Mechanical hard drives are getting closer to history every day, and they have been replaced by solid-state storage drives. Them indisputable advantage are the speed of operation, the absence of noise during operation and low power consumption. This is especially noticeable when they are used in laptops and netbooks.

But SSD owners should remember the main drawback - this is limited resource work. Each memory cell has a limit of write-rewrite cycles, and it's no secret that Windows makes a lot of unnecessary gestures. Therefore, optimizing SSD drives becomes mandatory if you are interested in increasing their lifespan.

Program for optimizing SSD drives

There are many ways to reduce the number of write-rewrite cycles to disk. However, you will have to work a lot with the settings operating system, including editing system registry. But we are freed from this routine by a wonderful free utility SSD fresh. In addition, some optimization measures will slightly increase the performance of the operating system and increase the volume free space.

Installing SSD Fresh

Installing the program is easy, but you need to get free key to be able to use the program. To do this, fill out a simple form:

Program features

On the first tab "Overview" there is nothing particularly interesting, all this information can be found using the operating system. To finish everything quickly - turn on "Auto optimization".

But if you want to dig deeper, then go to the “Optimization” tab and go through the points.

Indexing. To reduce file access time Windows file system, and writes the index to disk. Due to the short data access time, less than 0.1ms, this feature has become irrelevant for SSD drives. Disable.

Disk Optimization. This is a special function used SSD drive mi to increase their service life and performance. For it to work, it must be supported by the drive itself. Be sure to enable the TRIM function.

Mark. File system NTFS allows you to store the access time for each file, and this is also additional write cycles. If you do not need information about the access time to files, then disable it.

prefetch. It implies preloading applications into RAM, but due to the high speed of the SSD, it becomes irrelevant.

Defragmenting Boot Files. Since all cells of the SSD drive have the same low access speed, and the mechanical movement of the magnetic head is not used to move between them, defragmentation becomes useless, and even harmful due to excessive write cycles. Disable. However, there is a special one.

Windows event logging. System log Windows 7-10 contains a lot useful information, which can be useful when debugging incorrect operation of the operating system. But it constantly writes something to the disk, so if you think this information is unclaimed, we turn it off.

Disable 8.3 naming. For all modern applications creating short aliases for file and folder names is not at all necessary, but it uses additional write cycles, so we also disable this feature.

AHCI setting. For experts only. If there is a warning that AHCI is not enabled, use the instructions. This usually means that for motherboard or chipsets.

Recovery system. This option is not in SSD Fresh, but for more better optimization and saving disk space is possible. Creation control points Undeniably useful, but information for restoring the operating system often takes up gigabytes of usable space and, again, a considerable number of disk writes. We disable this function, but then we don’t complain that after a failure, the system 🙂 Alternatively, you can reduce the amount of space for recovery files.

If you purchased an SSD drive, I highly recommend going through the steps and turning off features you don't use yourself, or use the AUTO mode. You also need disk optimization if you are from a different hard drive.

Live analysis

In the "Live analysis" tab, press the "START" button and analyze which processes use the disk with the greatest activity. It will come in handy when there is a suspicion that the disk is being actively used by someone, the disk activity light is constantly on.

In the following articles, I will return to the topic of optimizing the operating system more than once. simple ways so subscribe to blog updates. And if the information seemed useful and interesting, share it with your friends in in social networks, let them also not remain in teapots. Good luck!

If you decide to purchase a solid state SSD drive, then there may be several reasons for this:

  • You are not satisfied with the speed of your HDD.
  • Do you need fast windows work and certain types of applications, games.

However, installing an SSD in a computer or laptop and then filling it with information is not enough. It is also necessary to optimize its work with the work of your OC.



Consider the main methods for optimizing an SSD drive.

AHCI SATA

A technology that allows TRIM to be used with various SSDs. It is enabled at the BIOS level of your PC or laptop.

Enable AHCI SATA:

  1. open command line the key combination win + R.
  2. Enter the command: "regedit" (access to the registry).
  3. Go to the following path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE → SYSTEM → CurrentControlSet → Services → storahci.
  4. Change the value of the ErrorControl subsection to 0 (3 by default) by calling the context menu and clicking the Modify option.
  5. Change to the branch called "StartOverride" and change its value to 0 (default 3).
  6. Reboot your PC (laptop), enter the BIOS / UEFI (how to enter the BIOS, see separately for your laptop model or PC motherboard). In the “storage configuration” section, and in the “SATA port” subsection, set AHCI or in the “SATA RAID / AHCI Mode” section, set AHCI (For different versions BIOS, its sections and subsections).
  7. Check if the function works in Windows. Go to the following path: Control Panel → Device Manager → IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers. In the last subsection, the device should appear: "Standard SATA AHCI Controller".

