The reliability of hard drives and SSDs is far from ideal - sooner or later they fail, which can lead to serious problems, including complete loss of the data stored on them. Of course, in most cases, information (in whole or in part) on apparently “dead” hard drives can be restored, but you will have to turn to professionals (since you need special equipment and appropriate technical training), and solving this problem will cost a very large sum. Therefore, it is better to try to prevent such situations from occurring.

In this regard, the most reliable thing is to regularly back up information. However, even with a scrupulous approach to the backup task, you may not have time to copy important information, because disk failure “according to the law of meanness” always occurs unexpectedly. At the same time, you can avoid the danger of data loss if you monitor the status of your hard drive using a specialized S.M.A.R.T. monitoring utility. We will look at several such programs in this article.

S.M.A.R.T. monitoring in a nutshell

Today, all modern HDDs and even solid-state drives (SSDs) support disk self-diagnosis technology - S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring Analysis and Reporting Technology), which was specially designed for timely detection of impending drive failure. This technology is based on continuous monitoring of readings from special sensors. These sensors display the current values ​​of S.M.A.R.T. parameters, each of which shows the state of a certain vital part of the hard drive (number of read or write errors, temperature, disk operating time, performance, information retrieval speed, etc.). Parameter values ​​during normal disk operation may vary in certain intervals. Moreover, for any parameter, the manufacturer has defined a certain threshold value - the minimum safe value that cannot be exceeded under normal operating conditions.

S.M.A.R.T. monitoring utilities regularly scan hard drives, extract S.M.A.R.T. information from sensors and thermal sensors (temperature sensors that all modern hard drives are equipped with), analyze it and monitor changes in the state of all attributes. When critical changes are detected that indicate a significant drop in disk reliability, the programs inform the user that storing data on the hard disk has become unsafe. According to a number of developers, this happens no later than a day or two before the hard drive fails, which provides the user with some reserve time during which they can make copies of all information, and maybe even replace the hard drive. It is worth noting that all S.M.A.R.T. monitoring utilities work in the background, require a minimum of hardware resources, and therefore their operation will not be burdensome for the user and will not in any way interfere with the main work process.

Unfortunately, the use of such monitoring utilities is not a panacea, since they cannot always predict drive failure. The reason for this state of affairs lies in the fact that hard drives are made up of electronic and mechanical components. Wear of mechanical parts occurs gradually, and this is a controlled process, thanks to which utilities, as a rule, successfully predict disk failure due to the fault of “mechanics”. Failure of electronic components most often occurs completely unexpectedly and is therefore practically unpredictable. However, according to Seagate statistics, about 60% of hard drive failures are due to the fault of the mechanical components of the drive. This means that you should never ignore the S.M.A.R.T. disk diagnostic system.

S.M.A.R.T. disk monitoring programs

There are quite a large number of utilities on the market that provide disk monitoring by monitoring S.M.A.R.T. parameters. and temperature. Some utilities are limited to reading and displaying them, others interpret the received values ​​and issue their own verdict on the state of the disk in the form of a certain conditional percentage of its health, sometimes also with recommendations to the user on what should be done in a given situation.

All known S.M.A.R.T. monitoring programs, as a rule, recognize and scan internal hard drives without problems. With external drives, the situation is more complicated - not all utilities can fully work with such devices (even with officially declared support for this type of drive by the developer) - see table. Moreover, most developers are generally silent about which specific external drives are supported in their products (including paid ones). In addition, even if the selected utility recognizes a specific external drive, it is not at all a fact that the program will be able to determine the “health” state of the disk, since not all USB hard drive controllers support S.M.A.R.T commands. As for SSD drives, their recognition along with diagnostics, as a rule, does not cause any special problems - however, provided that the utility you like has support for solid-state drives.

Hard Disk Sentinel 4.0

Developer: H.D.S. Hungary

Distribution size: 12.3 MB

Work under control: Windows (all versions)

Distribution method: http://www.hdsentinel.com/download.php)

Price: Standard - $23; Professional - $35

Hard Disk Sentinel is a recognized solution for S.M.A.R.T. monitoring of the health of hard drives (internal and external) and solid-state drives. The program is presented in several commercial editions; For a wide range of users, the basic Standard and extended Professional editions, as well as the portable Portable edition for laptops, are of interest. The main difference between the professional edition and the Standard edition is the presence of functionality for backing up data (periodically or in case of problems with the disk). There is also a free DOS edition that allows you to control temperature and S.M.A.R.T. attributes. IDE/SATA hard drives connected directly or through external controllers.

