Solved Crystal Disk Info questions about Health Status


Haydon

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SSDs get “Good” “99%” for example

My HDD gets “Good”
but no % > Why?
Crystal Disk Info reports “Caution” if it detects the raw value over the threshold value (Health Status Setting) > what does the following screenshot say about my HDD?
[05] [C5] [C6] are as in the screenshot, [FF] Life is not listed at all, is that a cause for concern?

Capture.JPG

 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro
Part of the problem with interpreting S.M.A.R.T table data is that different manufacturers will expose different values to be read from disk to disk revision and from firmware to firmware revision. For example here is the table from one of my Sandisk SSDs:
Screenshot 2023-03-04 084519.png

As you can see I have different identifiers for categories than you and even the category names are not the same, 'Reallocated Sectors Count' vs 'Reassigned Block Count', there is no C6 entry at all, or it is not exposed.

Then there is interpreting the actual results listed for each category, you can change to decimal view in the Theme, Advanced menu.
Take the Available reserve space value 100, 100, 4, 100 so this means what? Current and worst both 100 so static, threashold is 4, does that mean when the count, in 'Raw Values', gets down to 4 it is time to swap out the disk? And what is the value of 4, is it 4%, 4GB, 4 Blocks......

The entry for Maximum Bad Blocks per die, according to my results the threshold has been exceeded by 28, 28 what? And is that per die or only one die? But the disk reports as good condition, 99% life left.
My NVME drives show even less items on the table with again different terms and value identifiers.

S.M.A.R.T data is only a very rough guess at the condition of a disk as it is inialised by the BIOS at startup, in an effort to predict failure, as an early warning system it might show results you can interpret as impending doom (basically if things like uncorrectable sectors is high and grows rapidly) but a disk can fail for many other reasons, not all of which are exposed in the table as readable values.

If the app, and other apps, don't just rely on one, says the disk is in good condition, caution or dying then that is a result of the app creator interpreting the values they chose to read and are available to read to determine the disk's health, nothing more.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro 22H2, build: 22621.521
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Scan 3XS Custom 1700
    CPU
    Intel i7-12700K 3.6GHz Base (5.0GHz Turbo)
    Motherboard
    Asus ProArt Creator B660 D4
    Memory
    64GB DDR 3600Mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus Tuff RTX 3080 10GB OC
    Sound Card
    Onboard Realtek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Gigabyte G32QC 32inch 16:9 curved @2560 x 1440p 165Hz Freesync Premium Pro/ Dell SE2422H 24inch 16:9 1920 x 1080p 75Hz Freesync
    Screen Resolution
    2560 x 1440p & 1920 x 1080p
    Hard Drives
    WD SN570 1TB NVME (Boot), Samsung 870QVO 1TB (SSD), SanDisk 3D Ultra 500Gb (SSD) x2, Seagate 3Tb Expansion Desk (Ext HDD), 2x Toshiba 1Tb P300 (Ext HDD)
    PSU
    Corsair RM1000X Modular
    Case
    Corsair 4000D Airflow Desktop
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H150i RGB Pro XT 360mm Liquid Cooler, 3 x 120mm fans, 1x Exhaust
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Ergonomic
    Mouse
    Logitech G402
    Internet Speed
    800Mbs
    Browser
    Edge Chromium
    Antivirus
    Defender, Malwarebytes
The % figure for SSDs is how much you have of the nominal vendor writes left. The nominal figure is the minimum number of writes a vendor guarantees the drive will have. In reality, you will get a lot more - the low figure is a scam really to avoid warranty payouts. The % use is pretty meaningless really.

HDD vendors do not provide any nominal figure for number of writes, so you cannot estimate a percentage.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro + others in VHDs
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Vivobook 14
    CPU
    I7
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    N/A
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Optane NVME SSD, 1 TB NVME SSD
    PSU
    Yep, got one
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wired
    Internet Speed
    72 Mb/s :-(
    Browser
    Edge mostly
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0
Thanks for the comments, folks! I think, I just want to know what 'good' means for my HDD. It's 8 years old, still silent, nor are there any other aging symptoms.

Can I trust that the W10 OS gives me, say 1 week notice to buy a replacement SSD?