TRIM function

Default given function enabled on windows 7 and above, however, it is better to manually check if this feature works. The meaning of TRIM is that after deleting files, windows transfers information to the SSD drive that a certain area disk is not in use and can be cleared for writing. (the data remains in the HDD and the recording is made "over" the existing one). Over time, if the feature is disabled, there will be a drop in drive performance.

TRIM check in Windows:

  1. Launch Command Prompt by pressing the win + R key combination.
  2. Enter the command: "fsutil behavior query disabledeletenotify".
  3. If after entering the message: "DisableDeleteNotify = 0", then the TRIM function is enabled, if "DisableDeleteNotify = 1", then TRIM does not function. If TRIM does not work, enter the command: "fsutil behavior set DisableDeleteNotify 0", then repeat steps 2 and 3.

defragmentation

This feature helps to optimize and speed up the HDD, but for SSD, it has a detrimental effect. For SSDs, the "auto defrag" feature is disabled by default. To check if it works:

  1. Press the combination win + R.
  2. In the command line window, enter the command: "dfrgui" and click "OK".
  3. In the window that opens, highlight your SSD and look at the “Scheduled Optimization” item. For our SSD, it should be disabled.

Indexing

A Windows feature that helps you quickly search for files on a disk with large amounts of information, however, it increases the write load on the SSD. To turn it off:

  1. Go to the section "This computer", "My computer", "Computer" (for each OS in different ways).
  2. Select your SSD and select "Properties" from the context menu.
  3. In the window that opens, uncheck the box next to the option: "Allow the contents of files on this drive to be indexed in addition to file properties."

Search service

Its function creates a file index, thanks to which finding a variety of files and folders is faster. However, the speed of the SSD is quite enough to refuse it. To disable it, you must:

  1. Go to the following address: Control Panel → System and Security → Administrative Tools → Computer Management.
  2. Go to the tab: "Services".
  3. Find the service "Windows search" and in the tab "Startup type" select "Disabled".

hibernation

A mode that allows you to save content random access memory on the hard drive, so that when you turn it on again, information and open applications from the previous session are saved.

When using SSD, the meaning of this function is lost, since the drive starts up so quickly. And “Hibernation”, creating “write-rewrite” cycles, reduces the lifespan of an SSD drive.

Disabling hibernation:

  1. Run cmd.exe again with the win + R key combination.
  2. Enter the command: "powercfg -h off".

Write caching

This feature improves the performance of your SSD. When enabled, NCQ write and read technology is used. NCQ - accepts multiple requests at the same time, and then organizes their execution order in such a way as to achieve maximum performance.

To connect you need:

  1. Call the command line with the combination win + R
  2. Enter the command: "devmgmt.msc".
  3. Open "Disk Drives", select SSD and select "Properties" in the context menu.
  4. Go to the "Policy" tab.
  5. Check the box next to the option: "Allow caching entries for this device."

Prefetch and Superfetch

Prefetch- a technology with which frequently used programs are loaded into memory in advance, thereby accelerating their subsequent launch. At the same time, on disk space file of the same name is created.

Superfetch- a technology similar to Prefetch with the difference that the PC predicts which applications will be launched by loading them into memory in advance.

Both features are of no use when using an SSD. Therefore, it is best to disable them. For this:

  1. Call the command line with the key combination win + R.
  2. Run the command: "regedit" (go to the registry).
  3. Follow the path: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE → SYSTEM → CurrentControlSet → Control → session manager→ Memory Management → PrefetchParameters.
  4. Find several parameters in the registry subkey: "EnablePrefetcher" and "EnableSuperfetch", set their value to 0 (3 by default).

SSD Mini Tweaker Utility

All of the above actions can be performed manually, but the hands of programmers created programs - tweakers, the purpose of which is to customize the windows OS, as well as its individual components with a few clicks. One such program is SSD Mini Tweaker.

SSD Mini Tweaker- a program, a kind of tweaker that allows you to effortlessly optimize your SSD.

Advantages:

  • Full Russification.
  • Works on all operating systems starting from Windows 7.
  • Free.
  • Clear interface.
  • Does not require installation.

other methods

Manipulations such as transferring the browser cache, swap files, temporary Windows folders, system backups from an SSD disk to an HDD (or disabling this feature) are useless, since although they increase the lifespan of an SSD, they limit the potential for its use.

