Moderated Annabelle - Your Windows Woes


Annabelle Susan Morison
 

How would you be able to tell when a solid state drive fails? I've only had this machine since 2021.

On 10/08/2022 11:04 AM Brian Vogel <britechguy@...> wrote:


I decided to split this out into a topic of its own.  Too much is getting "shaken and stirred" on the originating topic.

Have you checked what the state of your system drive is?  And by that I mean using the utility of your choosing to look at SMART data and/or do a quick scan.

There is at least a decent chance that your system drive is in the process of failing, as that's one reason that you would be asked for Windows Media when attempting to boot.  The other could be a corrupt boot record, but I'd definitely suspect a drive that's on its way out first.
--

Brian Virginia, USA Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044  

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

    ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore


K0LNY
 


If it fails completely, you will know if the system won't even see it with WinPE.
But most likely, files will start getting corrupt and it won't boot on its own.
Glenn

----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2022 2:23 PM
Subject: Re: Annabelle - Your Windows Woes

How would you be able to tell when a solid state drive fails? I've only had this machine since 2021.
On 10/08/2022 11:04 AM Brian Vogel <britechguy@...> wrote:


I decided to split this out into a topic of its own.  Too much is getting "shaken and stirred" on the originating topic.

Have you checked what the state of your system drive is?  And by that I mean using the utility of your choosing to look at SMART data and/or do a quick scan.

There is at least a decent chance that your system drive is in the process of failing, as that's one reason that you would be asked for Windows Media when attempting to boot.  The other could be a corrupt boot record, but I'd definitely suspect a drive that's on its way out first.
--

Brian Virginia, USA Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044  

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

    ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore


Annabelle Susan Morison
 

I bet my sighted friend, Markus can tell me what's goin' on when he comes over. Hopefully that's soon, as I've been quarantined at home with the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus for the last couple weeks. I'm getting better now, but my American mom says I should wait just a little while longer, to make sure both Markus and I are safe,  as I don't want to give him any remnants of what I have.

On 10/08/2022 12:26 PM Glenn / Lenny <glenn@...> wrote:


If it fails completely, you will know if the system won't even see it with WinPE.
But most likely, files will start getting corrupt and it won't boot on its own.
Glenn
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2022 2:23 PM
Subject: Re: Annabelle - Your Windows Woes

How would you be able to tell when a solid state drive fails? I've only had this machine since 2021.
On 10/08/2022 11:04 AM Brian Vogel <britechguy@...> wrote:


I decided to split this out into a topic of its own.  Too much is getting "shaken and stirred" on the originating topic.

Have you checked what the state of your system drive is?  And by that I mean using the utility of your choosing to look at SMART data and/or do a quick scan.

There is at least a decent chance that your system drive is in the process of failing, as that's one reason that you would be asked for Windows Media when attempting to boot.  The other could be a corrupt boot record, but I'd definitely suspect a drive that's on its way out first.
--

Brian Virginia, USA Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044  

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

    ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore


K0LNY
 


Annabelle,
Just curious, did you get the shots for covid?
 

----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2022 3:04 PM
Subject: Re: Annabelle - Your Windows Woes

I bet my sighted friend, Markus can tell me what's goin' on when he comes over. Hopefully that's soon, as I've been quarantined at home with the Omicron variant of the Coronavirus for the last couple weeks. I'm getting better now, but my American mom says I should wait just a little while longer, to make sure both Markus and I are safe,  as I don't want to give him any remnants of what I have.
On 10/08/2022 12:26 PM Glenn / Lenny <glenn@...> wrote:


If it fails completely, you will know if the system won't even see it with WinPE.
But most likely, files will start getting corrupt and it won't boot on its own.
Glenn
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, October 08, 2022 2:23 PM
Subject: Re: Annabelle - Your Windows Woes

How would you be able to tell when a solid state drive fails? I've only had this machine since 2021.
On 10/08/2022 11:04 AM Brian Vogel <britechguy@...> wrote:


I decided to split this out into a topic of its own.  Too much is getting "shaken and stirred" on the originating topic.

Have you checked what the state of your system drive is?  And by that I mean using the utility of your choosing to look at SMART data and/or do a quick scan.

