Unrecoverable Errors on Old SSD But Still Runs - Do Anything?

[jerryyyyy]

Have been running 6.1 all over the place I guess looking for trouble and I finally found several unrecoverable SSD errors on an Old Windows 7 installation that is offline.

This is an old Dell 2400M laptop I have used in astronomy and has some software on it I would like to keep. When I run SR on Level 1 I get a bunch of (Unrecoverable Errors). Since I also have Samsung Magician on it I ran the SMART check and it sez I have 97 Unrecoverable Errors but it sez also the drive is in FAIR condition.

Has the drive already reallocated those sectors (remarkably the number is 97 here too).

Should I just go back to sleep or should I run SR on Level 2 or what?

 

[DanR]

Level 1 is read ONLY. It does NO data recovery and NO writing of data to the drive. Therefore, level 1 will NOT trigger any reallocation.

Level 2 WILL work very hard to recover data from hard to read sectors. Recovered data is then written back to the sector, refreshing it. If a sector is only partially or totally unrecoverable, then zeros will replace the unrecoverable data before writing back to the drive. Thus unrecoverable data will be lost. It is this data writing that can force reallocation of "bad" sectors. You may not have any - only some very hard/slow to read sectors.

If you have all possible data copied off of or backed up from the drive, then by all means let level 2 have a go at it. Level 2 might recover most (possibly all?) of the data that level 1 cannot read.

I presume this drive spends a lot of time powered off? If so, then much data retention will be lost over time due to disuse and become harder/slower to read. Level 2's data recovery may do the job. Any data that is recovered AND rewritten will then be easy and fast to read.

But sectors that do not need recovery and thus rewriting will STILL be slow to read. A benchmark before and after a level 2 run may show some small improvement in read performance, depending on how many sectors are rewritten.

A level 3 run will provide maximum performance improvement for the drive, by reading and rewriting EVERY sector on the drive. Level 3 will also do the SAME data recovery, when needed, as level 2.

See this: https://forums.grc.com/threads/results-samsung-840-series-250-gb.923/ for an example of what Level 3 might do for you.

 

[jerryyyyy]

Thanks for the comments. This computer is more of a historical relic than anything operational but I like to keep it anyhow since it has a record of how I set up my observatory in the way back. It is powered off 90% of the time.

I started then stopped Level 2 as it looked like it would take forever to try to recover those sectors and I wanted to see how many I had. The Level 1 map showed they were mostly in the second half of the drive, which since it is only half full, probably is empty space and never written over.

Since I know there are 97 bad I can run Level 2 and see how many are recovered.

Again thanks for the comments.

 

[DanR]

Since I know there are 97 bad I can run Level 2 and see how many are recovered.

Exactly!

Level 1 does a simple one-and-done read. If a sector is too slow and/or too hard to read, the sector is marked U (Unrecoverable).

Level 2 will try much harder (and very patiently) to recover such sectors. Level 2 "may" be able to recover all 97 of them. But it will take some time!

 

[jerryyyyy]

Here is what it looks like many hours later grinding away. Had a lot of trouble inserting graphics.

 

[jerryyyyy]

One more image maybe.

 

[DanR]

Those ”U” sectors are all in the second half of the drive, as you indicated. With that half the drive also being empty/never used, as you indicated, there is no point in continuing level 2.

I would suggest starting SpinRite as follows: spinrite dynastat 0

Select Level 3 and press Enter at the warning screen to proceed.

When you get to the “Before Beginning” screen, DO NOT PRESS ENTER!
Press the TAB key instead. This will bring up the “Set Drive’s Starting and Finishing Locations” screen.

Change the starting point to something like 55.0000 (55%) and let Level 3 go. Level 3 with Dynastat 0 will make no [time consuming] data recovery attempts but will simply write all zeros to all unreadable sectors as well as to all readable empty/unused sectors. Any sector that will not write OK would be reallocated. The result will be a second half of the drive that is fully refreshed and performing at best speed.

Note: Any readable sector that may have data in it will be read and then re-written as it was read, refreshing the data.

If you are satisfied that all data has been safely copied or backed up from the front half of the drive, start a normal level 3 run and let it run from 0 to 55%. The entire drive will now be refreshed and operating at best speed.

Now the historical relic should be good to go for some time to come. You could consider running ReadSpeed on this system occasionally (once every 3-6 months) to monitor drive performance for any need to repeat level 3 on a portion of the drive in the future.

 

[jerryyyyy]

Those ”U” sectors are all in the second half of the drive, as you indicated. With that half the drive also being empty/never used, as you indicated, there is no point in continuing level 2.

I would suggest starting SpinRite as follows: spinrite dynastat 0

Select Level 3 and press Enter at the warning screen to proceed.

When you get to the “Before Beginning” screen, DO NOT PRESS ENTER!
Press the TAB key instead. This will bring up the “Set Drive’s Starting and Finishing Locations” screen.