I sense a 'no guarantees in life' reaction, but what are the odds?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro
SSDs tend to suddenly go read only when the firmware detects an unaceptable number of block erase/ write errors/ retry operations based on the manufacturers determination and the NAND producers estimates. Although a catastrophic controller failure can cause the SSD to not be accessable at all.
The most obvious sign might be an extreme slowdown of the SSD even though there is plenty of free space, but this can be due to Windows (Explorer) issues as well.
Traditional HHDs will typically give advanced warnings, trouble reading/ writing, excessive noise etc.
There are no guarantees as you said, any hardware can suddenly fail with no warning.
The S.M.A.R.T values can be taken as a rough guide to the health of the SSD/ HDD.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 11 Pro 22H2, build: 22621.521
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Scan 3XS Custom 1700
    CPU
    Intel i7-12700K 3.6GHz Base (5.0GHz Turbo)
    Motherboard
    Asus ProArt Creator B660 D4
    Memory
    64GB DDR 3600Mhz
    Graphics Card(s)
    Asus Tuff RTX 3080 10GB OC
    Sound Card
    Onboard Realtek
    Monitor(s) Displays
    Gigabyte G32QC 32inch 16:9 curved @2560 x 1440p 165Hz Freesync Premium Pro/ Dell SE2422H 24inch 16:9 1920 x 1080p 75Hz Freesync
    Screen Resolution
    2560 x 1440p & 1920 x 1080p
    Hard Drives
    WD SN570 1TB NVME (Boot), Samsung 870QVO 1TB (SSD), SanDisk 3D Ultra 500Gb (SSD) x2, Seagate 3Tb Expansion Desk (Ext HDD), 2x Toshiba 1Tb P300 (Ext HDD)
    PSU
    Corsair RM1000X Modular
    Case
    Corsair 4000D Airflow Desktop
    Cooling
    Corsair Hydro H150i RGB Pro XT 360mm Liquid Cooler, 3 x 120mm fans, 1x Exhaust
    Keyboard
    Microsoft Ergonomic
    Mouse
    Logitech G402
    Internet Speed
    800Mbs
    Browser
    Edge Chromium
    Antivirus
    Defender, Malwarebytes
Thanks for the comments, folks! I think, I just want to know what 'good' means for my HDD. It's 8 years old, still silent, nor are there any other aging symptoms.

Can I trust that the W10 OS gives me, say 1 week notice to buy a replacement SSD?

I sense a 'no guarantees in life' reaction, but what are the odds?
Even if you got to zero on percent of guaranteed life left, it does not mean the drive will fail. In fact the parameter can % used can go up to 256% at which point it gives up counting.

All the other parameters do not help that much either. They are all related to writing efficiency, but they do not monitor interface electronics for example. In fact an SSD is more likely to fail from a hardware interface component failure rather than the drive being worn out from a writing point of view.

A hardware type of failure can happen at any time with usual statistical pattern that rate of failure increases as drive get older BUT it can happen on new devices as well (bad luck). Even new cars breakdown.

At best information will tell you condition may be deteriorating but you cannot extrapolate from that any timescale. All you can do is prepare for the day of failure in the usual way e.g. regular image backups.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro + others in VHDs
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Vivobook 14
    CPU
    I7
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    N/A
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Optane NVME SSD, 1 TB NVME SSD
    PSU
    Yep, got one
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wired
    Internet Speed
    72 Mb/s :-(
    Browser
    Edge mostly
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0
I think, I just want to know what 'good' means for my HDD. It's 8 years old, still silent, nor are there any other aging symptoms.

Can I trust that the W10 OS gives me, say 1 week notice to buy a replacement SSD?

I sense a 'no guarantees in life' reaction, but what are the odds?
For an HDD 'good' means none of the indicators for potential failure are present, in particular the raw values for Reallocated Sector Count and Pending Sector Count are both zero.

There are no guarantees of course, but HDD troubles usually start off gradually. When Reallocated Sector Count starts to grow it's a good time for a replacement SSD, you usually have enough time to get your data off the HDD before it fails. I've had to do that just the once.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Home
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire 3 A315-23
    CPU
    AMD Athlon Silver 3050U
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon Graphics
    Monitor(s) Displays
    laptop screen
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768 native resolution, up to 2560x1440 with Radeon Virtual Super Resolution
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung EVO 870 SSD
    Internet Speed
    50 Mbps
    Browser
    Edge, Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    fully 'Windows 11 ready' laptop. Windows 10 C: partition migrated from my old unsupported 'main machine' then upgraded to 11. A test migration ran Insider builds for 2 months. When 11 was released on 5th October it was re-imaged back to 10 and was offered the upgrade in Windows Update on 20th October. Windows Update offered the 22H2 Feature Update on 20th September 2022. It got the 23H2 Feature Update on 4th November 2023 through Windows Update.

    My SYSTEM THREE is a Dell Latitude 5410, i7-10610U, 32GB RAM, 512GB ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro (and all my Hyper-V VMs).

    My SYSTEM FOUR is a 2-in-1 convertible Lenovo Yoga 11e 20DA, Celeron N2930, 4GB RAM, 256GB ssd. Unsupported device: currently running Win10 Pro, plus Win11 Pro RTM and Insider Beta as native boot vhdx.

    My SYSTEM FIVE is a Dell Latitude 3190 2-in-1, Pentium Silver N5030, 4GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro, plus the Insider Beta, Dev, and Canary builds as a native boot .vhdx.
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Lattitude E4310
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i5-520M
    Motherboard
    0T6M8G
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics card(s)
    (integrated graphics) Intel HD Graphics
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    500GB Crucial MX500 SSD
    Browser
    Firefox, Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    unsupported machine: Legacy bios, MBR, TPM 1.2, upgraded from W10 to W11 using W10/W11 hybrid install media workaround. In-place upgrade to 22H2 using ISO and a workaround. Feature Update to 23H2 by manually installing the Enablement Package.

    My SYSTEM THREE is a Dell Latitude 5410, i7-10610U, 32GB RAM, 512GB ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro (and all my Hyper-V VMs).

