Should I worry about my SSD?

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sxz

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#165768 20-Feb-2015 08:57

My computer has been having a rubbish time lately. It often freezes for 60 seconds at a time or more (when it appears to have 100% disk activity). It usually comes right, but it has been much to frequent to be OK. I tried running disk checks, which would not complete. I ran the Smart disk check as part of BIOS, which resulted with 'warning' and 'failed'.

So instead of risking a failed SSD I resigned to putting back in the old hard drive and reinstalling windows so I could test the SSD. But thought, since I'm doing a fresh install, why not re-try the SSD first. So I formatted and installed the latest tech preview of Windows 10, and everything seems fine. Disk check worked perfectly. Windows 10 is awesome. Super speedy. Should I worry about my SSD? What checks should I be doing?

timmmay

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#1242799 20-Feb-2015 09:01

I had similar problems recently, they came right so I didn't worry about it. It could be it was just a messed up file table and a format has fixed it.

Personally I would just do a system image using Macrium Reflect Free (using VERIFY during and after as I find it a bit dodgy at times) and make sure critical data is backed up to a cloud solution. Acronis True Image is another option, paid. Make sure if you have local backups that they're incremental rather than mirroring so that any corruption on the main drive doesn't corrupt the backups.

sxz

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#1242849 20-Feb-2015 09:49

OK yeah that's what I was hoping. Or a rogue program doing something stupid.

I've never tried keeping a backup image of my OS drive, I figure I need it so infrequently, and I like having a clean install, so would simply prefer to start from scratch when needed. All my documents and files are kept on a separate backed up drive, so I have no real qualms with loosing my OS drive.

timmmay

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#1242850 20-Feb-2015 09:51

Drives always fail at the worst possible time - I had one fail 15 minutes before a customer arrived for a presentation once. 15 minutes isn't quite enough to restore an OS, but an hour is a lot better than a day. When you reinstall you also have to take ownership of all files on data drives, change permissions, etc, whereas with an OS image you can just keep working.

wasabi2k

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#1242880 20-Feb-2015 10:16

You appear to be an optimist - good for you. Please make sure you have backups! If this is going into a machine that you don't really care about losing at any time then go for gold.

If your SSD is reporting SMART warnings/errors then it is highly likely you are going to experience catastrophic failure soon - file systems/OS installs won't change anything there.

For the sake of $120 you can have a new 128GB SSD - why risk losing everything: http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?z=p&p=HDDCRU2126&name=Crucial-M550-128GB-SATA3-2.5-SSD--7mm--9.5mm-adapt (not affiliated with them in any way)

timmmay

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#1242927 20-Feb-2015 10:47

Incidentally I have had an SSD fail - an OWC Sandforce based one. It failed quickly - started getting flaky and failed within a few hours. OWC replaced it (took a few weeks) but I replaced it with the reportedly very reliable Samsung 840 pro. But SSDs can fail.

wasabi2k

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#1242943 20-Feb-2015 11:23

timmmay: Incidentally I have had an SSD fail - an OWC Sandforce based one. It failed quickly - started getting flaky and failed within a few hours. OWC replaced it (took a few weeks) but I replaced it with the reportedly very reliable Samsung 840 pro. But SSDs can fail.

how old was it?

SSD reliability has improved massively in the last year or two. OCZ in particular had really hit and miss reliability and the earlier Sandforce controllers could be dodgy too.

All the current gen name brand SSDs have pretty good test results as far as lifetime (with synthetic read/write testing).

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timmmay

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#1242957 20-Feb-2015 11:40

Not sure - within warranty so maybe a couple of years. I know the modern SSDs can take huge amounts of data before wearing out, some (like the 840 pro I have) can take petabyes.

wasabi2k

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#1242958 20-Feb-2015 11:46

timmmay: Not sure - within warranty so maybe a couple of years. I know the modern SSDs can take huge amounts of data before wearing out, some (like the 840 pro I have) can take petabyes.

Yeah - I assume we are reading the same report:
http://techreport.com/review/27436/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-two-freaking-petabytes/4

freitasm

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#1242962 20-Feb-2015 11:54

Note that some SSDs have trouble with Intel Link Power Management and will freeze from time to time. I had this with an old(ish) Crucial C300. This will happen if you are running with Intel AHCI drivers.

Search on how to disable Intel Link Power Management and go from there.

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sxz

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#1242996 20-Feb-2015 12:22

Cheers guys. I will do some more SMART testing on it overnight and see if it passes with this new install. I bout it in March 2013, so don't really want to buy a new one yet, (180g Intel 335). Hoping it was just a minor.

Thanks for the heads up RE Intel Link Power Management - I will try that too, and will keep a close eye on performance in the coming weeks!

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#1242997 20-Feb-2015 12:29

Even if it fails it is still under warranty you shouldn't have to buy a new one.

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timmmay

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#1274049 31-Mar-2015 10:16

The final SSDs finally died. The Samsung 840 pro wrote 2.5PB, an incredible amount of data.

sxz

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#1277325 5-Apr-2015 07:38

sxz: Cheers guys. I will do some more SMART testing on it overnight and see if it passes with this new install. I bout it in March 2013, so don't really want to buy a new one yet, (180g Intel 335). Hoping it was just a minor.

Thanks for the heads up RE Intel Link Power Management - I will try that too, and will keep a close eye on performance in the coming weeks!

I ended up formatting and installing windows 10. Works a dream. Obviously wasn't a hardware issue!

surfisup1000

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#1277327 5-Apr-2015 07:43

Did you check the system event log?

I've found that SSD's can generate this message in the event log...

Reset to raid port

This can cause the pc to freeze for a while, as you describe.

It seems to be caused by the intel rst drivers and is an erratic issue, sometimes happens on installs , sometimes not. Removing intel rst helps sometimes.

Ragnor

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#1279070 8-Apr-2015 15:03

You shouldn't worry because you have multiple backups.. right?

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TheComputerBackupRuleOfThree.aspx

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ABasicNoncloudbasedPersonalBackupStrategy.aspx

http://www.hanselman.com/blog/OnLosingDataAndAFamilyBackupStrategy.aspx