In the last article, I described in detail who I recommend setting up the disk for this OS.

    How to check an SSD disk for errors and performance - list of programs

    If you do not need to know the performance of the SSD drive, then you should use the functionality of the appropriate programs that will allow you to test the ssd for errors. Below I will list these programs and give their corresponding characteristics:

    CrystalDiskInfo program

    It is a free utility that will check the read-write speed of your disk, displays its overall health, temperature, supports S.M.A.R.T (hard disk health assessment technology) and much more. This CrystalDiskInfo program has two main versions (installable and portable), and in the case of the installed version, you can monitor the status of your disks in real time using the program icon in the system tray. If the pressing question is how to check an ssd for bad sectors, then the CrystalDiskInfo program will effectively help you with this.

    1. To use the program, download it, install it and run it.
    2. The program will scan your hard drive to assess its condition, errors, etc., and then give you the result.
    3. All main actions are concentrated in the “Service” tab of the main menu (in particular, if necessary, there you can set the disk rescan function).

    SSD Life Program

    The SSD Life program can also help us determine the performance and errors of the SSD. This shareware utility is written specifically for working with SSD drives, allowing you to proactively monitor declines in their performance. As in the case of CrystalDiskInfo, this program has two versions - portable (produces a report on the status of the disk immediately upon launch, without additional installation), and installation, which displays the status of the disk in real time so that the user can monitor 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 report data, use the corresponding keys below.

    SSDRready program

    SSD diagnostics can also be carried out using the SSDReady program, created specifically to monitor the condition of your SSD drive, estimate its potential operating time and other relevant statistics. It keeps track of the amount of data written and read from the disk every day, requires its permanent work in the background and is a good option for checking the SSD disk for errors and overall performance.

    DiskCheckup program

    In testing an SSD hard drive for speed and performance, we can also be helped by the DiscCheckup utility, which allows you to monitor the S.M.A.R.T attributes of an individual hard drive. As in the case of the programs described above, this application shows hard drive statistics, allowing you to track the health status of the latter. The functionality of this product is essentially no different from the programs described above.

    HDDScan program

    HDDScan is a free utility for diagnosing hard drives (RAID, Flash USB, SSDs of interest to us are also supported). This program can be a convenient and handy tool in the question “how to check an SSD for errors”; it searches for errors on the hard drive (bad blocks and sectors), supports demonstrating S.M.A.R.T attributes and changing some HDD parameters (AAM, APM, and so on) . This product can be used to regularly “test the health” of your disk and prevent its degradation; you can avoid losing the files you need by creating appropriate backups when necessary.

    Increasing the speed of an SSD hard drive 10 times [video]

    The answer to the question of how to test an SSD disk for errors and performance will be the use of a number of special diagnostic programs that I described just above. Most of them have fairly simple functionality, allowing you to monitor the status of your SSD drive in real time and, if necessary, perform additional checks. If you are the proud owner of such disks, then use the functionality of one of the described programs to regularly monitor the condition of your device, this will allow you to timely monitor its condition and protect your files from unwanted losses.

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