The program monitors S.M.A.R.T attributes. and temperature, scanning hard drives automatically after a specified number of minutes and on demand, and displays on the “Overview” tab the level of performance and “health” of the selected drive with a description of its current state and a listing of problems that arose during operation (Fig. 1). Additionally, this tab shows the total operating time of the disk and an approximate estimate of its remaining life, as well as the temperature of all monitored disks, their capacity and the amount of free space. You can also get more detailed information about temperatures (Temperature tab), for example, see the dynamics of changes in average and maximum temperatures. In addition, a short verdict on the status of the disk is displayed in the system tray (Fig. 2) and on the disk icons in Explorer.

Rice. 1. Review of disks in Hard Disk Sentinel

Rice. 2. Brief information
about the disk status in the tray
(Hard Disk Sentinel)

As for the values ​​of S.M.A.R.T. parameters, comprehensive information is also provided on them (the “S.M.A.R.T.” tab) - this makes it easy to track changes that have taken place (Fig. 3). If you wish, you can even do an online comparison of S.M.A.R.T values. selected disk with the values ​​of disks of the same model. All information obtained during monitoring can be easily saved in the form of a text or HTML report and, if necessary, sent to the specified email address. If a problem is detected or the temperature is exceeded, the program can warn the user with a sound signal or message and immediately (with appropriate settings) start the data backup process.

Rice. 3. Monitoring S.M.A.R.T. parameters in Hard Disk Sentinel

Additionally, the utility shows detailed information about hard drives (manufacturer, model, serial number, etc.) and measures data transfer speed in real time. In addition, it can be used to test the disk for performance (disk head connection test, disk surface test, etc.).

Hard Drive Inspector 3.96

Developer: AltrixSoft

Distribution size: 2.64 MB

Work under control: Windows 2000/XP/2003 Server/Vista

Distribution method: http://www.altrixsoft.com/ru/download/)

Price: 600 rub.

Hard Drive Inspector is a convenient solution for S.M.A.R.T. monitoring of external and internal hard drives, as well as SSDs. The program is presented in several editions: the Professional edition is positioned as a tool for monitoring hard drives, and the SSD edition is designed to work with solid-state drives. The program supports two operating modes - simplified and advanced. The simplified mode, which is aimed at beginners, displays only the most important information about the current state of the disks. The advanced mode provides access to a wide range of technical data, after analyzing which professionals can get a more detailed understanding of the condition of the disks.

S.M.A.R.T. attributes are checked automatically at specified intervals. During the analysis of all vital parameters of the disk, the values ​​of conditional indicators of its condition are calculated: “reliability”, “performance” and “no errors”, which are displayed on the “Basic information” tab along with the numerical temperature value and temperature diagram (Fig. 4) . This information is accompanied by technical data about the drive model, capacity, total free space and operating time in hours (days). In the advanced mode, comprehensive information about disk parameters is additionally provided (buffer size, firmware name, list of supported data transfer modes, etc.), and the values ​​of S.M.A.R.T. parameters with flags are displayed (Fig. 5). In case of critical changes in S.M.A.R.T. parameters, the program can (after appropriate settings) inform the user about this in a variety of ways - by displaying a message on the screen, sounding a sound signal, sending a message to the specified email address, etc. It is even possible to launch some third-party program, which allows you to carry out urgent actions to save data immediately after detecting a danger (for example, start a data backup procedure).

Rice. 4. Basic information about the current disk status in Hard Drive Inspector

Rice. 5. S.M.A.R.T. attributes “detailed” in Hard Drive Inspector

In addition, the utility can be used to automatically control the noise produced by hard drives (allows you to reduce noise levels at the expense of a slight drop in performance), and improved power management (reduces the power consumption of the hard drive - also at the cost of a slight drop in performance).

ActiveSMART 2.92

Developer: Ariolic Software, Ltd

Distribution size: 5.12 MB

Work under control: Windows 2000/XP/Server 2003/Server 2008/Vista/7

Distribution method: shareware (30-day demo version - http://www.ariolic.com/ru/download.html)

Price:$24.95, for Russian users - 650 rubles.

Active SMART is a program for monitoring hard drives by monitoring S.M.A.R.T. parameters. and temperature. The utility automatically checks the disk status when the system boots, carries out continuous monitoring at a specified time interval, and can quickly scan disks on demand (relevant on low-power PCs). The status of the monitored disk is shown in the tray, and the data obtained during the analysis is displayed in the form of a summary table (Fig. 6) and detailed reports for each of the monitored S.M.A.R.T. parameters (indicating values, threshold, T.E.C. date and a graph of attribute value changes) - Fig. . 7. To analyze the situation, a real-time graph of disk temperature changes and an event log are also provided, which records the entire history of S.M.A.R.T. events on the disk. Support is provided for various types of alerts (pop-up message, sound signal, letter to a specified email address and network message) when critical events occur on monitored devices (including individual S.M.A.R.T. attributes).

