Solved: How do I know the Solid State Drives (SSD) is malfunction, break down or fail

If you worry about the SSD will malfunction, break down or fail, pay attention to the following warning signs.

Content Summary

Potential causes of SSD failure
Recommended tools for SSD health check
Symptom 1: Bad blocks on SSD
Symptom 2: Can’t complete the operation because some data can’t be read or written
Symptom 3: PC needs to be repaired
Symptom 4: Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart
Symptom 5: The destination is read-only

Potential causes of SSD failure

• Capacitor and power supplies malfunctions due to power surge or power failure
• Limited read/write cycles

Recommended tools for SSD health check

• For Windows: CrystalDiskMark
• For macOS: Smart Reporter Lite
• For Linux: Hard Disk Sentinel

Symptom 1: Bad blocks on SSD

The OS attempts to read or save a file, but taking unusually long time and ends in failure, so the system gives up with an error message.

The common symptoms caused by bad blocks:

• File or folder cannot be read or written to the hard drive.
• PC or file system needs to be repaired.
• Active applications frequently freeze up and crash.
• Frequent errors while moving files or folders.
• Slow while accessing large files.

Symptom 2: Can’t complete the operation because some data can’t be read or written

The error message prompt as below:

The Finder can’t complete the operation because some data in xxx can’t be read or written. (Error code -36)

This error happens when:

• The system detects the bad block while writing data to the drive and thus refuses to write data. Since the data never written to the drive, so it isn’t corrupted. The system will resolve it automatically or you can try to save the file in a different location.
• The system detects the bad block after the data has been written and thus refuses to read that data. The data can’t be easily retrieved because whatever data contained on those bad blocks is lost for good.

Symptom 3: PC needs to be repaired

The error message prompt on your screen either Windows or macOS. The detailed error message is as below:

Recovery
Your PC needs to be repaired.
The application or operating system couldn’t be loaded because a required file is missing or contains errors.

Windows, macOS, and Linux have built-in repair tools for such corrupt file system error. Just follow the steps and repair the file system will fix this error.

Symptom 4: Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart

The active application frequently crashes with the following error:

Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart. We’re just collecting some error info, and then we’ll restart for you.

You can try to format the drive and reinstalling the OS to fix this error.

Symptom 5: The destination is read-only

Some users have experienced this error while copying or moving file:

Error while copying to xxx.
The destination is read-only.

In case the SSD is still functioning in read-only mode, you can retrieve all the content before securely erase the SSD.