Intel SSD X-25M problem?

[rory]

Hello, I am new if I posted in the wrong section, my apologies

I have an Intel SSD X25M and yesterday I notice this with HDtune Pro. I run a full diagnostic scan with Intel SSD Toolbox, everything was fine..

Should I start to worry??


The SSD has the latest firmware.

Thx!!

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[poehere]

Bad sectors are normal on a HDD and the drive has marked them as bad and not to be used again. This might be from time it took to read the sector exceeded the time the threshold has on them. If you get more bad sectors on the drive then it could be a problem. Right now 2 is not such a big deal but if there is more this would be worth being concerned about. All drives leave the factory with bad sectors but they are marked and stored in the Plist so they are not used when you get this drive. The other bad sectors the drive encounters during useage are stored in the Glist.

[positivebit]

from what i know, SSD drives need proper software tools for bad sectors diagnostic.
In the past i faced a similar situation with an intel,
than i zero-filled the SSD, repeat the test and it was fine.

[rory]

In fact that screenshot from HD tune is the smart details...The same numbers appear in the smart details from intel's ssd toolbox.

By zero-fill do you mean secure erase, with intel's ssd toolbox? Right now it is difficult, to format and reinstall from scratch

Should I send the ssd for service? At what value this reallocated sector count starts becoming dangerous?

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[Vulcan]

In fact that screenshot from HD tune is the smart details...The same numbers appear in the smart details from intel's ssd toolbox.

IMHO HDTune is saying "warning" incorrectly, as if this was a hard disk instead of an SSD (and it isn't decoding the meaning of all the attributes correctly for this SSD). Increasing reallocations are expected with SSDs that are being written to - you can use your favourite search engine to research NAND flash wearout.

I don't use that specific SSD, but I think that's the one which Intel expect to have a lifetime of 20GB writes/day for 5 years i.e. 20GB x 365 x 5 = approx 35.6 TiB. If I'm correct, then considering that your drive has written 3.8TiB (I think they mean TiB not TB on that Intel screenshot, based on the raw SMART value from HDTune and my quick calculation), it has used approx 10.7% of its expected write lifetime, so a few bad blocks are not unexpected by now, in my experience with other MLC SSDs.

Should I send the ssd for service?

I wouldn't waste your time or money sending it back to the supplier - I don't see anything unusual, and I would expect your supplier to just return it to you, with an invoice for doing their testing. However, as always, you cannot rely on SMART to always predict failure. You still need to have backups. I would just use whatever tool Intel provide / recommend, for checking the drive health.

At what value this reallocated sector count starts becoming dangerous?

When the Intel utility tells you. IIRC, SMART attributes 0xE8 & 0xE9 are much more useful in showing the wearout (although it's not necessarily a linear process as the number of writes increase, in my experience).

[positivebit]

By zero-fill do you mean secure erase, with intel's ssd toolbox? Right now it is difficult, to format and reinstall from scratch

1) clone your intel into another drive or create an image and save in a partitin of another drive, if you don't want to reinstall from scratch
2) zero-fill with any software can write a pattern such as "00" in all drive
3) test the drive again and report here please

ciao!

[guru]

@vulcan

In fact that screenshot from HD tune is the smart details...The same numbers appear in the smart details from intel's ssd toolbox.

IMHO HDTune is saying "warning" incorrectly, as if this was a hard disk instead of an SSD (and it isn't decoding the meaning of all the attributes correctly for this SSD). Increasing reallocations are expected with SSDs that are being written to - you can use your favourite search engine to research NAND flash wearout.

I don't use that specific SSD, but I think that's the one which Intel expect to have a lifetime of 20GB writes/day for 5 years i.e. 20GB x 365 x 5 = approx 35.6 TiB. If I'm correct, then considering that your drive has written 3.8TiB (I think they mean TiB not TB on that Intel screenshot, based on the raw SMART value from HDTune and my quick calculation), it has used approx 10.7% of its expected write lifetime, so a few bad blocks are not unexpected by now, in my experience with other MLC SSDs.

Should I send the ssd for service?

I wouldn't waste your time or money sending it back to the supplier - I don't see anything unusual, and I would expect your supplier to just return it to you, with an invoice for doing their testing. However, as always, you cannot rely on SMART to always predict failure. You still need to have backups. I would just use whatever tool Intel provide / recommend, for checking the drive health.

At what value this reallocated sector count starts becoming dangerous?

When the Intel utility tells you. IIRC, SMART attributes 0xE8 & 0xE9 are much more useful in showing the wearout (although it's not necessarily a linear process as the number of writes increase, in my experience).

[rory]

Thx guys for your responses!! Estimated time remaining and Drive Health are both at a 100%, so I guess for the time being, I'll keep monitoring the ssd..

maybe I will perform a secure erase, If that happens I will report back here!

[Vulcan]

@rory:

Estimated time remaining and Drive Health are both at a 100%

According to which software?

so I guess for the time being, I'll keep monitoring the ssd..

Monitoring storage is always a good idea, but note my earlier warning above about using SMART information.

@guru:

[rory]

According to which software?

Intel SSD Toolbox http://downloadcenter.intel.com/Detail_ ... ldID=18455

Monitoring storage is always a good idea, but note my earlier warning above about using SMART information.

Yeah I mean, monitoring the ssd with the software plus the SMART info and have a back standing by.. I have created a whole back up for my system.

[rory]

@rory:

Estimated time remaining and Drive Health are both at a 100%

According to which software?

so I guess for the time being, I'll keep monitoring the ssd..

Monitoring storage is always a good idea, but note my earlier warning above about using SMART information.

@guru:

According to Intel SSD Toolbox.

[Vulcan]

@rory:

According to Intel SSD Toolbox.

Thanks for confirming - I just wanted to make sure you were not using any "health estimate" from HD Tune.