Thus, by performing the simple above manipulations with your OS, you can extend the life of your drive, as well as set it to maximum performance mode.

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

In this regard, the most reliable is regular backup of information. However, even with a scrupulous approach to the backup task, you may not have time to copy important information, because a disk failure “according to the law of meanness” always occurs unexpectedly. However, you can avoid the risk of data loss if you control the status hard drive using a specialized S.M.A.R.T. monitoring utility. We will consider 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 Technolodgy), which was specially designed to detect an impending drive failure in a timely manner. This technology is based on continuous monitoring of the readings of 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 disk (the number of read or write errors, temperature, disk operation time, performance, information search speed, etc.). Parameter values ​​during normal disk operation may vary within certain intervals. At the same time, 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 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 time reserve, during which you can make copies of all the information, and maybe even replace the hard drive. At the same time, it is worth noting that all S.M.A.R.T.

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. The wear of mechanical parts occurs gradually, and this is a controlled process, thanks to which the utilities, as a rule, successfully predict the failure of the disk due to the fault of the “mechanics”. The failure of electronic components most often happens quite unexpectedly and therefore is almost unpredictable. However, according to Seagate statistics, about 60% of hard drive failures are due to the mechanical components of the drive. This means that you should never ignore the S.M.A.R.T. system of disk diagnostics.

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

There are a fairly large number of utilities on the market that provide disk monitoring by controlling S.M.A.R.T. 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 percentage of its health, sometimes also with recommendations to the user about 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 any problems. With external drives, the situation is more complicated - not all utilities can fully work with such devices (even with support for this type of disk officially declared by the developer) - see the table. Moreover, most developers generally keep silent about what specific external drives are supported in their brainchildren (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 disk controllers support S.M.A.R.T commands. As for SSDs, their recognition, coupled with diagnostics, usually does not cause any particular problems - however, provided that the utility you like supports 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 an established S.M.A.R.T. solution for monitoring the status 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 edition Standard and extended Professional, as well as the portable edition Portable for laptops, are of interest. The main difference between the professional edition and the Standard edition is the availability of data backup functionality (periodically or in case of problems with the disk). In addition, there is a free DOS edition that allows you to control the temperature and S.M.A.R.T attributes. IDE/SATA hard drives connected directly or through external controllers.

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

Rice. 1. Browse disks in Hard Disk Sentinel

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

As for the values ​​of the S.M.A.R.T.-parameters, they are also provided with comprehensive information (tab "S.M.A.R.T.") - this provides the convenience of tracking the changes that have taken place (Fig. 3). You can even do an online comparison of S.M.A.R.T. of the selected disk with the values ​​of disks of the same model. All the information obtained during monitoring can be easily saved as a text or HTML report and, if necessary, sent to the specified email address. In case of detecting problems or exceeding the temperature, the program can warn the user with a sound signal or a 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 displays detailed information about hard drives (manufacturer, model, serial number, etc.) and measures the data transfer speed in real time. In addition, it can be used to test the disk for performance (disk head approach 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 handy solution for S.M.A.R.T. monitoring of external and internal hard drives and SSDs. The program is presented in several editions: the Professional edition is positioned as a hard drive control tool, and the SSD edition is designed to work with solid state drives. The program supports two operating modes - simplified and extended. In the simplified mode, which is aimed at beginners, only the most important information about the current state of the disks. Advanced mode provides access to a wide range of technical data, analyzing which professionals can get a more detailed view of the condition of the drives.

S.M.A.R.T. attributes are checked automatically at specified intervals. During the analysis of all vital important parameters disk, the values ​​of the conditional indicators of its condition are calculated: "reliability", "performance" and "no errors", which are displayed on the "Basic information" tab along with a numerical temperature value and a temperature chart (Fig. 4). This information is accompanied by technical data about the drive model, capacity, total free space and operating time in hours (days). The advanced mode additionally provides comprehensive information about disk parameters (buffer size, firmware name, list of supported data transfer modes, etc.), displays the values ​​of S.M.A.R.T. parameters with flags (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 by the most different ways- by displaying a message on the screen, by submitting sound signal by sending a message to the specified email address etc. It is even possible to launch some third party program, which allows you to take immediate action to save data immediately after a threat is detected (for example, start a data backup procedure).

