SSD fails SMART test on bootup

[Tyrannosaur]

These last few days my main Windows SSD (Kingston HyperX) has failed the SMART test when booting up and I have to press F1 to go into Setup. Then if I just exit the system boots into Windows as normal.

Windows Check says nothing is wrong. Installed the Kingston SSD Toolbox software but it says No disks connected to system. So used Western Digital Data LifeGuard Diagnostics which shows the drive failed on Temperature.

Is it time to replace as soon as or is there more I can find out about the fault?

Thanks.

[satrow]

SMART is the drive self -reporting, it's the only real method of detecting issues - if it works at all. When it's reporting an error, trust it.

Your drive does have a problem, replace it sooner rather than later, leave it too long and all data will be completely inaccessible. Get your data copied off that drive to another (good, safe) drive now.

If your SATA drivers are 'bad', SSD Toolbox (and TRIM) won't work, blocked by the bad driver - check this by using the trial version of HD Sentinel - if it shows TRIM is enabled and active - then the driver should be 'good' and *something else* is blocking SSD Toolbox or is broken.

http://www.hdsentinel.com/

Make a screenshot of the HD Sentinel window and attach it here, please.

[Tyrannosaur]

Sorry don't have permission to post attachments.

But HDSenintel gave me this:

Performance: 100% Excellent
Health: 0% Failure Predicted

Failure Predicted - Attribute: 231 SSD Life Left
Replace hard disk immediately.
The TRIM feature of the SSD is supported and enabled for optimal performance.

It is recommended to backup immediately to prevent data loss.

Estimated Remaining LifeTime: 0 days

----------------------

So I suppose that answers any questions I had.

[chinf]

I agree it's time to check that you've got good backups, that you've tested are readable and complete.

You can try other SMART tools, and you could even boot into a live Linux image on a spare USB stick and see whether the disk utility there backs up what you've seen with the WD tool; this also sidesteps your current SATA drivers, in case there are any issues with them.

There is a very small chance that there is some sort of known issue with SMART temperature failures reported by your exact model (or even your BIOS's interpretation of your drive's temperature), in case you haven't already searched; if so, you might be lucky with a firmware or BIOS update. As you've only just started seeing this error though, it's much more likely that there is a genuine fault with your drive.

[satrow]

There are some potential issues when it comes to correctly interpreting SMART values, some values are used for different readings, as they can be OEM -dependent!:

Today all modern IDE/Serial ATA/SCSI hard disks have S.M.A.R.T. feature. It is not really a standard - so the meaning of the attributes may be different from manufacturer to manufacturer. In this article, we discuss ATA (IDE and Serial ATA) hard disks only. SCSI hard disks work differently: the failure prediction data is standard and there are strict rules about the sensors and algorithms. For example, the difference between real temperature and the result measured by the sensor should be less than +/- 3 Celsius degrees.

Many attributes are used by all manufacturers and they are used in the same (or near same) way. That's why for example it is possible to detect the temperature and the total power on time of many hard disks. Newer applications are able to detect, process and display these information.

According the S.M.A.R.T. specifications, when a problem is detected (failure predicted), the hard disk should work for at least 24 hours to perform the data backup. But in many cases this time is not enough - that's why it is important to recognize problems and prepare before it's too late.

In this specific case, there's the issue of temperature accuracy (temperature SMART #s should be standard):

#5 Temperature, sensor problems

Without using software, the user may not notice high hard disk temperature also. Both CPU and newer VGA cards have protection (emergency shutdown) against high temperatures but hard disks have no such protection. Even worse, hard disks are much more sensitive to high temperatures than any other component inside the computer case. That's why most manufacturers limit the maximum operating temperature in 50-55 Celsius degrees.

Most BIOSes have support to examine the power supply voltage, fan speeds, CPU temperature etc. But it is not possible to examine hard disk temperature from BIOS. The BIOS S.M.A.R.T. function does not alert if the hard disk temperature is too high. So it is possible that the hard disk is operating in a very hot environment.

But it is important to know that many hard disk temperature sensors are not too accurate (sometimes the difference between detected and real temperature can be 8-10 Celsius degrees or even more). It is recommended to use an external device (for example an infrared thermometer) to measure the hard disk temperature and configure the difference between the measured and displayed values (calibration). So the software then displays the correct (adjusted) temperature value (if this feature is supported).

It is also recommended to examine the temperature when the hard disk is idle and when it is operating for a longer time.

So, providing the temp. sensor readout is accurate, we can be sure that there's a real problem here - though it might be indicative of a cooling failure within the computer/notebook case that will also need checking during the drive replacement phase, otherwise the new part might also suffer the same premature end.

[Tyrannosaur]

Thanks for the info. Temperatures for the system are good I think (according to CPUID HWMonitor) CPU:27C Board:28C HDD:33C SSD:30

On starting Windows this morning Kingston SSD Toolbox decided to work and found the disk - Status: Failure Expected Soon.

Although on the SMART test details it failed on SSD Life Left and not on Temperature which it says is 18C and OK. All the others passed the test but with quite a few Pre-fails and all the others saying Old-age.

Anyway backed up the important data so ready for when it does go.