Rice. 6. Summary of disk status in Active SMART

Rice. 7. Values ​​of S.M.A.R.T. attributes
with a graph of changes in the selected attribute (Active SMART)

Additionally, the program provides general information about the hard drive (model, capacity, serial number, a list of all available disk partitions indicating the remaining free space on each of them, supported and enabled disk transfer modes, etc.) and allows you to find out what types of data the disk is filled with.

HDDlife 4.0

Developer: BinarySense Ltd

Distribution size: 6.68 MB

Work under control: Windows 2K/XP/2003/Vista/7

Distribution method: shareware (14-day demo version - http://hddlife.com/files/v4/HDDlifeRus%204.0.183.msi)

Price: HDDLife - free; HDDLife Pro - 20 euros (for Russian users - 300 rubles)

HDDLife is an easy-to-use utility designed to monitor the status of hard drives and SSDs (from version 4.0) in an intuitive way. The program continuously monitors S.M.A.R.T. parameters. for all disks installed in the system and, based on the analysis results, issues its own conclusion about the condition of the disk in the form of a certain conditional percentage of its health (Fig. 8). This approach is ideal for beginners, for whom specific S.M.A.R.T. values ​​will most likely not mean anything, but the percentage of “health” will allow them to navigate the situation. There are several ways to get an idea of ​​the health of your disks. So, just by the appearance of the indicator in the system tray and the disk icons in Explorer, you can immediately see how “healthy” the controlled disk is. In addition, more detailed data on the device status is available through the main window of the utility. In case of critical situations (decrease in the level of “health” to critical, reaching a critical temperature, etc.), an alert system is provided. Such an alert can be a hint message in the system tray, a sound signal, or a text message sent over a computer network or by email.

Rice. 8. Verdict on the state of the “health” of the disk,
issued by HDDlife Pro

Additionally, the utility displays the level of performance of the hard drive, and also shows data on the operating temperature of the device, its capacity, the amount of free space and the time spent by the disk.

CrystalDiskInfo 4.3.0

Developer: Hiyohiyo

Distribution size: 1.42 MB

Work under control: Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/2008/7

Distribution method: freeware (http://crystalmark.info/download/index-e.html)

Price: for free

CrystalDiskInfo is a simple tool for S.M.A.R.T. monitoring of the health of hard drives (including many external HDDs) and SSDs. The program has a compact distribution, is free and has all the necessary functionality for organizing disk monitoring.

Disks are scanned automatically after a specified number of minutes or on demand. The temperatures of monitored devices are displayed in the notification area (the corresponding option must be enabled), and detailed information about the drives installed in the computer, including the values ​​of basic S.M.A.R.T. parameters, temperature and the program’s verdict on the state of the devices, is in the main window of the utility (Fig. 9). In addition, on the graph you can see how certain parameter values ​​have changed over time. Some parameters have functionality for setting threshold values ​​and sending email notifications if the parameter exceeds the set threshold.

Rice. 9. Disk monitoring in CrystalDiskInfo

Additionally, the program includes tools for automatic disk noise management (AAM) and advanced power management (APM).

Acronis Drive Monitor 1.0

Developer: Acronis, Inc.

Distribution size: 18 MB

Work under control: Windows XP(SP2+)/Vista/7/2003(SP2)/Server 2008

Distribution method: freeware (http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/drive-monitor/)

Price: for free

Acronis Drive Monitor is a utility for monitoring the “health status” and temperatures of hard drives (including external drives) and SSDs through the S.M.A.R.T self-diagnosis system. The program is free, has minimal functionality for organizing disk monitoring and is able to integrate with Acronis backup products, but it has a very cumbersome distribution and does not have Russian localization.

The utility scans disks independently according to a schedule preset by the developers (monitoring of individual disks can be canceled) and displays the resulting information on the Disks tab (Fig. 10). The minimum data is the level of “health” of the disk in percentage (Health), an indicator of the number of days of operation (Power On Time) and temperature (Disc temperature; critical temperature values ​​are specified in the settings). Theoretically, data about the situation is also displayed in the system tray, but its information content is very doubtful (there is no list of disks, data on their temperatures and “health” level). Information regarding S.M.A.R.T. parameter values presented in traditional text form; no graphs (in particular, temperature graphs) are provided. For monitored disks, a log of critical events is kept and recorded in the log. If problems are detected, the utility informs the user about this (by displaying a text message on the screen or sending it by email) and can automatically create a data backup task. The latter is implemented only if one of the corresponding Acronis products is installed on the computer (Acronis True Image Home 2012, Acronis Backup and Security 2011).