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

Rice. 5. S.M.A.R.T.-attributes "detailed" in the Hard Drive Inspector

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

Active SMART 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 - 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 controlling S.M.A.R.T. and temperature. The utility provides automatic check disk status during system boot, continuously monitors with a specified time interval and can perform a quick scan of disks on demand (relevant on low-power PCs). The status of the controlled 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. . 7. To analyze the situation, a graph of changes in disk temperature in real time and an event log are also provided, in which the entire history of S.M.A.R.T. events of the disk is recorded. Support provided various kinds notifications (pop-up message, sound signal, letter to the specified email address and network message) when critical events occur on monitored devices (including on individual S.M.A.R.T. attributes).

Rice. 6. Summary of disk status in Active SMART

Rice. 7. S.M.A.R.T. Attribute Values
with a schedule for changing 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 with an indication of 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.

HD Life 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 - 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. for all disks installed in the system and based on the results of the analysis, it issues its own conclusion about the state of the disk in the form of a certain conditional percentage of its health (Fig. 8). This approach ideal for beginners, for whom specific S.M.A.R.T.-values, most likely, will not tell anything, and the percentage of "health" will allow them to navigate the situation. There are several ways to get an idea of ​​the health status of disks. Yes, already appearance indicator in the system tray and disk icons in Explorer, you can immediately see how “healthy” the controlled disk is. In addition, more detailed information about the device status is available through the main window of the utility. In the event of critical situations (reducing the level of "health" to critical, reaching a critical temperature, etc.), an alert system is provided. The role of 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 via e-mail.

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

In addition, the utility displays the performance level of the hard disk, and also shows data on the operating temperature of the device, its capacity, the amount of free space and the time used 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: is free

CrystalDiskInfo is a simple S.M.A.R.T. tool for monitoring the status of hard drives (including many external HDD) and solid state drives. The program has a compact distribution, is free and has all the necessary functionality to organize disk control.

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. In addition, on the graph you can see how certain parameter values ​​have changed over time. For some parameters, functionality is provided for setting threshold values ​​and sending e-mail notifications if the parameter exceeds the set threshold.

Rice. 9. Monitoring disks in CrystalDiskInfo

Additionally, the program includes tools for automatic disk noise reduction 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: is 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. 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 kit and does not have Russian localization.

The utility scans disks on its own 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 “health” level of the disk in percent (Health), the indicator of the number of days of operation (Power On Time) and the temperature (Disc temperature; critical temperature values ​​\u200b\u200bare prescribed in the settings). Theoretically, data about the situation is also displayed in the system tray, but their information content is very doubtful (there is no list of disks, data on their temperatures and the level of "health"). Information regarding the values ​​of the S.M.A.R.T. presented in a traditional text form, no graphs (in particular, a temperature graph) are provided. For controlled disks, a log of critical events recorded in the log is kept. When problems are detected, the utility informs the user about this (by displaying a text message on the screen or sending it by e-mail) and can automatically create a task for data backup. 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 disk information 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 realistic if you entrust the monitoring of these devices to one of the utilities discussed in the article, which will allow you to get information about possible failure disk and provide some time limit to prevent data loss. Which of the utilities to choose is a matter of taste, however, in our opinion, the CrystalDiskInfo program stands out from 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 can cope with monitoring external drives. In addition, it is worth paying attention to the features of the presentation of accumulated data in the utilities. In most decisions, an impressive set of S.M.A.R.T.-parameter values ​​is submitted to the user's judgment, which are not very clear to the general user, but can tell a lot to professionals. At the same time, there are also products on the market with a different approach to displaying S.M.A.R.T. situation with the disk even for a beginner.

The solid state drive has a fairly long life due to wear leveling technologies and reserving a certain space for the needs of the controller. However, during long-term operation, in order to avoid data loss, it is necessary to periodically evaluate the health of the disk. This is also true for those cases when you need to check after purchasing a used SSD.

Checking the status of a solid state drive is done using special utilities based on S.M.A.R.T. In turn, this abbreviation stands for Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology and translated from English means self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology. It contains many attributes, but here more emphasis will be placed on parameters characterizing the wear and service life of the SSD.

If the SSD was in operation, make sure that it is detected in the BIOS and directly by the system itself after it is connected to the computer.

Method 1: SSDlife Pro

SSDlife Pro is a popular utility for evaluating the "health" of solid state drives.

Erase Fail Count shows the number of failed attempts to clear memory cells. In fact, this indicates the presence of broken blocks. The larger this value, the more likely it is that the drive will soon become inoperable.

Unexpected Power Loss Count– parameter showing the number of sudden power outages. This is important because NAND memory is vulnerable to such phenomena. If a high value is found, it is recommended to check all connections between the board and the drive, and then recheck. If the number does not change, the SSD most likely needs to be replaced.