There is at least a decent chance that your system drive is in the process of failing, as that's one reason that you would be asked for Windows Media when attempting to boot.  The other could be a corrupt boot record, but I'd definitely suspect a drive that's on its way out first.
--

Brian Virginia, USA Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044  

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

    ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore


 

On Sat, Oct 8, 2022 at 03:24 PM, Annabelle Susan Morison wrote:
How would you be able to tell when a solid state drive fails? I've only had this machine since 2021.
-
The easiest way is by running the diagnostic software for the specific SSD manufacturer.  They virtually all provide somesort of monitoring/diagnostic software.  You'd have to look in Disk Manager, and use the Properties, Hardware tab for the drive to determine its model number, then do a quick web search on that model number to get the manufacturer (that is if you don't already know which maker your SSD is from).  Then go to that maker's website, support, downloads and fetch their dedicated monitoring/diagnostic software.

But, if you have anything on your system that presents you with the drive's SMART data, have a quick look at that, as you'll generally get warnings based upon any parameter that's "outside normal limits."  CrystalDiskInfo is a third party utility that uses this, and other data from the drive, and when I have NVDA up when CrystalDiskInfo is active, the "status button" that tells me the overall health (good), drive temperature in degrees C, and the actual logical drives (C: and D: in my case) on the SSD is the first thing it lands on.
--

Brian Virginia, USA Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044  

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

    ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore


Annabelle Susan Morison
 

Both solid state drives are 500 GB Western Digital Blue. I wouldn't be able to tell which is which, as both of them are the same model.

On 10/08/2022 1:25 PM Brian Vogel <britechguy@...> wrote:


On Sat, Oct 8, 2022 at 03:24 PM, Annabelle Susan Morison wrote:
How would you be able to tell when a solid state drive fails? I've only had this machine since 2021.
-
The easiest way is by running the diagnostic software for the specific SSD manufacturer.  They virtually all provide somesort of monitoring/diagnostic software.  You'd have to look in Disk Manager, and use the Properties, Hardware tab for the drive to determine its model number, then do a quick web search on that model number to get the manufacturer (that is if you don't already know which maker your SSD is from).  Then go to that maker's website, support, downloads and fetch their dedicated monitoring/diagnostic software.

But, if you have anything on your system that presents you with the drive's SMART data, have a quick look at that, as you'll generally get warnings based upon any parameter that's "outside normal limits."  CrystalDiskInfo is a third party utility that uses this, and other data from the drive, and when I have NVDA up when CrystalDiskInfo is active, the "status button" that tells me the overall health (good), drive temperature in degrees C, and the actual logical drives (C: and D: in my case) on the SSD is the first thing it lands on.
--

Brian Virginia, USA Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044  

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

    ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore


Karen Reynolds
 

They each have a different serial number.

 

Karen

 

From: main@jfw.groups.io <main@jfw.groups.io> On Behalf Of Annabelle Susan Morison
Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2022 4:29 PM
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: Annabelle - Your Windows Woes

 

Both solid state drives are 500 GB Western Digital Blue. I wouldn't be able to tell which is which, as both of them are the same model.

On 10/08/2022 1:25 PM Brian Vogel <britechguy@...> wrote:

 

 

On Sat, Oct 8, 2022 at 03:24 PM, Annabelle Susan Morison wrote:

How would you be able to tell when a solid state drive fails? I've only had this machine since 2021.

-
The easiest way is by running the diagnostic software for the specific SSD manufacturer.  They virtually all provide somesort of monitoring/diagnostic software.  You'd have to look in Disk Manager, and use the Properties, Hardware tab for the drive to determine its model number, then do a quick web search on that model number to get the manufacturer (that is if you don't already know which maker your SSD is from).  Then go to that maker's website, support, downloads and fetch their dedicated monitoring/diagnostic software.

But, if you have anything on your system that presents you with the drive's SMART data, have a quick look at that, as you'll generally get warnings based upon any parameter that's "outside normal limits."  CrystalDiskInfo is a third party utility that uses this, and other data from the drive, and when I have NVDA up when CrystalDiskInfo is active, the "status button" that tells me the overall health (good), drive temperature in degrees C, and the actual logical drives (C: and D: in my case) on the SSD is the first thing it lands on.
--

Brian Virginia, USA Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044  

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

    ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore


 

On Sat, Oct 8, 2022 at 04:29 PM, Annabelle Susan Morison wrote:
I wouldn't be able to tell which is which, as both of them are the same model.
-
Look in disk manager and determine which is the boot drive, normally C:.

