Anyone know of a way to thoroughly test an SSD drive?

cowman

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3rd time this has happened within a few months... last round was 2 weeks ago.

Using my laptop, system is running well and is stable, get a BSOD, system dies. BSOD on reboot attempt, OS install not working, recovery/repair attempts don't work, chkdsk no good, etc.

I wipe the drive, re install windows 7 and all is good for a long while until the next time. Drivers/updates/firmwares all updated to newest versions.

I'm suspecting the SSD is the problem but not sure how to test it. Anyone know a utility/method for that?
 
I'm suspecting the SSD is the problem but not sure how to test it.
Why bother? You are chasing an intermittent problem, so passing a test may not prove anything anyway.

Your tentative diagnosis makes sense to me. I'd just buy another SSD and hope that the sick one stays alive long enough to be an image donor. Unless you have something special like a 1.8" drive or a near-terabyte drive, SSDs aren't that expensive any more.
 
Even better -- is it within warranty period? Send it back and get a replacement.

Which drive?
 
Why bother? You are chasing an intermittent problem, so passing a test may not prove anything anyway.

Your tentative diagnosis makes sense to me. I'd just buy another SSD and hope that the sick one stays alive long enough to be an image donor. Unless you have something special like a 1.8" drive or a near-terabyte drive, SSDs aren't that expensive any more.

This. Pull an image with Acronis or something like that. Replace it (under warranty, if possible). It is most likely a drive issue (or the controller, which is part of the drive).
 
This gets a bit complex, but bear with me. SSDs will always have a write limit, sometimes called a write endurance, where segments or blocks will only be able to endure so many write commands before becoming useless. The architects of the write controllers for SSD design know this and allow for it by overbuilding the size of the device and leaving relocatable blocks for use later on to remap the drive when a block becomes expired. Standard drives do the same basic thing, but in this case you need to use an aftermarket util like chkdsk, or fsck in the UNIX world.

The SSD write profile is such that certain disk space gets written many, many times in the life of the device. The FAT is one example, and the areas where the pointers to fragged files is another(it goes by several names, which aren't important).

So, what tends to happen is that you will run into one of these limitations on writes, and it will be on a critical part of the SSD, such as the FAT/partition table/pointer table which is constantly being written. The only way the OS has to resolve this is to set the stack pointer for that file address to null, and allow the system to crash. The crash dump in MS will contain the location of the dead spot, and then the lower level drive manager utility will attempt to locate the bad block from the crash dump, if not from it's own internal parity checker, and will redirect the block to one of the spares. This allows you to recover, until it happens again.

I don't know how old the laptop is, or how you use it, or if the SSD is one of the newer style which are less susceptible to write endurance locks but the really simple answer may be that it's getting worn out at the FAT/partition/pointer table and will only get worse. As another poster above has said, your best bet is to image the current drive, then replace the SSD, then try to lay down the image again. Failing that, backup all your files, and replace the SSD, then use your MS recovery disk to re-install the OS, and your apps, and then your user data.

Sorry...
 
You might see if that model has a firmware update for it. For what it's worth my shop sells crucial m500 series and samsung ssd's exclusively because of better reliability. However we've found that most issues with ssd drives can be helped or corrected with updating their firmware.
 
I've updated all firmware and drivers possible to update and it didn't help.

Mushkin is the manufacturer, and yeah it's in warranty. I got an RMA set up, hopefully they don't say there's nothing wrong and send it back.
 
They probably won't even take the time to test it until it hits the refurb line. They'll just put it in the pile and send ya a refurb. The stuff is at commodity pricing levels. Their profit margin is so low there's no point in bothering with it. The tech will put it in a tester later and it'll tell them what needs replacing. Or if it's a throwaway.


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