SSD and HDD's data read and write

[Md z]

if I want to buy a used HDD or SSD. Then How should I check the SSD/HDD so that the SSD or HDD don't die after I died 

 

[Supersonicwolfe]

On 11/2/2023 at 3:33 AM, Md z said:

if I want to buy a used HDD or SSD. Then How should I check the SSD/HDD so that the SSD or HDD don't die after I died 

 

No good way, both can just die without warning, but usually HDD will give some more warning before completely fail.

SSD also can fail when it ran out of life and locked into read-only mode.

 

I use Seatools to run SMART self test (long), and use Crystal Disk Mark  Crystal Disk Info to monitor them (can check if HDD failure warning signs and help to check SSD remaining health if no SSD tool box from the manufacturer, like WD toolbox, ADATA, Samsung Magician...)

[Ryker Robb]

11 minutes ago, Md z said:

if I want to buy a used HDD or SSD. Then How should I check the SSD/HDD so that the SSD or HDD don't die after I died 

 

There are lots of applications that you can use to check the health of ssds and hdds. My favorites are cristaldiskinfo, gsmartcontrol, and victoria. Hdtune, hdsentinel, and pc3000 disk analyser are also decent. Most manufacturers also have their own software, like wd dashboard, seatools, samsung magician, etc.

[Ryker Robb]

And if you want to get complicated, hdat2 can be fun to play around with.

[ewitte]

12 hours ago, Md z said:

if I want to buy a used HDD or SSD. Then How should I check the SSD/HDD so that the SSD or HDD don't die after I died 

 

Even if it doesn't die after you die it's no longer of us to you!

[aqarwaen29]

On 11/2/2023 at 4:39 AM, Supersonicwolfe said:

No good way, both can just die without warning, but usually HDD will give some more warning before completely fail.

SSD also can fail when it ran out of life and locked into read-only mode.

 

I use Seatools to run SMART self test (long), and use Crystal Disk Mark to monitor them (can check if HDD failure warning signs and help to check SSD remaining health if no SSD tool box from the manufacturer, like WD toolbox, ADATA, Samsung Magician...)

i wonder if there any way way read only mode?are there any tools or hacks what allow doing such thing.surely there must be way to bypass  read only mode,if someone really wanted to

[kokosnh]

@aqarwaen29
 

Well, the read only mode we are talking here is usually enabled, when catastrophic NAND failure ( or other catastrophic failure ) is detected by the SSD controller. 

Usually there is no much to do with broken SSD. You could probably force it to run, by flashing firmware etc. just for it to go in read mode again, so why bother. 

if your question is about the flag for read only ( or the switch on SD card ), then yes it can be bypassed.

 

[Supersonicwolfe]

1 hour ago, aqarwaen29 said:

i wonder if there any way way read only mode?are there any tools or hacks what allow doing such thing.surely there must be way to bypass  read only mode,if someone really wanted to

It's locked in firmware and pretty much a fail-safe mode to lock everything and so data recovery service can recover the DATA.

 

Last year or the year before, Samsung 980Pro 1TB variant saw user's SSD health decrease well before the stated TBW rating, and some entered read only mode. Samsung publicly said they can not reverse the read-only mode, but they can offer user replacement and data recovery service.

They later released a firmware fixed the problem, but the lower health % reported  by SMART are not reversible, and they said it's ok to disregard it until the health further decreases.

[Supersonicwolfe]

On 11/2/2023 at 3:33 AM, Md z said:

if I want to buy a used HDD or SSD. Then How should I check the SSD/HDD so that the SSD or HDD don't die after I died 

 

I made a mistake the software I used to check the SMART information is CrystalDiskInfo. It's free too

[aqarwaen29]

5 hours ago, Supersonicwolfe said:

It's locked in firmware and pretty much a fail-safe mode to lock everything and so data recovery service can recover the DATA.

 

Last year or the year before, Samsung 980Pro 1TB variant saw user's SSD health decrease well before the stated TBW rating, and some entered read only mode. Samsung publicly said they can not reverse the read-only mode, but they can offer user replacement and data recovery service.

They later released a firmware fixed the problem, but the lower health % reported  by SMART are not reversible, and they said it's ok to disregard it until the health further decreases.

hmm i wonder what if i skills to solder new controller into ssd.i heard controller dont need to same and only ssd memory needs match.

so what about if i had skill and i soldered any controller what has completely new firmware and still match with memories?

could that in theory remove read only mode or is it more complex?

[Supersonicwolfe]

1 hour ago, aqarwaen29 said:

hmm i wonder what if i skills to solder new controller into ssd.i heard controller dont need to same and only ssd memory needs match.

so what about if i had skill and i soldered any controller what has completely new firmware and still match with memories?

could that in theory remove read only mode or is it more complex?

First of all, it's not planned obsolescence like Ink Cartridges, NAND do have limited lifespan.

Second of all, some SSDs do not just lock into read-only mode just because rated TBW reached, rather it's more about the monitoring/failure prediction algorithm and remaining spare count (which only go down when the SSD found a known bad block)

 

Use my 2016 Samsung 850 Evo for example:

It have done 45 TB host writes, so it should be close to 60-70TBW actual NAND write. The 500GB is rated at 150TBW, so close to 50%? But no SMART reported 96% health left. This drive out lasted the 5 year warranty

 

Now, how about my 2018 ADATA S11 Pro？

It have done only 33 TBW host write, so about to 60TB actaul NAND write too. it;s rated TBD is similar to the samesung at 160TB... now it reported 66%...

 yeah. No idea why, so acted on the safe side I bought a 1TB SN850X and use it as my OS drive now.

Oh the Available Spare and Threshold is the same as the new 1TB drive that is about just a year old... so why 66%? (I assume when that reaches to 0 the drive will be locked to read only or something)

 

And following is my speculation, not necessary true:

I think not necessary it will work if you replace the controller, you can probably format it as blank drive but not recover data that easily.

Maybe controller will tell the NAND to lock themselves to read-only too...

I think it would be like HDD, because characteristics of the NAND is actually quite similar to a platter in the HDD (all NAND have dead blocks when been divided up, as well as bad blocks when it ages. controller would need to know where they are) that information is brunt into the controller, just like on a HDD the platter also have some bad sector when made and then been disabled. It's similar to HDD where you can't just swap the controller board and expect the HDD back to life, in that case, soldering chips recording where the sector info maybe necessary.

 

(I only know that you can just swap ram chips without any problem)