Rice. 10. Resulting information about disks in Acronis Drive Monitor

Conclusion

Any user wants to know in advance about the upcoming failure of a hard drive or solid-state drive. This is quite possible if you entrust the monitoring of device data to one of the utilities discussed in the article, which will allow you to receive information about a possible disk failure in advance and provide a certain time limit to prevent data loss. Which utility to choose is a matter of taste, however, in our opinion, the CrystalDiskInfo program stands out among the free solutions, and among the commercial tools reviewed, Hard Disk Sentinel is the most impressive.

The choice of solution should be made taking into account which drives are supposed to be monitored, since not all utilities support SSDs and not all cope with monitoring external drives. In addition, it is worth paying attention to the features of the presentation of accumulated data in utilities. In most decisions, the user is presented with an impressive set of values ​​for S.M.A.R.T. parameters, which are not very clear to the general user, but can tell professionals a lot. At the same time, there are also products on the market with a different approach to displaying S.M.A.R.T. parameters - instead of “incomprehensible” abstract numbers, they provide a certain conventional value that reflects the general condition of the disk as a percentage (for example, the “health” of the disk in HDDlife), which will allow you to correctly evaluate the situation with the disk even for a beginner.

The advent of solid-state hard drives, or SSD for short, can certainly be considered a breakthrough in the development of technologies for creating devices for recording and storing digital information. The first SSDs to hit the market, with the exception of high speed access to arbitrary blocks of information, were in many ways inferior to traditional HDDs. Not only could their volumes, without exaggeration, be called more than modest, they also had low fault tolerance and cost a lot of money.

What's wrong with SSDs?

The high speed, quietness and low power consumption of solid-state drives have served as good drivers for their development. Modern SSD drives are lightweight, very fast and quite reliable from a mechanical point of view, devices used in tablets, ultrabooks and other compact devices. The price of SSDs has also dropped significantly. But still, they cannot be called perfect. All SSDs have a significant drawback - a limited number of rewrite cycles.

The flash memory of most SSDs is of the MLC type and allows data to be written approximately from 3 to 10 thousand times, while conventional USB exhausts its resource in 1000 or less rewrite cycles. There are also SSDs, for example, with SLC memory type, which can withstand several hundred thousand rewrite cycles. There are many nuances, so it is not surprising that it is precisely this feature of SSD drives that raises a lot of questions among ordinary users regarding their operation, and most importantly, extending their service life. Is SSD optimization necessary in Windows 7/10 or is this just another myth created by the manufacturers and developers of commercial software themselves?

Basic training

Yes, you can leave everything as is on a PC with an SSD, and you might be right, but if you really care about your drive and want it to last as long as possible, it's worth considering customizing it. Let's start with whether you bought a computer with an integrated SSD or just the drive itself, which you want to replace the HDD with, transferring Windows from it. In the first case, you can limit yourself to setting up the system. If you install the SSD yourself, be sure to check whether the AHCI connection mode for the SATA controller is enabled in the BIOS.

There are two points here: after enabling AHCI and transferring Windows to the SSD, the system may not boot, since it will not have the appropriate drivers. Therefore, either install drivers ahead of time, or reinstall Windows from scratch. Second. The BIOS of older PCs may not have AHCI mode. In this case, the BIOS will have to be updated. Now regarding the firmware of the SSD controller. Owners of solid-state drives often ask whether the drive will run faster if they install the latest firmware. Yes, it will, but if you decide to update it and in general, if the need arises, it is better to contact the service center for help.

System settings. Disabling defragmentation

Defragmentation is useful for HDDs, but it can harm SSD drives, so Windows usually automatically disables it. However, it's worth checking to see if it's actually disabled. Run with the command dfrgui Disk Optimization Utility and click Change Settings.

Make sure the “Run on a schedule” checkbox is unchecked. If it is there, be sure to remove it.

Enabling TRIM

The TRIM mechanism optimizes the SSD drive by clearing memory cells of unnecessary data when removing them from the disk. Using TRIM ensures uniform wear of the disk cells and increases its speed. To check whether TRIM is active on your system, run the command in a command prompt running as administrator: fsutil behavior query DisableDeleteNotify.

If the value of the returned parameter DisableDeleteNotify will be 0, it means everything is in order and the trim function is enabled, if 1 it means it is disabled and should be enabled with the command fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0.

This SSD setup is only applicable to Windows 7/10, while Vista and XP do not support it. There are two options: either install a newer system, or look for an SSD with hardware TRIM. Please also note that some older models of solid-state drives do not support TRIM at all, however, the likelihood that they are still sold in digital stores is very low.

