Not sure how to fix this...

[HeatM1ser2k4]

So my SSD is failing, and occassionally I have to re-install Windows. Recently a new issue has popped up that baffles me. Whenever I double-click a JPG on my desktop I get a pop-up error saying:

C:\Users|HeatM1ser\Desktop\Long.jpg
Class not registered.

My executables and documents open, but every image file gives a similar pop-up error message. The other 2 things is that when I go to the search bar inside the Windows menu and type CALC to use the calculator and press the enter key, nothing happens. The calculator shows up in the search, but wont open from there. The last thing is the notification part of my taskbar....if I click on the volume icon to raise/lower the volume, nothing happens. The volume slidebar wont even show up when I click on the speaker icon.

In my Samsung Magician software it says I have SMART errors, but when I run a disk check through Windows it detects no errors. I've opened the DOS prompt as an administrator and ran a C:\DSKCHK /f /r /c . When WIndows boots up it goes into the disk check and around 10% the SSD seems to stall and stop running.

Any suggestions on hgow to get my taskbar, Windows search and desktop back to normal while I save up for a new SSD?

PS--sucks, my SSD was just slightly out of warranty!

 

[Mr.Scott]

Gonna need a fresh install to fix that.

 

[EarthDog]

Stop treating the symptoms and solve the problem.

SSDs are cheap... 512gb m.2 pcie drives are well under $100. Sata based m.2 even cheaper with 7mm SATA cheaper than that. What size do you need and what are you looking to spend?

Consider creating a signature with your hardware listed in it.

 

[trents]

You are getting corrupt files because of the disk failure. It's an odd effect, though, as most of the time flash storage suddenly quits without warning. Windows disk error checking is joke. The Samsung software is much better and there is a third party SMART checker called Crystaldiskinfo that is very good too.

Yes, as others have said, you won't solve this except by replacing the SSD. Back up your data first.

 

[HeatM1ser2k4]

I would buy a new SSD, but Im unemployed and dont have the money

 

[mackerel]

Would be very curious what the SMART errors actually are. If possible, could you download and run CrystalDiskInfo and show what it reports?

As for the SSD itself, you could try a last ditch repair attempt on it, but this is really grasping at straws. This also depends in part what SMART reports is the problem. I'm thinking, backup anything you want to keep (if it hasn't already been corrupted by the failing SSD) then try doing a secure erase on it. It's the nearest thing to a low level format and might give the drive a chance to remap problem areas out of the way. This assumes there are bad areas that haven't already been mapped out for some reason. As its name implies, it will remove all data from the drive. If the problem lies elsewhere than the flash, it probably isn't recoverable.

 

[HeatM1ser2k4]

CrystalDiskInfo Shows no errors, but the Samsung Magician software shows 2 SMART errors

Would be very curious what the SMART errors actually are. If possible, could you download and run CrystalDiskInfo and show what it reports?

As for the SSD itself, you could try a last ditch repair attempt on it, but this is really grasping at straws. This also depends in part what SMART reports is the problem. I'm thinking, backup anything you want to keep (if it hasn't already been corrupted by the failing SSD) then try doing a secure erase on it. It's the nearest thing to a low level format and might give the drive a chance to remap problem areas out of the way. This assumes there are bad areas that haven't already been mapped out for some reason. As its name implies, it will remove all data from the drive. If the problem lies elsewhere than the flash, it probably isn't recoverable.

 

[EarthDog]

Save up quickly...

 

[mackerel]

Agreed, safest option is replace. Still, it looks like there were some bad areas that ECC couldn't fix, hence the corruption. I still wonder if a secure erase might help, but if you're going that far, just replace. Wonder if there is an equivalent to full surface scans on hard disk, that could be done on SSDs. A verify cycle would be read, write, read the storage area. The initial read might pick up bad areas that the write will allow the disk to fix. Final read to check. It's a lot of work, time consuming, and might not go anywhere...

 

[Kenrou]

There's a program from Western Digital called "Data Lifeguard Diagnostics" that does checks/low level format on any HDD/SSD/USB the system recognizes, I used to use it on my USB sticks to get their full speed back after a few quick formats. I think you can download it from their website?

 

[trents]

How does low level formatting affect the longevity of an SSD?

 

[Kenrou]

How does low level formatting affect the longevity of an SSD?

