Scan Drive For Errors

[dmdport]

About every two weeks I have a popup from windows saying that I need to scan my drive (OCZ Vector 180 240gb) for errors. It always comes back to repair the drive for errors. Is there any way that I can find out specifically what the issue is to do a bit of research on it to find out if it needs an RMA again? Thanks in advance!

[Generation X SMURF]

Run a SMART test on the drive

[dmdport]

Originally posted by Teh Anarchist!!!:

Run a SMART test on the drive

How should I do that? I see a smart category on the OCZ software but it only tells that stats of the drive which all seem to be fine for the most part. I'll link some screenshots in a sec.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=876744268
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=876744517

[Generation X SMURF]

See if you can find some boot cd that will run SMART tests, or sometimes a BIOS has short SMART tests coded in

[dmdport]

Originally posted by Teh Anarchist!!!:

See if you can find some boot cd that will run SMART tests, or sometimes a BIOS has short SMART tests coded in

My motherboard is the ASUS M5A99X EVO R2.0 just for reference. Ill boot into the bios now and see if I can find it.

I wasn't able to find any SMART tests in the bios :/

[rotNdude]

Contact OCZ again and get them to provide tech support. If you already RMA'd one drive, you may have to do it again.

[dmdport]

Originally posted by rotNdude:

Contact OCZ again and get them to provide tech support. If you already RMA'd one drive, you may have to do it again.

Thats what its looking like sadly :(
Sucks that this is the second drive I've had die within the last 1.5 years by them. Atleast they have a great return policy.

[Fluffy]

if this is your second drive try another sata cable could be the drive but ive had bad cables and even bad psu connector (damaged) give drive errors

[dmdport]

Originally posted by Fluffy:

if this is your second drive try another sata cable could be the drive but ive had bad cables and even bad psu connector (damaged) give drive errors

I'll give both a shot I guess.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

I'd say replace the SATA Cable; and avoid any sudden system power offs where it does not go through a proper shutdown; OCZ Apps says your SSD has 95% life left, and I don't see any other issues on that report, so what is the real issue? Nothing is wrong with that drive.

Folks here don't seem to have a clue about SSD; the OCZ app has the SMART table right there; so the test is done each time you relaunch the app and click there. If there was something bad to report in the SMART table, the app would have a flag, which it does not.

[dmdport]

Originally posted by Bad-Motha:

I'd say replace the SATA Cable; and avoid any sudden system power offs where it does not go through a proper shutdown; OCZ Apps says your SSD has 95% life left, and I don't see any other issues on that report, so what is the real issue? Nothing is wrong with that drive.

The only reason the life is at 95% is because of the spotify issue a while back. But I'll try swapping out the cables tomorrow and see what happens.

[Bad 💀 Motha]

95% is nothing really bad; SSDs will lose some life over time; that is perfectly normal.
The fact there are no other flags, tells me nothing is wrong with the drive.

Secure wipe the drive and redo the OS fresh with the very latest one.
That and a new SATA Cable.

[dmdport]

Originally posted by Bad-Motha:

95% is nothing really bad; SSDs will lose some life over time; that is perfectly normal.
The fact there are no other flags, tells me nothing is wrong with the drive.

Secure wipe the drive and redo the OS fresh with the very latest one.
That and a new SATA Cable.

Well my last drive I RMA'd had no issues appearing in the SMART scan but completely killed itself over night. It would instantly boot into a blue screen so I would rather be safe than sorry. I'll see what the people at OCZ say tomorrow. Probably won't pick up an OCZ drive in the future. But hey, they have a great return policy

[Generation X SMURF]

If it dont pass smart rma time

[dmdport]

Originally posted by Teh Anarchist!!!:

If it dont pass smart rma time

I couldn't find the smart scan you were talking about in the bios. I'm talking about the one built into the OCZ software (the images I sent). Any software I can download that does something similar?

[Bad 💀 Motha]

Well that is just how most drives are; they usually work as intended, or not at all.
Especially when something goes wrong with an SSD, it usually just dies and thats the end of it.

Best bet is, your OS drive should always be setup to be wiped at any given time, period. There should be nothing on that drive you can't afford to lose.

As for other drives, like a secondary / backup HDD; if that data is important, you should have another drive backup that up as well. A copy of a copy... as any drive can die at any time, used, un-used, it never will matter in that regard.

There is not SMART scan in the BIOS; that is just to enable/disable the SMART feature, nothing more. Basically when enabled, if your drive trips a bad SMART flag on POST, the BIOS should alert you of the smart failure/flag and warn you of possible drive failure.