10-23-2011, 12:16 AM

Have installed a new G.Skill Falcon SSD in my Mac Pro and got a warning from SMARTReported of an error. TechToolDeluxe v.6.0.3 reports 16 bad blocks and have run Disk Utility Verify and Repair Disk which reports no problems, and DiskWarrior has rebuilt the Directory. The drive now reported as passed as 'S.M.A.R.T. Condition not exceeded drive OK'.

Any other suggested first aid tips, please?

10-23-2011, 10:26 AM

I think I would be inclined to send that SSD back and have them send you another. 16 bad blocks for a new drive sure doesn't sound right. I've never used TechToolsDeluxe but I do trust the SMART reporter. I've read that all SSDs have some bad blocks and that they have reserve or spare blocks that are placed in service.

10-23-2011, 05:03 PM

Originally Posted by harryb2448

Any other suggested first aid tips, please?

Harry,

Here are a couple articles I found regarding SSD drives & bad blocks:

bad block management in flash SSDs - article StorageSearch.com
Write amplification - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I was surprised to see the author of the first article mention that between 2% and 10% of the blocks in a new "flash devices" can be bad...and that this process (development of more bad blocks) is an ongoing process thru the life of the device.

I knew that flash devices were prone to this sort of thing due to all of the reads & writes to the chips...but I figured this wouldn't start until after the drive had some age on it...and a LOT of writes to the same chips.

HTH,

- Nick

10-23-2011, 05:48 PM

Well Nick the G.Skill falcon started after four days!

This is going to cause huge problems for S.M.A.R.T.Reporter as it started the error notices and repeated them every few minutes. Then the drive could not be zeroed as that was simply not accessible. An ordinary erase and restore bought up the message no disk space so she goes back in this morning's mail.

Makes one wonder about the usefulness of an SSD which is partitioned to run Bootcamp. Back to the Velociraptor!

10-24-2011, 05:31 PM

Further investigations reveal there is SSD and SSD's and not all of them seem to like S.M.A.R.T.Reporter. Some say aye and some say nay. Never have had one whisper from the Mercury Extreme, however G.Skill Falcon simply will not co-operate. It appears SR carries out some tests not recognized by many SSD's which seems to cause this problem.