During the process, a significant amount of data, comparable to the amount of RAM, can be written to the hiberfil.sys file on the system disk. To extend the service life of the SSD, we need to reduce the number of write cycles, so it is advisable to disable hibernation. The downside to this SSD setup is that you will no longer be able to keep files and programs open when you turn off your computer. To disable hibernation, run the command running with administrator privileges powercfg -h off.

Restart your computer and make sure that the hidden system file hiberfil.sys is removed from the C drive.

Disable file search and indexing

What else can be done to properly configure an SSD drive for Windows 7/10? The answer is to disable indexing of the disk contents, because the SSD is already fast enough. Open the disk properties and uncheck “Allow file contents to be indexed...”.

But here's the thing. If in addition to an SSD you have a HDD, then you are unlikely to want to disable indexing on it. What will come of this? By default, the index file is located on drive C and data from drive D will still be written to the solid-state drive.

If you do not want to disable indexing on the user volume, you will need to move the indexing file from the system SSD to the user HDD. Open with command control /name Microsoft.IndexingOptions indexing options.

Now click “Advanced” and specify your index location, having first created a folder on the user disk.

If your PC only has an SSD, you can completely disable indexing and search by opening the service management snap-in with the services.msc command and stopping the Windows Search service.

Disabling system protection

Controversial point. By disabling the creation of system shadow copies, on the one hand, you will reduce the number of write cycles, on the other hand, you will increase the risk of getting a non-working system in the event of some unexpected failure. Using rollbacks is one of the most effective and simplest ways to return Windows to a working state; for this reason, we would not recommend disabling this function, especially since points are created infrequently and do not take up much space.

It does not recommend disabling system protection for your Intel SSDs; Microsoft shares the same opinion. However, it's up to you to decide. If you use other backup tools, such as Acronis True Image, system protection can be disabled. To do this, go to system properties, on the “System Protection” tab, select the SSD drive and click “Configure”. Next, in the recovery options, activate the “Disable system protection” radio button, move the slider to zero and click the “Delete” button.

Should I disable the page file or not?

An even more controversial solution is to disable the page file. Some people advise moving it to the HDD, others completely disabling it, but it’s not that simple. The paging file is necessary to optimize the performance of the system and programs that require significant RAM resources. Disabling paging can indeed reduce disk load, but the resulting effect will be very small. In addition, this shutdown can significantly reduce the performance of the computer.

There is also no particular point in transferring the swap file to a hard HDD, since it is many times slower than an SSD, and the system’s constant access to it will slow down its operation. Disabling, or better yet, reducing the paging file is only permissible in one case - if your computer has more than 10 GB of RAM, and you do not use resource-intensive applications. And so, of course, it’s better to leave everything by default. You can perform all manipulations with the paging file in the performance parameters window, called up in the “Run” window with the command systempropertiesperformance(hereinafter Advanced – Change).

Prefetch and Superfetch

In theory, it’s also better to leave everything here as default. The function does not affect the durability of solid-state drives in any way, since it does not produce any records. Moreover, when installing Windows on an SSD, the system automatically disables it. Want to make sure it's disabled? Go to Registry Editor at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/Session Manager/Memory Management/PrefetchParameters and look at the parameter value EnableSuperfetch. It should be set to 0. You can also disable it through the service management snap-in.

As for Prefetch, the disk writes it produces are so insignificant that it can be ignored. However, you can turn it off, nothing bad will happen. To do this, in the same registry key, set the value of the parameter EnablePrefetcher 0.

The same can be said about disabling the additional Prefetch ReadyBoot feature, which logs the process of downloading applications. The volume of records it produces in the folder C:/Windows/Prefetch/ReadyBoot is negligible, but if you want to disable them too, set the Start parameter in the key to 0 HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SYSTEM/CurrentControlSet/Control/WMI/Autologger/ReadyBoot.

Programs for optimizing SSD disks

Almost everything that was shown in the examples above can be done using special utilities. How to configure an SSD under Windows 7/10 using third-party programs? Very simple. Most of them have an intuitive interface, presented with a set of options that can be turned on or off. There are many SSD optimizers, but we will focus only on the most popular ones.

SSD Mini Tweaker

The most convenient portable program for optimizing solid state drives. The utility supports work with the functions of defragmentation, hibernation and system protection, Trim, Superfetch and Prefetcher, management of the paging file and Layout.ini, indexing, file system cache and some other settings.

The SSD Mini Tweaker interface is represented by a window with a list of functions available for management. After applying the new settings, you may need to restart your PC.