Change the starting point to something like 0.5500 (55%) and let Level 3 go. Level 3 with Dynastat 0 will make no [time consuming] data recovery attempts but will simply write all zeros to all unreadable sectors as well as to all readable empty/unused sectors. Any sector that will not write OK would be reallocated. The result will be a second half of the drive that is fully refreshed and performing at best speed.

Note: Any readable sector that may have data in it will be read and then re-written as it was read, refreshing the data.

If you are satisfied that all data has been safely copied or backed up from the front half of the drive, start a normal level 3 run and let it run from 0 to 55%. The entire drive will now be refreshed and operating at best speed.

Now the historical relic should be good to go for some time to come. You could consider running ReadSpeed on this system occasionally (once every 3-6 months) to monitor drive performance for any need to repeat level 3 on a portion of the drive in the future.

Great, following the recipe and it makes sense.

In (amateur) astronomy storage is a big big deal. We are dealing with a lot of data. My latest build has two 16TB mirrored disks. This old system I keep around because you never know when you need some settings from something way back when.

FYI, here is a typical image: Astrobin Planetary Nebula

 

[jerryyyyy]

Hi, worked fine and had a clean Level 1 scan afterwards. You can tell Steve I have a nice Windows 7 machine still running.

Thanks for the help!

 

[DanR]

You're welcome!

 

[jerryyyyy]

Hey Dan, I have an off the record FAT32 question since you are so knowledgeable. I have a new security camera that needs a micro SD card formatted in FAT32 (not exFat) to work and I have a new 256GB card that windows will not format. I have tried all the windows software including diskpart. This is a known issue that seems to encourage a lot of people to write software of questionable origins.... do you have any suggestions.... will cross post in the Software Section but that seems pretty idle.

 

[Tazz]

Not Dan but I'm sure he'll jump in.
I had a quick thought when I read this, if you can put the SD card in a USB adapter maybe InitDisk will work.

 

[jerryyyyy]

Tried all that. It is apparently an inherent limitation in Windows to limit FAT32 to < 32GB. There are third party approaches but I am not sure if there is a safe solution.

Typical case is something called disk genius: https://www.diskgenius.com/resource/how-to-format-sd-card-to-fat32.html

There are also GitHub solution. Like to find something with a little reputation, good reputation that is....

 

[PHolder]

Hey Dan

will cross post

Just FYI, you can tag someone here using the '@' sign, like so @jerryyyyy . This way they'll get notified, no matter where you post.

 

[DanR]

It is apparently an inherent limitation in Windows to limit FAT32 to < 32GB

@jerryyyyy

Yes, Windows limits FAT 32 formatting to 32 GB or less. Why the 32 GB limit? See this article for an explanation of that:

https://www.easeus.com/knowledge-center/the-thinking-behind-32gb-windows-format-limit-on-fat32.html

See this article for more on FAT 32 formatting:

https://www.howtogeek.com/316977/ho...e-usb-drives-with-fat32-by-using-fat32-format

Scroll down to the end for a description of a PowerShell process for getting around Window’s 32 GB limit. It seems simple, but as noted is slow, taking 40 min to format a 64 GB drive, in which case your 256 GB drive could take about 2 hours. Although the process shown is for Win 11, the Win 10 process is very similar.

There are indeed quite a few third party tools. As you noted, DiskGenius is one. Another that seems to come up frequently is Fat32 Format. There are others. I do not have a good one to recommend.

HTS

 

[jerryyyyy]

Hi thanks Dan, the one in question worked and the card formatted to Fat32, but unfortunately the camera still does not recognize it.... the Reolink card cost 35$ and the same size generic Amazon $25.... I have spent 2h on this problem, so maybe the better part of valor is quit and buy their card. But I am curious if this other process would work.

This is their discussion;

How to Check/Format microSD Card via Reolink App

If you want to format the SD or check the SD status of your camera via Reolink App, check below. Applies to: All Reolink came...

support.reolink.com

It is a nice camera.

 

[DanR]

@jerryyyyy

The process seems simple enough. The only way to know for sure would be to try it with your card.

The Amazon price is quite comparable to other reputable brands listed there so I would presume your card is legitimate (not fake).

One thought that comes to mind is perhaps Reolink puts something proprietary on their card that the camera requires? You could always try reformatting using the Reolink software.

 

[SeanBZA]

Or the card expects a FAT32 partition that is max 32G in size, or it is limited to a 16G or 4G size because of using and older firmware that only recognises FAT32 and smaller sizes. Try simply repartitioning it to say a single 32G partition, and leave the rest blank, and see if it will format to 32G.

 

[Scott]

@jerryyyyy , the SD card association has their own format utility which somehow does something different than standard OS format utilities, something about a protected area on the disk. Maybe give that a try.

SD Memory Card Formatter for Windows/Mac | SD Association

www.sdcard.org

 

[jerryyyyy]

Thanks guys, the powershell routine resulted in a disk too big error. The proprietary card arrives tomorrow but I am going to try to get this little sucker to work.