Question Bootable USB program to test internal SSD

[sirhawkeye64]

Is there a bootable USB program I can use to fully test an SSD in a Microsoft Surface Pro tablet? I suspect the SSD may be going bad, but haven't found a good way to check ths. Windows says the drive is fine (when I run Check For Errors within Windows Explorers) but I'm getting occasional errors like it can't read from the disk or soemthing. I've tried re-installing Windows twice (so that rules out a bad Windows install or install media) and usually after a few days, the errors appear from time to time (not in any way I can replicate on demand, other than just copy a bunch of stuff and hope it comes up again).

So I want to find a way to do a thorough test of the drive, preferably the entire drive and not while Windows is running.

Suggestions?

 

[mdd1963]

Most thorough tests would involve reading/writing to the entire SSD and would be destructive to the OS...

CrystalDiskInfo can at least pull the smart data (as can GSmartControl) to see drive health is ok and if any/many Media and Data Integrity Errors have been noted, etc...

I had a brand new MiniPC with a noname NVME (XII-CUU?) that although it gave no errors, would absolutely not allow a large WIn11 update, and, would never complete a Disk Scan successfully upon reboot. I simply quick formatted, reinstalled, and the issue was gone. So don't rule out a 'glitch' vice the SSD 'going bad', as certainly the quick format/reinstall is preferable to buying a new SSD to most.

 

[Ralston18]

Regarding:

"So don't rule out a 'glitch' vice the SSD 'going bad', as certainly the quick format/reinstall is preferable to buying a new SSD to most."

Agree and there is no harm in trying a quick format.

Or even a full format if it comes to that.

 

[sirhawkeye64]

Regarding:

"So don't rule out a 'glitch' vice the SSD 'going bad', as certainly the quick format/reinstall is preferable to buying a new SSD to most."

Agree and there is no harm in trying a quick format.

Or even a full format if it comes to that.

My understanding though is that a quick format won't check the drive as thoroughly and simply clears the FAT table. But I've already quick formatted the drive once, so that's where I'm a bit puzzled. However the issue doesn't always come up. Sometimes I can work on the tablet for an hour or two with no issues, other times I might copy a file and it comes up within a few minutes.

At this point, I don't care if I have to format the drive as there isn't much on it anyway at this point, and the OS can be re-installed if needed (takes maybe 30 minutes). I just need to know the SSD isn't bad before I start putting data on it as I would like to use it for travel (obviously I make backups of my data to an external SSD, but usually from the data stored on the tablet's internal SSD as part of my workflow. Most content is created on the tablet first and then backed up to an external SSD.

(I can't upgrade the SSD on the Surface Pro either, so that's not an option.)

I wil lsay that I did make a small bootable partition (32GB) and a large partition (the resto f the drive) and ran the H2TestW program on the large partition and it supposedly didn't find any issues reading/writing to the drive.... so maybe it's not an issue although it does puzzle me why after two installs, I still had the issue. I haven't used it much lately since the last install, at least to a point where the error was a problem (it came up once, but that was it, and I've used it maybe three times in all since the last re-install).

 

[USAFRet]

I wil lsay that I did make a small bootable partition (32GB) and a large partition (the resto f the drive) and ran the H2TestW program on the large partition and it supposedly didn't find any issues reading/writing to the drive

This was on an SSD?
Partitions are mostly meaningless. It is only a visual presentation, to follow what the OS needs.
On an SSD, it is NOT a physical separation like on an HDD.

Data exists, or not exists, wherever the drive firmware decides. And may well be different tomorrow than it was today. Even though the "partitions" look the same.