Yours is not the first system with a OS (and possibly data, too) disk and another data disk.
 
Out to finish off schlepping in my orchids before tonight's freeze.
--

Brian Virginia, USA Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044  

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

    ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore


Annabelle Susan Morison
 

I wonder if that can be found in the Bios. Maybe Markus could help with that as well. Or would he have to open up the tower to see that?

On 10/08/2022 1:50 PM Karen Reynolds <karenreynolds2061@...> wrote:


They each have a different serial number.


Karen


From: main@jfw.groups.io <main@jfw.groups.io> On Behalf Of Annabelle Susan Morison
Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2022 4:29 PM
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: Annabelle - Your Windows Woes


Both solid state drives are 500 GB Western Digital Blue. I wouldn't be able to tell which is which, as both of them are the same model.

On 10/08/2022 1:25 PM Brian Vogel <britechguy@...> wrote:



On Sat, Oct 8, 2022 at 03:24 PM, Annabelle Susan Morison wrote:

How would you be able to tell when a solid state drive fails? I've only had this machine since 2021.

-
The easiest way is by running the diagnostic software for the specific SSD manufacturer.  They virtually all provide somesort of monitoring/diagnostic software.  You'd have to look in Disk Manager, and use the Properties, Hardware tab for the drive to determine its model number, then do a quick web search on that model number to get the manufacturer (that is if you don't already know which maker your SSD is from).  Then go to that maker's website, support, downloads and fetch their dedicated monitoring/diagnostic software.

But, if you have anything on your system that presents you with the drive's SMART data, have a quick look at that, as you'll generally get warnings based upon any parameter that's "outside normal limits."  CrystalDiskInfo is a third party utility that uses this, and other data from the drive, and when I have NVDA up when CrystalDiskInfo is active, the "status button" that tells me the overall health (good), drive temperature in degrees C, and the actual logical drives (C: and D: in my case) on the SSD is the first thing it lands on.
--

Brian Virginia, USA Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044  

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

    ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore



Karen Reynolds
 

You should be able to get it through your disk manager.

 

You can also watch for errors to see what is going on. And, if they are several years old, and one is going, the other will go not long after that.

 

Karen

 

 

From: main@jfw.groups.io <main@jfw.groups.io> On Behalf Of Annabelle Susan Morison
Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2022 4:55 PM
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: Annabelle - Your Windows Woes

 

I wonder if that can be found in the Bios. Maybe Markus could help with that as well. Or would he have to open up the tower to see that?

On 10/08/2022 1:50 PM Karen Reynolds <karenreynolds2061@...> wrote:

 

 

They each have a different serial number.

 

Karen

 

From: main@jfw.groups.io <main@jfw.groups.io> On Behalf Of Annabelle Susan Morison
Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2022 4:29 PM
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: Annabelle - Your Windows Woes

 

Both solid state drives are 500 GB Western Digital Blue. I wouldn't be able to tell which is which, as both of them are the same model.

On 10/08/2022 1:25 PM Brian Vogel <britechguy@...> wrote:

 

 

On Sat, Oct 8, 2022 at 03:24 PM, Annabelle Susan Morison wrote:

How would you be able to tell when a solid state drive fails? I've only had this machine since 2021.

-
The easiest way is by running the diagnostic software for the specific SSD manufacturer.  They virtually all provide somesort of monitoring/diagnostic software.  You'd have to look in Disk Manager, and use the Properties, Hardware tab for the drive to determine its model number, then do a quick web search on that model number to get the manufacturer (that is if you don't already know which maker your SSD is from).  Then go to that maker's website, support, downloads and fetch their dedicated monitoring/diagnostic software.