A shareware utility for optimizing and tuning the performance of an SSD drive. There is no Russian language in Tweak-SSD, but there is a convenient step-by-step wizard that offers optimal settings. Features of this program include disabling file indexing, Program Compatibility Assistant, hibernation, paging file, defragmentation, recording the last access time of a file, working with TRIM, increasing the file system cache, removing the NTFS memory limit, and moving the kernel into memory instead of unloading parts of modules to disk.

SSD Fresh Plus

Another SSD optimizer. Unlike analogues, it supports working with S.M.A.R.T. data. With Abelssoft SSD Fresh Plus, you can disable defragmentation, the use of short names for folders and files, timestamps, Windows log, and prefetch services.

In total, the utility supports nine different settings that optimize the operation of the SSD. Additional features of the program include viewing detailed information about the disk. Distributed in paid and free editions.

Conclusion

That's probably all. There are also other recommendations for optimizing SSDs, but for the most part they are either dubious or harmful. In particular, it is not recommended to disable write caching for the SSD disk and the USN journal of the NTFS file system. You should also not transfer programs and Temp temporary folders, browser caches, etc. from the SSD, because then what is the point in buying an SSD drive? We need programs to run faster, but transferring them to the HDD will only slow down the system.

And finally, here's some good advice for you. Don't bother too much with SSD optimization. It will take you at least a dozen years to reach the lifespan of even a budget 128GB solid-state drive, unless you write and delete terabytes of data every day. And during this time, not only the disk model, but also the computer itself will become hopelessly outdated.

The main reason for the increasing popularity of solid-state drives (SSDs) can be considered their exceptional energy efficiency and high performance.

Compared to standard hard drive models, SSDs allow you to access information faster. The majority of owners of laptop computers who prefer an SSD drive are aware of the disadvantages of these devices. The downside of modern SSD technology is the short service life of this storage medium.

To avoid premature failure of this expensive and important device, users should minimize the number of records of various information to the disk. Using the free SSD Fresh app, this type of task can be greatly simplified.

The SSD Fresh application includes a large number of different tools that allow you to effectively and accurately manage solid-state drive partitions, optimize their operation, check the current status, and disable “harmful” OS processes in a short period of time. The interface is shown in (Fig. 1).

As you can see, it is quite simple and will not allow the user to get confused in the settings and functions, which is undoubtedly a sign of the convenience of this program.

Fig.1

To use this utility, you will need to register. When this application is launched for the first time, the user will be required to enter his own name. You will also have to indicate the email where the activation code should be sent. The utility will allow you to access detailed data about the media, diagnostic information of the S.M.A.R.T. system. Using a pie chart, you can estimate your disk space.

A special Optimization tab contains useful tools that allow you to optimize the performance of your solid-state drive. For example, here the user has the opportunity to disable the creation of special Windows restore points.

In addition, if necessary, the user will be able to deactivate the defragmentation tools used. Solid-state drives do not require defragmentation operations, which cannot be said about standard hard drives. Users will also be able to disable indexing tools for information used in Windows Search.

Features that, when disabled, can significantly extend the life of such storage media include Windows Prefetch, including Windows Trim. Also, the service life of solid-state drives is reduced by various mechanisms for defragmenting files used when the system boots, which also applies to logged Windows processes, as well as other processes that constantly access the drive.

This application runs on Windows. The latest release of SSD Fresh can be downloaded from the official website of this application. Website: "http://www.abelssoft.net/ssdfresh.php".

Solid-state drives (SSDs) have become a fixture in our lives. Granting the user many advantages compared to traditional HDDs (higher speed of reading and writing information, quiet operation, low power consumption and high resistance to mechanical damage), they are, however, not without a number of disadvantages (for example, shorter operating time compared to from HDD). Accordingly, their condition must be monitored from time to time in order to timely track negative changes in their functionality. In this material I will tell you how to check an SSD disk for errors, how tools will help us find out its performance and how to use them.

Limited SSD resource

If you are wondering about checking an SSD disk for errors and performance, it means that a situation may have arisen in which your SSD has stopped functioning normally. This is primarily due to the fact that SSD ( Solid State Drive - solid state drive) allows you to write information to yourself a limited number of times (the resource of competitors SSD - HDD drives in this regard is not limited). Typically, manufacturers provide a warranty on their SSD drives for a period of 3 years (or for the volume of recorded data of 35 terabytes of data, which is approximately equal to 20 gigabytes per day). Those who actively use their SSD drive (on various 24/7 servers, etc.) may experience faster failure of SSD devices.

Well, those users who work with their PC in normal, “household” mode can enjoy the fast operation of their SSD for 5 years or more. In the last article, I described in detail who I recommend setting up the disk for this OS.

