nVME SSD health and SMART warnings

TetraNitroCubane

I currently have an nVME SSD as my boot drive in my computer - It's running via PCIe, and it's been relatively stable for about a year now.

Yesterday when I was running a routine backup, the backup failed with a Cyclic Redundancy Check error. This prompted me to look deeper into the health of the drive. A standard chkdsk scan didn't reveal anything untoward at all.

However, when I dug into the S.M.A.R.T. values for the drive via Crystal Disk Info, I found that the value "media and data integrity errors" had a value of 4. This is in contrast to a non-boot nVME SSD I have that reads 0 for that value.

I gather that S.M.A.R.T. works very different for nVME drives versus standard SSD and HDD drives, but I'm uncertain if this is something I ought to be concerned about. Some advice I've received is that the nVME SSD has backup sectors to compensate for these kinds of errors, and that so long as everything is running smoothly and the number of media and data integrity errors does not increase, that I have nothing to worry about - So take no action and keep an eye on it.

I've also seen advice that these errors are the harbinger of bad times ahead, and that I should not trust the drive. Advice from these folks seems to indicate that the drive should be replaced as quickly as possible.

I'm curious if anyone has any insight as to how to best approach this issue? Is this something fairly normal that I should keep an eye on, or will delaying replacement put me into a bad situation where I risk nuking my entire boot drive? Thanks for any help.

Note: I re-ran the backup after this initially happened, and the backup processed without incident the second time through. So I do have current backups just in case the worst happens!

Shadowfire

You're doing regular backups and the drive is running fine other than a momentary hiccup. Run it into the ground. Just keep a possible replacement in the back of your mind.

BlindZenDriver

I totally agree with Shadowfire. All storage can fail catastrophically at any time, it is rare but it happens.
With a drive showing warning signs it is prudent to ensure no data on it is unrecoverable even more than normal, but other than that as long as it performs just use it - you can't fix it so the alternative is to see it as dead.

TetraNitroCubane

Thanks much for the help on this. I suppose I'll keep using the HDD for now, keeping current with backups and the knowledge that I might have to change it out at the drop of a hat.

It's irksome, though, not knowing what caused this. Makes me wonder if there's something amiss with the hard drive, or if it's with another component that will just damage a new hard drive after I replace it.

TetraNitroCubane

I hate to dredge this topic back up, but unfortunately it seems like the issue is persisting. This morning I checked my SMART stats, and found out that the number of "Media and Data Integrity Errors" had increased to 06 from 04 over the past month. It seems to be degrading.

I've called Samsung about this, and they've agreed that the unit sounds defective. I'm going to replace it under warranty as quickly as I am able.

The thing that bothers me is that the tech on the line claimed that I shouldn't restore this drive from backup or clone it, because whatever could be causing the issue would be cloned over with the data(??), which I find strange.

As this is my boot drive, I really don't have many options other than cloning it, unless I want to nuke and pave my whole system from scratch.

Would cloning indeed be a bad idea in this situation? Should I just start over from zero, or is there a way to salvage my data?

Shadowfire

Grabbing data is easy. Hook up an external drive and copy everything over. Unless you already have backups (which you should!) in which case just copy those files back over.

Installing Windows from scratch is easy, too. Download the Media Creation Tool from Microsoft and create a bootable USB. If you haven't already, sign into Windows with a Microsoft account. You'll avoid any hardware or key issues that way.

TetraNitroCubane

I do have current backups. I was just hoping to clone my data to be able to avoid the pain of reinstallation. It would be nice if I could point the failing drive to a new drive, clone the data, and then disconnect the ailing drive to replace it with the new one.

I realize this is odd, but I refuse to sign into a Microsoft account. I don't really abide by the idea that I should need some online account tied to my desktop at such a fundamental level. I realize that's stubborn, but it's the policy I keep. I do my best to strip out the telemetry of Windows and all my other programs, which is part of why going through the reinstallation process is such a pain in the caboose.

Mugsley

You can use apps to dredge up your Windows license, so you have it. Honestly, it's probably the same speed to install fresh Win10, and then copy over your backups; as to clone the old drive. The only overhead is disabling the telemetry; which isn't overly time consuming (20 mins or so?).

spool32

Definitely not the same speed to clone the old drive as it is to reinstall.

Samsung makes the best dad cloning tool and it's free, get theirs and use it. I've never heard of being able to clone the errors as the tech suggested, that sounds like nonsense. Worst case, errors persist in new drive and you have to reinstall anyway but I'm quite sure they won't.

spool32

Also, you are being stubborn about signing into MS

TetraNitroCubane

I am being stubborn!

But that doesn't mean I don't appreciate the advice here :heartbeat: Thank you all.

New drive should be arriving in the mail tomorrow, and my backups are current, so I'm going to take a long think and then hopefully address this issue very shortly. I'm beginning to worry that the drive failing may be a thermal issue, so I'll be looking into that before I replace it. When I do, I'll weigh the options carefully for sure.

Hevach

spool32 wrote: »

Definitely not the same speed to clone the old drive as it is to reinstall.

Samsung makes the best dad cloning tool and it's free, get theirs and use it. I've never heard of being able to clone the errors as the tech suggested, that sounds like nonsense. Worst case, errors persist in new drive and you have to reinstall anyway but I'm quite sure they won't.

Yeah, sounds like the support guy went off script without knowing enough about what the script is saying to get it right.

Bad files will clone bad, but won't magically start generating disk level errors like this. Basically, the operating system cares about the text on the page, the disk doesn't give a shit as long as its printed on good paper.

Mugsley

I'm assuming you're going down this road already, but if you think the errors are thermal related, heatsinks for NVMe drives are relatively cheap to add on