But, if you have anything on your system that presents you with the drive's SMART data, have a quick look at that, as you'll generally get warnings based upon any parameter that's "outside normal limits."  CrystalDiskInfo is a third party utility that uses this, and other data from the drive, and when I have NVDA up when CrystalDiskInfo is active, the "status button" that tells me the overall health (good), drive temperature in degrees C, and the actual logical drives (C: and D: in my case) on the SSD is the first thing it lands on.
--

Brian Virginia, USA Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044  

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

    ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore

 


Annabelle Susan Morison
 

The internal drives installed in the machine were brand new in may of 2021, so it's only been over a year since I've had this machine.

On 10/08/2022 2:15 PM Karen Reynolds <karenreynolds2061@...> wrote:


You should be able to get it through your disk manager.


You can also watch for errors to see what is going on. And, if they are several years old, and one is going, the other will go not long after that.


Karen



From: main@jfw.groups.io <main@jfw.groups.io> On Behalf Of Annabelle Susan Morison
Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2022 4:55 PM
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: Annabelle - Your Windows Woes


I wonder if that can be found in the Bios. Maybe Markus could help with that as well. Or would he have to open up the tower to see that?

On 10/08/2022 1:50 PM Karen Reynolds <karenreynolds2061@...> wrote:



They each have a different serial number.


Karen


From: main@jfw.groups.io <main@jfw.groups.io> On Behalf Of Annabelle Susan Morison
Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2022 4:29 PM
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: Annabelle - Your Windows Woes


Both solid state drives are 500 GB Western Digital Blue. I wouldn't be able to tell which is which, as both of them are the same model.

On 10/08/2022 1:25 PM Brian Vogel <britechguy@...> wrote:



On Sat, Oct 8, 2022 at 03:24 PM, Annabelle Susan Morison wrote:

How would you be able to tell when a solid state drive fails? I've only had this machine since 2021.

-
The easiest way is by running the diagnostic software for the specific SSD manufacturer.  They virtually all provide somesort of monitoring/diagnostic software.  You'd have to look in Disk Manager, and use the Properties, Hardware tab for the drive to determine its model number, then do a quick web search on that model number to get the manufacturer (that is if you don't already know which maker your SSD is from).  Then go to that maker's website, support, downloads and fetch their dedicated monitoring/diagnostic software.

But, if you have anything on your system that presents you with the drive's SMART data, have a quick look at that, as you'll generally get warnings based upon any parameter that's "outside normal limits."  CrystalDiskInfo is a third party utility that uses this, and other data from the drive, and when I have NVDA up when CrystalDiskInfo is active, the "status button" that tells me the overall health (good), drive temperature in degrees C, and the actual logical drives (C: and D: in my case) on the SSD is the first thing it lands on.
--

Brian Virginia, USA Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044  

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

    ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore




Karen Reynolds
 

That’s not very old, so indicates something else is going on.

 

Karen

 

 

From: main@jfw.groups.io <main@jfw.groups.io> On Behalf Of Annabelle Susan Morison
Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2022 5:23 PM
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: Annabelle - Your Windows Woes

 

The internal drives installed in the machine were brand new in may of 2021, so it's only been over a year since I've had this machine.

On 10/08/2022 2:15 PM Karen Reynolds <karenreynolds2061@...> wrote:

 

 

You should be able to get it through your disk manager.

 

You can also watch for errors to see what is going on. And, if they are several years old, and one is going, the other will go not long after that.

 

Karen

 

 

From: main@jfw.groups.io <main@jfw.groups.io> On Behalf Of Annabelle Susan Morison
Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2022 4:55 PM
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: Annabelle - Your Windows Woes

 

I wonder if that can be found in the Bios. Maybe Markus could help with that as well. Or would he have to open up the tower to see that?

On 10/08/2022 1:50 PM Karen Reynolds <karenreynolds2061@...> wrote:

 

 

They each have a different serial number.

 

Karen

 

From: main@jfw.groups.io <main@jfw.groups.io> On Behalf Of Annabelle Susan Morison
Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2022 4:29 PM
To: main@jfw.groups.io
Subject: Re: Annabelle - Your Windows Woes

 

Both solid state drives are 500 GB Western Digital Blue. I wouldn't be able to tell which is which, as both of them are the same model.

On 10/08/2022 1:25 PM Brian Vogel <britechguy@...> wrote:

 

 

On Sat, Oct 8, 2022 at 03:24 PM, Annabelle Susan Morison wrote:

How would you be able to tell when a solid state drive fails? I've only had this machine since 2021.