It's likely going to eat up a few % but it depends on how many redundants it has. Low level format is writing zeroes into every physical sector including cache bringing it back to factory state - supposed side effect is that it also counts as a "secure" format, that is, you can't recover anything from it.

 

[mackerel]

On a SSD the only secure erase is via the secure erase command for a SSD. Writing zeros doesn't guarantee deletion of all data on a SSD as it will have over-provisioning and you don't know you will hit those areas through normal access. Also, zeros written is logically different from empty space (erased) on a SSD.

 

[Kenrou]

On a SSD the only secure erase is via the secure erase command for a SSD. Writing zeros doesn't guarantee deletion of all data on a SSD as it will have over-provisioning and you don't know you will hit those areas through normal access. Also, zeros written is logically different from empty space (erased) on a SSD.

Over provisioning will be zeroed as well (or not touched if it hasn't been used), why I said it will take a few % off SSD's life, like a defrag. Maybe I'm misreading something ?

"Low-level formatting formats your hard drive past the point of no return because it wipes all existing sectors on the physical surface of your drive rather than just on the filesystem. It was used in the past to get rid of all existing data on old MFM hard disks permanently – useful if you had sensitive data that you wanted gone forever, were selling your hard drive, or if you had a severe virus, such as a boot-sector virus, which couldn’t be removed using the standard formatting process. Today, modern (SATA and ATA) hard drives are low-level formatted upon manufacture and can’t technically be low-level formatted again in the same way as old MFM drives used to be. However, there are equivalent processes that carry out similar functions. The modern equivalent to low-level formatting is “zero-filling”, whereby you replace all data on your hard drive with arbitrary zeros or other characters, making that data deleted and unrecoverable."

This is the program I used - https://support.wdc.com/knowledgebase/answer.aspx?ID=1211#windlg

"...The Quick Erase option is much faster but does not fully wipe out the drive. This is ideal for users who are planning on re-using the drive. The Full Erase will fully wipe out the drive. This takes longer, but helps to ensure that no data on the drive can later be retrieved using Data Recovery methods. This method is designed for people who are trying to wipe sensitive data from their disk..."

 

[mackerel]

That only applies to spinning disks which have more or less a direct mapping between user data and physical media (there are usually a few spare sectors but nowhere like on SSDs). SSDs over-provision and that can't be directly accessed. Maybe if you did multiple passes, but that's going to be really time consuming and life eating. Also writing zeros and having an "empty" state flash are very different things. Look at flash as having 3 states, unprogrammed, 0, 1. Secure erase puts it in unprogrammed state ready to be written. Having zeros written is not the same thing.

 

[Kenrou]

Aren't over-provision blank by default though - if so the software shouldn't need to access it regardless (even if it could). It was my understanding that a sector is only swapped out when it's completely "dead" ?

 

[mackerel]

I think pretty much all flash based SSDs employ a degree of over-provisioning. On Kingston SSDs they actually state it on their site. I think it worked out to be about 7%, the difference between sold capacity and next highest power of two capacity. So by normal access, you can't reach that 7% except indirectly doing a lot of writes and hoping the drive swaps to it. As a user you don't have visibility or control over that process.

The extra over-provisioning you can set in software is on top of that.

 

[EarthDog]

Aren't over-provision blank by default though - if so the software shouldn't need to access it regardless (even if it could). It was my understanding that a sector is only swapped out when it's completely "dead" ?

AFAIK....yes.

Anyway. SE wipes the drive to out of the factory state.

I wouldn't make a habit out of it, but several times over its life I surely wouldn't worry about. We really need to get rid of this worry about writes on SSDs out of our collective minds....even when SE. I cant tell you how many times I've SEd drives and it doesnt even take a dent out of its life.

 

[E-Tech]

Want to clear a hard disk SSD HDD doesn't matter, use Windows diskpart clean command which removes all data and formatting from the disk and leaves it in a RAW state.

All SSD's are allocated 10% over-provisioning by default from the factory. That's why the latest generation of SATA SSD obtaisn the speed they do.

If you want to limit writes to an SSD (not necessary nowadays) use an HDD for your user data.

 

[EarthDog]

All SSD's are allocated 10% over-provisioning by default from the factory. That's why the latest generation of SATA SSD obtaisn the speed they do.

All? Some (most?) are OP'd, some are not I thought. That is a (small) part of the reason for performance. The other is the controllers, NAND, DRAM onboard, etc.