What level for a new drive?

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hermes_vb

New member
Mar 8, 2023
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What level should I run on a new hard drive before I start loading it up with data? I'd like to detect lemon drives from the start.
 
And of it’s an SSD and not a mechanical drive, the answer is don’t run SpinRite before using it for several years.
 
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I don't understand why people panic about writing to SSDs. Even QLC is rated for 1,000 write cycles. You could run 1 Level 5 scan per year for 500 years.
 
I don't understand why people panic about writing to SSDs. Even QLC is rated for 1,000 write cycles. You could run 1 Level 5 scan per year for 500 years.
Respectfully disagree.

Level 5 writes all areas of the drive two times, first inverted and then back to normal. PLUS an initial write for any area with data recovery required.

I cannot see any advantage over a level 3/4 scan which does much less writing. Why needlessly stress solid state media (flash, SSD, NVMe) with no advantage to be achieved?
 
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In this case the OP was looking to stress test new drives before putting into use. He may consider that taking 0.1% of the drive's life is a worthwhile "cost" to identify potentially faulty drives within their return period.
 
In this case the OP was looking to stress test new drives before putting into use.
Correct! And it's a HDD. Level 5 is quite appropriate for that.

Level 5 was developed for spinning hard drives, long before solid state media came into being.

Spinning hard drive technology and solid state drive technology are two different things.

The fact that modern solid state media technology may be more tolerant of Level 5 stressing is not the point.

The point I am attempting to make is that level 5 provides no advantage over a level 3 or 4 scan for solid state media, in exchange for the extra stressing that level 5 does..

Please see this thread: https://forums.grc.com/threads/what...un-spinrite-on-new-ssds-or-thumb-drives.1575/
for additional information, including pertinent comments by Steve.