-
The easiest way is by running the diagnostic software for the specific SSD manufacturer.  They virtually all provide somesort of monitoring/diagnostic software.  You'd have to look in Disk Manager, and use the Properties, Hardware tab for the drive to determine its model number, then do a quick web search on that model number to get the manufacturer (that is if you don't already know which maker your SSD is from).  Then go to that maker's website, support, downloads and fetch their dedicated monitoring/diagnostic software.

But, if you have anything on your system that presents you with the drive's SMART data, have a quick look at that, as you'll generally get warnings based upon any parameter that's "outside normal limits."  CrystalDiskInfo is a third party utility that uses this, and other data from the drive, and when I have NVDA up when CrystalDiskInfo is active, the "status button" that tells me the overall health (good), drive temperature in degrees C, and the actual logical drives (C: and D: in my case) on the SSD is the first thing it lands on.
--

Brian Virginia, USA Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044  

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

    ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore

 

 


 

On Sat, Oct 8, 2022 at 05:23 PM, Annabelle Susan Morison wrote:
The internal drives installed in the machine were brand new in may of 2021, so it's only been over a year since I've had this machine
-
That really doesn't matter.  The failure pattern for electronics do not follow the standard bell curve.  They are skewed early, and late in life, with a long flat period between that.  Admittedly, a year old is "late early," but it's still early.
--

Brian Virginia, USA Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044  

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

    ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore


nocm@...
 


Do you know if the WD Blue drives are the 530, 550 or 570?  Also do they have heat sinks or thermal pads on them or were they installed without those options?  This can make a big difference on the life of the drives.
 
 
 
On Sat, 08 Oct 2022 15:37:07 -0700 "Brian Vogel" <britechguy@...> writes:

On Sat, Oct 8, 2022 at 05:23 PM, Annabelle Susan Morison wrote:
The internal drives installed in the machine were brand new in may of 2021, so it's only been over a year since I've had this machine
-
That really doesn't matter.  The failure pattern for electronics do not follow the standard bell curve.  They are skewed early, and late in life, with a long flat period between that.  Admittedly, a year old is "late early," but it's still early.
--

Brian Virginia, USA Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044  

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

    ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore

 


Dave Durber
 


Annabelle:
 
Use the following command In the Run Dialog box, "diskmgmt.msc" (without the quotes, followed by ENTER. This will open the Disk Management utility.
 
The program should open in a Tree View. JAWS will speak the name of the first drive in the list. However, JAWS will not tell you the number of the disk, for example 0, 1, 2, 3, etc.
 
Tap the TAB key once, to move to the Graphical View Table Window.
 
Use the JAWS Read Current Line Command. JAWS should say "Disk 0". the system drive is generally Drive 0.
 
Route the JAWS cursor to the PC cursor, then tap the NUM PAD DOWN ARROW once.  The information below is an example of what you should hear for your system drive:
 
Basic System Reserved C (C:)
 
Tap the NUM PAD DOWN ARROW again. JAWS will announce information about the system drive, for example:
 
111.79 GB 579 MB NTFS 111.22 GB NTFS
 
Tap the NUM PAD DOWN ARROW again. JAWS will announce the number of partitions which are on the drive, for example:
 
Online Healthy (System, Active, Prim Healthy (Boot, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)
 
Tap the PC cursor. If Disk 0 is the system drive and you want to get information about any more drives which are connect to the system, you may need to tap the DOWN ARROW key twice, before JAWS tells you that Disk 1, has focus. Follow the steps above to get information for disk 1.
 
Let us know how you get on.

 
Dave
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2022 9:28 PM
Subject: Re: Annabelle - Your Windows Woes

Both solid state drives are 500 GB Western Digital Blue. I wouldn't be able to tell which is which, as both of them are the same model.
On 10/08/2022 1:25 PM Brian Vogel <britechguy@...> wrote:


On Sat, Oct 8, 2022 at 03:24 PM, Annabelle Susan Morison wrote:
How would you be able to tell when a solid state drive fails? I've only had this machine since 2021.
-
The easiest way is by running the diagnostic software for the specific SSD manufacturer.  They virtually all provide somesort of monitoring/diagnostic software.  You'd have to look in Disk Manager, and use the Properties, Hardware tab for the drive to determine its model number, then do a quick web search on that model number to get the manufacturer (that is if you don't already know which maker your SSD is from).  Then go to that maker's website, support, downloads and fetch their dedicated monitoring/diagnostic software.

