Delayed write errors and bad blocks on secondary internal drive

I need help troubleshooting an issue that has disabled my new computer and determining whether the problem is hardware or software, and original configuration or new boot and/or secondary drives

Background: After four months of use, my new HP Laptop 17 has been showing numerous errors on the D: drive, a 2TB SSD. The computer was upgraded, at purchase time, from 256GB C: drive and 1TB HDD drive to 2TB C: drive (NVme) and 2TB D: drive (SATA SSD). On February 16, after no changes on my part to the software, it became very laggy, and eventually the drive developed bad blocks and periodically disappeared from File Explorer and then reappeared. The supplier shipped me a new non-name 2TB drive, which immediately displayed many delayed-write errors. At the same time, the computer stopped taking a charge.

I shipped it back to the supplier, who gave me a new AC adapter and said they could see no issue with the computer but wanted to wipe my C drive. I persuaded them to ship it back with the original C: and D: drives so that if I needed to send it back to HP, it would have the original equipment.

Question 1: I'm currently testing that configuration and haven't seen any disk errors or lagging. Next, I'll put the 2TB SSD secondary drive back in the computer, re-initialize and re-format that drive, and see if it continues to fail. If it does, does this likely mean that the supplier shipped me two bad 2TB secondary drives, or that a defect on the motherboard allows it to handle an HDD drive but not the faster SDD drive?

Question 2: If the drive formats and loads files correctly, but fails again when I re-install my 2TB boot drive, how can I distinguish between a hardware issue with that drive and a Windows error without starting from scratch with Windows? It took me weeks to get everything installed, configured, and working correctly, and I'd hate to have to go through that again if there's another way of finding out.

Thanks,
David

@dbookbinder,

Hi David and welcome,
You might want to provide more specs regarding your laptop.
The motherboard model, the type of power unit and how the 2nd SSD is connected to your board.
It is possible that insufficient wattage is causing the errors but this is speculation at this time.

It's an HP Laptop 17 cn model, motherboard by HP, drive connected to the motherboard by SATA ribbon cable. Beyond that, HP's system information utility doesn't say. The system powers the temporary HDD drive I now have installed and so far, after nearly filling it with data, no errors.

The AC power adapter did stop functioning a couple of weeks after these issues started to develop, but because I keep the computer plugged in most of the time, the battery would have taken over if it was somehow failing intermittently, so this seems like an unlikely (but I guess not impossible) cause.

dbookbinder said:

The computer was upgraded, at purchase time, from 256GB C: drive and 1TB HDD drive to 2TB C: drive (NVme) and 2TB D: drive (SATA SSD)

Click to expand...

I'm assuming this upgrade was done by a third party vender. Correct? What brand/model drives did this vender install originally? Are they no name too? I'm questioning since you say he sent you a no-name drive. I would think that any reputable vender would allow the customer to choose their replacement components. I know the drive HP put in the laptop at the factory was not a no name drive.
Any of the name brand drive manufacturers have a great warranty on their products, Chinese no-name drive probably none unless the vender offers you one..

When I bought the computer, I didn't realize how easy it is to install drives in a laptop (or that you could do it without violating the warranty), and also didn't know until just now that some vendors allow you to choose the drives you want installed.

I didn't recognize the name of the initial SSD drive they installed, and all I recall is that the first letters of the manufacturer ID started with FM. The replacement is definitely a Chinese no-name drive. The vendor warranties the computer for two years, which includes problems with the HP-supplied hardware after the HP warranty expires. They are responsive, which is good, but this thing has been a time sink for the last two weeks, and I'm still not sure how to fully define where the errors are coming from. I just did a file compare on about 1TB of image files I loaded onto the stock HDD and saw some paging errors on the USB drive but not on the HDD. There were no corrupted files. So it appears that the stock HP products are okay, and the problem is either with the secondary drive or a software issue on the 2TB boot drive I have temporarily swapped out for the stock 256GB drive.

I also see that Windows update detected an updated driver for the USB drive when I checked while the drive was plugged in, so that may account for the paging errors.

Figured it out. It's the drive. The first drive lasted four months of light use, the second failed out of the box -- I suspect it's actually a fake, as it failed at precisely 111GB twice.

I'm asking for a refund of the retail price of a drive and I'll buy a Crucial, Samsung, WD or some other name brand. Weighing whether to report them. Thanks for your help.

Whenever you suspect a hardware problem on an HP, Dell, or Lenovo computer start the testing with their diagnostic scans.



It can run overnight once or in loop until error.

Yes, that's what I did, and also their UEFI scans. However, they didn't pick up the disk errors. Chkdsk /r did, and trying to copy large amounts of data to the drive and then verifying it did. The drive replacement actually seems to be a fake 2 TB drive. It bombed at precisely 111 GB twice, yet SMART showed no issues.

Please run the V2 log collector > post a share link into this thread using one drive, drop box, or google drive




There are multiple types of drive tests.

One test may display pass while another may display fail.

Thanks, I'm sure this will be useful in the future, but I have already identified the current problem: a defective or fake cheap Chinese SSD drive the supplier installed and then replaced with a second cheap Chinese drive. The first drive started to fail after four months. They replaced it with a second cheap drive that was defective (or fake) right out of the box.

I know this because I persuaded them to send me the HP-supplied boot and secondary drives and I installed them. Using a fresh Windows install on the original boot drive, I copied 1TB of data to the original secondary drive with no errors. These tests would seem to rule out a software, cable, or motherboard issue. Then I re-installed the supplier's replacement drive and it failed at exactly the same place, 111 GB (of 2TB). Multiple disk errors appeared in the log, and then the backup/restore program reported a non-existent disk.

Although it's still possible there's an issue with my original Windows installation, I can't determine that until I have a new, name-brand secondary drive, which I have requested. If there are continuing issues, I'll run the script or program you pointed me to and post it here.

If you run the log collector it will collect files which may have information on the drives.
What was of interest was whether Windows had or had not reported errors or warnings.
It 's only a 30d look back.
What type of disk errors were reported?

I saw multiple delayed-write errors in the System log, and then FreeFileSync quit at 111GB, just as Retrospect had in an earlier attempt to restore data to the drive.

I just checked today, and now the drive is no longer visible in File Explorer, Device Manager lists it as an Unknown device, and Disk Management can't initialize it. A YouTube video I watched identified exactly this scenario, where fake drive manufacturers put about 110GB of real storage in the drive and then rewrite the controllers to show the full size and no SMART errors. AIDA64 can't find it, nor can CrystalDiskInfo.

It's a dead, fake drive. Now I have to get the supplier to rebate me the cost of a new, reliable drive from Samsung, Crucial, or the equivalent. If there are problems after I put a known good drive in, I'll be back on this thread, but I don't think that will happen, based on how the computer did in my tests with the stock drives.