Initial Bad Blocks Count displays the number of failed cells, therefore it is a critical parameter on which the further performance of the disk depends. Here it is recommended to look at the value change over time. If the value remains unchanged, then most likely everything is in order with the SSD.

For some disk models, there may be an option SSD Life Left, which shows the remaining resource as a percentage. The lower the value, the worse the condition of the SSD. The disadvantage of the program is that viewing S.M.A.R.T. only available in the paid Pro version.

Method 2: CrystalDiskInfo

Another free utility for obtaining information about the disk and its status. Her key feature is the color indication of the SMART parameters. In particular, attributes that are good are displayed in blue (green), attributes that require attention are yellow (requiring attention), red are bad, and gray are unknown.


Unlike SSDlife Pro, CrystalDiskInfo is completely free.

Method 3: HDDScan

HDDScan is a program that is designed to check drives for performance.


If any parameter exceeds permissible value, its status will be marked with "Attention".

Method 4: SSDReady

SSDReady is software tool, which is designed to estimate the life of the SSD.


Method 5: SanDisk SSD Dashboard

Unlike the software discussed above, SanDisk SSD Dashboard is a proprietary Russian-language utility designed to work with solid-state drives of the same manufacturer.


Conclusion

Thus, all the considered programs for testing SSD drives are suitable for assessing the overall performance. In most cases, you will have to deal with SMART data. For an accurate assessment of the performance and residual life of the drive, it is better to use proprietary software from the manufacturer that has the appropriate functions.

Solid State Drives (SSDs) have become an integral part of our lives. Giving the user many advantages over traditional HDDs (more high speed reading and writing information, noiseless operation, low power consumption and high resistance to mechanical damage), they, however, are not without a number of disadvantages (for example, shorter operating time compared to HDD). Accordingly, their condition must be monitored from time to time in order to track negative changes in their functionality in time. In this article, I will tell you how to check an SSD disk for errors, how tools will help us find out if they are working and how to use them.

SSD resource limitation

If you wondered about checking an SSD disk for errors and performance, then a situation could arise in which your SSD stopped functioning normally. This is primarily due to the fact that SSD ( Solid State Drive - solid state drive) allows you to record information on yourself limited quantity times (the resource of competitors of SSDs - HDDs is not limited in this regard). Typically, manufacturers give a 3-year warranty on their SSDs (or 35 terabytes of data to be written, which is about 20 gigabytes per day). Those who actively use their SSD drive (on various round-the-clock servers and so on) may experience faster failure of SSD devices.

Well, those users who work with their PC in the usual, "domestic" mode, can enjoy fast work their SIS for 5 or more years. 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 - a list of programs

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

CrystalDiskInfo program

It is a free utility that will check your drive's read/write speed, display its overall health, temperature, support S.M.A.R.T (hard drive health assessment technology), and more. This program and CrystalDiskInfo has two main versions (installable and portable), and in the case of the installable version, you can monitor the status of your disks in real time using the program icon in the system tray. If there is an urgent question about how to check ssd for bad sectors, then the CrystalDiskInfo program will effectively help you with this.

  1. To use the program, download it, install and run it.
  2. The program will scan your HDD to evaluate its status, errors, and so on, and then give you the result.
  3. All the main actions are concentrated in the "Service" tab of the main menu (in particular, if necessary, you can set the function of rescanning the disk there).

SSD Life Program

To determine the health and errors of the SSD, the SSD Life program can also help us. This shareware utility is written specifically for working with SSD drives, allowing you to monitor in advance the decline in their performance. As in the case of CrystalDiskInfo, this program has two versions - portable (provides a report on the status of the disk immediately when it is launched, without additional installation), and an installation version that displays the status of the disk in real time so that the user monitors 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 the report data, use the corresponding buttons at the bottom.

SSDReady program

SSD diagnostics can also be done using the SSDReady program, created specifically to monitor the health of your SSD drive, estimate its potential lifespan, and other related statistics. It keeps track of the amount of data written to and read from the disk daily, requires its permanent work on background and is a good option in checking an SSD drive for errors and overall health.

DiskCheckup program

AT hard testing SSD disk for speed and performance, we can also be helped by the DiscCheckup utility, which allows you to monitor the S.M.A.R.T attributes of an individual hard drive. As in the case of the above programs, this application shows hard disk statistics, allowing you to track the health status of the latter. The functionality of this product, in fact, does not differ from the programs described above.

HDDScan software

HDDScan is a free diagnostic utility 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 of "how to check an SSD for errors", it searches for errors on the hard drive (bad blocks and sectors), supports the demonstration of 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.

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

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