But, if you have anything on your system that presents you with the drive's SMART data, have a quick look at that, as you'll generally get warnings based upon any parameter that's "outside normal limits."  CrystalDiskInfo is a third party utility that uses this, and other data from the drive, and when I have NVDA up when CrystalDiskInfo is active, the "status button" that tells me the overall health (good), drive temperature in degrees C, and the actual logical drives (C: and D: in my case) on the SSD is the first thing it lands on.
--

Brian Virginia, USA Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044  

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

    ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore


Dave Durber
 


Brian:
 
I do not know about any other person on this list who has limited or no vision but, in my experience, I have not yet used any SSD disk management software, which is accessible for those of us who use screen readers, and I have used Kingston, Sansung and WD SSD drives.
 
Dave
 

----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, October 8, 2022 9:25 PM
Subject: Re: Annabelle - Your Windows Woes

On Sat, Oct 8, 2022 at 03:24 PM, Annabelle Susan Morison wrote:
How would you be able to tell when a solid state drive fails? I've only had this machine since 2021.
-
The easiest way is by running the diagnostic software for the specific SSD manufacturer.  They virtually all provide somesort of monitoring/diagnostic software.  You'd have to look in Disk Manager, and use the Properties, Hardware tab for the drive to determine its model number, then do a quick web search on that model number to get the manufacturer (that is if you don't already know which maker your SSD is from).  Then go to that maker's website, support, downloads and fetch their dedicated monitoring/diagnostic software.

But, if you have anything on your system that presents you with the drive's SMART data, have a quick look at that, as you'll generally get warnings based upon any parameter that's "outside normal limits."  CrystalDiskInfo is a third party utility that uses this, and other data from the drive, and when I have NVDA up when CrystalDiskInfo is active, the "status button" that tells me the overall health (good), drive temperature in degrees C, and the actual logical drives (C: and D: in my case) on the SSD is the first thing it lands on.
--

Brian Virginia, USA Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044  

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

    ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore


 

On Sun, Oct 9, 2022 at 12:08 PM, Dave Durber wrote:
Online Healthy (System, Active, Prim Healthy (Boot, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)
-
Dave, while your instructions for using Disk Management are spot on, you CANNOT trust this information as far as a potentially dying drive goes.  I cannot count the number of drives shown as "healthy" in Disk Management that are anything but.

That's why I recommend CrystalDiskInfo and similar.  It intentionally examines things that Disk Management doesn't.
--

Brian Virginia, USA Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044  

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

    ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore


Dave Durber
 


Brian:
 
Annabelle wrote that she did knot know how to find out which was the system drive and the size of said drives.
 
Dave
 

----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, October 9, 2022 9:13 PM
Subject: Re: Annabelle - Your Windows Woes

On Sun, Oct 9, 2022 at 12:08 PM, Dave Durber wrote:
Online Healthy (System, Active, Prim Healthy (Boot, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)
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Dave, while your instructions for using Disk Management are spot on, you CANNOT trust this information as far as a potentially dying drive goes.  I cannot count the number of drives shown as "healthy" in Disk Management that are anything but.

That's why I recommend CrystalDiskInfo and similar.  It intentionally examines things that Disk Management doesn't.
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Brian Virginia, USA Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044  

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

    ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore


 

On Sun, Oct 9, 2022 at 06:25 PM, Dave Durber wrote:
Annabelle wrote that she did knot know how to find out which was the system drive and the size of said drives.
 
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Yes, hence my comment your instructions for Disk Management were spot on.

But many people take the designation of "healthy" in Disk Management as indicative of an OK disk, and you cannot safely do that, so I wanted to make that absolutely crystal clear.
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Brian Virginia, USA Windows 10, 64-Bit, Version 21H2, Build 19044  

Puritanism: The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy.

    ~ H.L. Mencken, AKA The Sage of Baltimore