How to check an SSD disk for errors and performance - list of programs

If you do not need to know the performance of the SSD drive, then you should use the functionality of the appropriate programs that will allow you to test the ssd for errors. Below I will list these programs and give their corresponding characteristics:

CrystalDiskInfo program

It is a free utility that will check the read-write speed of your disk, displays its overall health, temperature, supports S.M.A.R.T (hard disk health assessment technology) and much more. This CrystalDiskInfo program has two main versions (installable and portable), and in the case of the installed version, you can monitor the status of your disks in real time using the program icon in the system tray. If the pressing question is how to check an ssd for bad sectors, then the CrystalDiskInfo program will effectively help you with this.

1. To use the program, download it, install and run.
2. The program will scan your hard drive to assess its condition, errors, etc., and then give you the result.
3. All main actions are concentrated in the “Service” tab of the main menu (in particular, if necessary, there you can set the disk rescan function).

SSD Life Program

The SSD Life program can also help us determine the performance and errors of the SSD. This shareware utility is written specifically for working with SSD drives, allowing you to proactively monitor declines in their performance. As in the case of CrystalDiskInfo, this program has two versions - portable (produces a report on the status of the disk immediately upon launch, without additional installation), and installation, which displays the disk status in real time so that the user can monitor the situation in advance.

The working window of the program is extremely simple, on it you will see the predicted operating time of your disk, an assessment of its condition, how long it has already worked, and so on. To update report data, use the corresponding keys below.

SSDRready program

SSD diagnostics can also be carried out using the SSDReady program, created specifically to monitor the condition of your SSD drive, estimate its potential operating time and other relevant statistics. It keeps track of the amount of data written and read from the disk every day, requires its permanent work in the background and is a good option for checking the SSD disk for errors and overall performance.

DiskCheckup program

In testing an SSD hard drive for speed and performance, we can also use the DiscCheckup utility, which allows us to monitor the S.M.A.R.T attributes of an individual hard drive. As in the case of the programs described above, this application shows hard drive statistics, allowing you to track the health status of the latter. The functionality of this product is essentially no different from the programs described above.

HDDScan program

HDDScan is a free utility for diagnosing hard drives (RAID, Flash USB, SSDs of interest to us are also supported). This program can be a convenient and handy tool in the question “how to check an SSD for errors”; it searches for errors on the hard drive (bad blocks and sectors), supports demonstrating S.M.A.R.T attributes and changing some HDD parameters (AAM, APM, and so on) . This product can be used to regularly “test the health” of your disk and prevent its degradation; you can avoid losing the files you need by creating appropriate backups when necessary.

Increasing the speed of an SSD hard drive 10 times [video]

The answer to the question of how to test an SSD disk for errors and performance will be the use of a number of special diagnostic programs that I described just above. Most of them have fairly simple functionality, allowing you to monitor the status of your SSD drive in real time and, if necessary, perform additional checks. If you are the proud owner of such disks, then use the functionality of one of the described programs to regularly monitor the condition of your device, this will allow you to timely monitor its condition and protect your files from unwanted losses.

When purchasing a laptop or desktop computer, it is advisable to use solid state drives (SSD). Compared to traditional hard drives (HDD), every SSD drive test shows their advantages. The advantage of solid-state drives is stable and fast operation, lower power consumption and superiority in all parameters except cost. But this does not mean that SSDs are completely flawless.

Due to the design of solid-state drives, they have a low lifespan of 5 to 7 years. If you know what to watch out for and how to protect your drive, you can significantly extend its life.

In SSDs, unlike hard drives, there is no physical movement of the platters. This property creates immunity from many problems of old hard drives. Despite its immunity to mechanical damage, other SSD components may fail.

SSDs require a power supply and a capacitor, which are prone to failure. This is especially true in cases of power failure or power surges. When the power goes out, data on SSDs can become corrupted, even on a perfectly healthy drive.

Another possible problem with SSDs is the limited number of read or write cycles. All types of flash memory have a similar problem.

Average SSD runtimes have been measured for many years, so don't be paranoid. Modern SSDs have become less susceptible to read and write problems than older versions.

If you want to know about the errors and performance of the SSD drive in order to have time to create backup copies of important information, then you can check it.

Checking errors and functionality using programs

To check the functionality of an SSD drive, special programs are used, the functionality of which ensures the execution of error tests. Let's take a look at this software.

CrystalDiskInfo

The free CrystalDiskInfo utility checks disk read and write speed. Displays data about temperature and health status. Supports S.M.A.R.T technology for assessing the condition of the drive. The CrystalDiskInfo application has an installable and portable version. When working with the installed version, the status of solid-state drives is monitored in real time. An icon for the program you are using appears in the system tray. The CrystalDiskInfo utility will effectively check the SSD for bad sectors.