    My SYSTEM FOUR is a 2-in-1 convertible Lenovo Yoga 11e 20DA, Celeron N2930, 4GB RAM, 256GB ssd. Unsupported device: currently running Win10 Pro, plus Win11 Pro RTM and Insider Beta as native boot vhdx.

    My SYSTEM FIVE is a Dell Latitude 3190 2-in-1, Pentium Silver N5030, 4GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro, plus the Insider Beta, Dev, and Canary builds as a native boot .vhdx.
Thanks again for the comments, folks (y)

Looks like I shall install a phone app for measuring dB loudness of my HDD, just kidding!

I will mark this thread solved, no kidding!
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro
For an HDD 'good' means none of the indicators for potential failure are present, in particular the raw values for Reallocated Sector Count and Pending Sector Count are both zero.

There are no guarantees of course, but HDD troubles usually start off gradually. When Reallocated Sector Count starts to grow it's a good time for a replacement SSD, you usually have enough time to get your data off the HDD before it fails. I've had to do that just the once.
Do you mean replacement HDD or do you mean a replacement drive and recommend an SSD?
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro + others in VHDs
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    ASUS Vivobook 14
    CPU
    I7
    Motherboard
    Yep, Laptop has one.
    Memory
    16 GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Integrated Intel Iris XE
    Sound Card
    Realtek built in
    Monitor(s) Displays
    N/A
    Screen Resolution
    1920x1080
    Hard Drives
    1 TB Optane NVME SSD, 1 TB NVME SSD
    PSU
    Yep, got one
    Case
    Yep, got one
    Cooling
    Stella Artois
    Keyboard
    Built in
    Mouse
    Bluetooth , wired
    Internet Speed
    72 Mb/s :-(
    Browser
    Edge mostly
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    TPM 2.0
What I meant and Bree quoted was what I paid for the HDD 8 years ago will nowadays get me an SSD :-)
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 10 Pro
Do you mean replacement HDD or do you mean a replacement drive and recommend an SSD?
I'd always recommend replacing any HDD that fails with an SSD, that's what I did when my HDD started to die.
 

My Computers

System One System Two

  • OS
    Windows 11 Home
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Acer Aspire 3 A315-23
    CPU
    AMD Athlon Silver 3050U
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics Card(s)
    Radeon Graphics
    Monitor(s) Displays
    laptop screen
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768 native resolution, up to 2560x1440 with Radeon Virtual Super Resolution
    Hard Drives
    1TB Samsung EVO 870 SSD
    Internet Speed
    50 Mbps
    Browser
    Edge, Firefox
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    fully 'Windows 11 ready' laptop. Windows 10 C: partition migrated from my old unsupported 'main machine' then upgraded to 11. A test migration ran Insider builds for 2 months. When 11 was released on 5th October it was re-imaged back to 10 and was offered the upgrade in Windows Update on 20th October. Windows Update offered the 22H2 Feature Update on 20th September 2022. It got the 23H2 Feature Update on 4th November 2023 through Windows Update.

    My SYSTEM THREE is a Dell Latitude 5410, i7-10610U, 32GB RAM, 512GB ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro (and all my Hyper-V VMs).

    My SYSTEM FOUR is a 2-in-1 convertible Lenovo Yoga 11e 20DA, Celeron N2930, 4GB RAM, 256GB ssd. Unsupported device: currently running Win10 Pro, plus Win11 Pro RTM and Insider Beta as native boot vhdx.

    My SYSTEM FIVE is a Dell Latitude 3190 2-in-1, Pentium Silver N5030, 4GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro, plus the Insider Beta, Dev, and Canary builds as a native boot .vhdx.
  • Operating System
    Windows 11 Pro
    Computer type
    Laptop
    Manufacturer/Model
    Dell Lattitude E4310
    CPU
    Intel® Core™ i5-520M
    Motherboard
    0T6M8G
    Memory
    8GB
    Graphics card(s)
    (integrated graphics) Intel HD Graphics
    Screen Resolution
    1366x768
    Hard Drives
    500GB Crucial MX500 SSD
    Browser
    Firefox, Edge
    Antivirus
    Defender
    Other Info
    unsupported machine: Legacy bios, MBR, TPM 1.2, upgraded from W10 to W11 using W10/W11 hybrid install media workaround. In-place upgrade to 22H2 using ISO and a workaround. Feature Update to 23H2 by manually installing the Enablement Package.

    My SYSTEM THREE is a Dell Latitude 5410, i7-10610U, 32GB RAM, 512GB ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro (and all my Hyper-V VMs).

    My SYSTEM FOUR is a 2-in-1 convertible Lenovo Yoga 11e 20DA, Celeron N2930, 4GB RAM, 256GB ssd. Unsupported device: currently running Win10 Pro, plus Win11 Pro RTM and Insider Beta as native boot vhdx.

    My SYSTEM FIVE is a Dell Latitude 3190 2-in-1, Pentium Silver N5030, 4GB RAM, 512GB NVMe ssd, supported device running Windows 11 Pro, plus the Insider Beta, Dev, and Canary builds as a native boot .vhdx.

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