SSD check:

1. Downloading, installing and launching the CrystalDiskInfo program.
2. Scanning the drive to assess its condition and presence of errors. Then the result is displayed.
3. The main actions are performed in the “Service” tab in the main menu. There is functionality for specifying disk rescanning.

SSD Life

Errors and performance of the SSD are determined using the SSD Life program. This free utility is designed only to work with SSD drives. It provides early monitoring of decreased performance levels. There is a portable and installation version. The second option visually displays the disk status online so that the user has the opportunity to monitor the situation in advance.

The application's working window has an extremely simple interface. It shows the predicted operating time of the drive, total operating time, condition assessment, etc. The report data is updated using special keys at the bottom.

SSDReady

You can diagnose an SSD using the SSDReady program. Its functions were:

1. Monitoring the status of the SSD disk.
2. Estimating potential work duration.
3. Other relevant statistics.

The application conducts a daily analysis of data read and written to the disk. It is an excellent option for checking drives for general performance and errors.

DiskCheckup

To test your SSD hard drive for performance and speed, you can use the DiskCheckup utility. This software provides monitoring of S.M.A.R.T attributes of an individual drive. As in the programs described above, this application displays hard drive statistics. The information helps track the health status of the device. The functionality of the product is almost no different from the described applications.

HDDScan

HDDScan is a free utility that diagnoses different types of hard drives. The program will be a convenient tool that will help the user search for errors on the hard drive. Showing S.M.A.R.T attributes and changing certain parameters is supported.

This product can be used to continuously test your drive to prevent degradation. The application will help you avoid losing important files by creating backups.

SSD Warning Signs

A ticking or incessant buzzing sound from a disk is considered a sure sign of a broken disk. Unlike HDDs, SSDs do not make loud noise, but there are certain signs of bad sectors of the disk. Let's look at such problems and how to fix them.

Damage to SSD storage sectors

These situations occur when the computer tries to save or read a file. The process takes too long and ends unsuccessfully. As a result, the system displays a message indicating an error has occurred.

Common symptoms of damage to bad blocks (storage sectors):

1. The system is slow, especially when using large files.
2. Presence of frequent errors when transferring files.
3. Active applications crash or freeze.
4. Requirement to restore the computer's file system.
5. The file cannot be written to or read from the hard drive.

If you observe such symptoms, you should run any of the utilities described above to check for physical problems with the disk. If the errors are confirmed, then you need to immediately create backup copies of the information and think about purchasing a new SSD drive for replacement.

Files cannot be written or read

There are two ways in which bad storage sectors affect files:

1. The system detects a bad block while writing data to the drive. This entails the system refusing to write data.
2. Detection of a bad block by the system after data is written. Refusal to read this data.

In the first case, the data will not be written at all, so it will not be damaged. The system automatically blocks access to detected faulty units. They will be ignored in subsequent entries. If this is not done automatically, then the user needs to save the file to another folder or copy it to the cloud. Then the computer is restarted and the file is saved in the desired location.

If the second case occurs, then data will not be easy to obtain. You need to use several methods to recover data from a damaged SSD drive. It will be very difficult to recover data. The presence of bad blocks indicates permanent data loss.

The file system needs to be restored

A message about this error appears on the screen due to the computer being turned off incorrectly (not through “Shutdown”). Previously, this meant the development of bad blocks in the SSD or a problem in the connector or port.

Nowadays such problems can be solved quite simply. Windows, Linux, and Mac have built-in tools that can repair damaged file systems. After such errors, the operating system prompts the user to launch using the appropriate tools. You must follow the instructions to restore the file system.

During this process, there are chances of losing some data, and recovery is a rather long process. This is another reason to back up your files periodically.

Frequent crashes when loading

If the computer crashes during the boot process, but after restarting it works fine, then the hard drive is to blame. This is due to damage to storage sectors or is a sign of disk failure. It's better to create a backup before the files are lost forever.

The check is carried out by the above-mentioned diagnostic programs. When creating a backup copy of your data, you can format the disk and reinstall the OS.

Disk is read-only

This doesn't happen often. The solid state drive refuses to perform operations that involve writing data to the disk. The drive continues to operate in read-only mode. The disk does not modify files, and data can be easily transferred to another storage location.

You shouldn't throw away an SSD like this right away. You can connect it as an additional hard drive or an external hard drive to other computers. You need to make sure that the operating system is not booting from the SSD.

If the SSD continues to operate in read-only mode, you can restore all files before formatting.

A number of diagnostic applications are used to test your SSD. Most of them have simple functionality that monitors the status of the SSD drive online. If your computer has such a disk, you can use the functionality of the programs to carry out regular monitoring. This will allow timely status checks and protect data from unwanted losses.