Question Can someone help me to interpret this Crystaldisk report?

[JCC3001]

Hello, everybody.
First of all, I'm a total newbie here and know nothing about PCs. So please pardon my ignorance if my question sounds dumb.
The thing is that someone told me I should check my discs from time to time, and today I did it for the first time with crystaldisk. This is the result:
imgur.com/a/rrLJdEr

I understand the first part with the "good" rate and the other fields next to it. But what the things below mean? I googled it, but I read that values and their meaning can vary between discs and companies. For comparison, I checked another disc and the results were similar; except for 04 start/stop count (current:100. worst: 100) and 09 power on hours (current: 100. worst: 100). While my disc shows a value of 37 for start/stop count, and 68 for the other one. So now I'm not sure whether the results are ok or not.
Help me please.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Pour over the following if you want something for a reference:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-...ng_Technology#Known_ATA_S.M.A.R.T._attributes
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-...g_Technology#Known_NVMe_S.M.A.R.T._attributes

A note about the values, a lot of them are normalized and start at 100, so they don't represent any actual value. Typically the higher the value, the better the health of the drive.

However, none of this is really necessary to monitor all the time, but if you want peace of mind, once a month is plenty.

 

[JCC3001]

Hey, thanks a lot! this cleared up some things.
So there is nothing to worry about my disc having a 04-start/stop count value of 37, and a 09-power on hours value of 68.
Those don't mean anything bad, right?

 

[fzabkar]

The raw value of the Power On Hours is 0x6D80 (= 28032 decimal).

https://www.google.com/search?q=0x6d80+in+decimal

The Current value is a normalised "health score". A drive with 0 hours would have a score of 100. When it starts to age, this score declines. A Current value of 0 probably corresponds to 10 years.

28032 hours = 3.2 years:

https://www.google.com/search?q=28032+hours+in+years

That's 32% of 10 years, so the Current value is reduced by 32 (68 = 100 - 32).

Attribute 04 is a strange one because its raw value appears to be restricted to 16 bits, in which case it has maxed out at 0xFFFF. To me, that's a firmware bug (I've seen plenty of them).

In short, those numbers look OK. That said, your drive is a Rosewood, which is considered to be a relatively unreliable model.

ST2000LM007 / ST1000LM035 – Is this the worst HDD ever made?
https://www.cheadledatarecovery.co.uk/2018/02/st2000lm007-st1000lm035-worst-hdd-ever/

 

[scout_03]

imgur does not lead to anything also name and model of this drive did you try is maker software to test it .

 

[USAFRet]

Also, please don't take these software tests as gospel.
Even if it shows great today, it may fail tomorrow.

Of my last 2 failed HDDs:

1x 3TB WD - 5 weeks old. Went from seemingly perfect to dead in about 36 hours

1x 14TB Toshiba. Went from zero defects to needing RMA replacement in 7 days.

Keep good backups.

 

[JCC3001]

In short, those numbers look OK. That said, your drive is a Rosewood, which is considered to be a relatively unreliable model.

Keep good backups.

Uhmm I see. Thank you guys so much.
And now that we are talking about this, any recommendations about what discs I should buy for main use and backup?

 

[Lafong]

Uhmm I see. Thank you guys so much.
And now that we are talking about this, any recommendations about what discs I should buy for main use and backup?

First thing you have to decide is how much capacity you need on the backup drive. Would not necessarily have to be an SSD.

You also need to decide if you want this backup drive to be mounted internally or externally. If external, would you want it to be permanently connected and always running?

You might even want both internal and external backups.

"Main use"?? Meaning for Windows and applications and original versions of your data? Some people prefer to put Windows and applications on one drive and personal data on another. That's pretty much personal preference.

Again, you need to decide on capacity. Ideally, you'd want the Windows drive to be an SSD.

 

[USAFRet]

Uhmm I see. Thank you guys so much.
And now that we are talking about this, any recommendations about what discs I should buy for main use and backup?

The common backup concept is 3-2-1
3 copies, on at least 2 different media, at least 1 offsite or otherwise unavailable.

The lead post here is mine.

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

forums.tomshardware.com

Modified a bit since I wrote this, but the basics...

 

[JCC3001]

I'm thinking about a ssd for windows and a 2tb internal hdd for storage + 1 large capacity hdd for backup.
Or maybe just a 3tb hdd for windows and storage + 1 or 2 hdd for backup.

The common backup concept is 3-2-1
3 copies, on at least 2 different media, at least 1 offsite or otherwise unavailable.

Oof, I didn't think about this. Looks like I'll have to buy additional discs.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm thinking about a ssd for windows and a 2tb internal hdd for storage + 1 large capacity hdd for backup.
Or maybe just a 3tb hdd for windows and storage + 1 or 2 hdd for backup.

SSD for the OS and applications.

 

[Lafong]

I'm thinking about a ssd for windows and a 2tb internal hdd for storage + 1 large capacity hdd for backup.
Or maybe just a 3tb hdd for windows and storage + 1 or 2 hdd for backup.

SSDs are so cheap now that I wouldn't think there'd be a good reason to put "original" personal data on a spinning drive............UNLESS you have an awful lot of it or serious budget issues.

Large capacity HDD for backup....that can make sense.

 

[JCC3001]

SSDs are so cheap now that I wouldn't think there'd be a good reason to put "original" personal data on a spinning drive............UNLESS you have an awful lot of it or serious budget issues.

Large capacity HDD for backup....that can make sense.

Well I think I'll use up to 3tb at most.
So buying a 250-500gb ssd for windows and apps + 2tb hdd for storage (just files from work that I just want to have at hand, but I'm not going to use everyday) could be enough for me. Or you think I should buy multiple ssd instead?

 

[USAFRet]

Or you think I should buy multiple ssd instead?

This.

All my house systems have been SSD only for years.
My main system, 6x 1TB SSDs.

The large capacity spinners are relegated to the 95+ TB in the NAS box.

 

[Lafong]

Well I think I'll use up to 3tb at most.
So buying a 250-500gb ssd for windows and apps + 2tb hdd for storage (just files from work that I just want to have at hand, but I'm not going to use everyday) could be enough for me. Or you think I should buy multiple ssd instead?

250 to 500 for Windows/apps is sensible. I use 500, but 250 would have been plenty large enough. I bought 500 only because 500 was only 5 dollars more than 250.

"Storage"?? What "storage" do you own right now?

The price differential for 2 TB HDD versus 2 TB SSD is quite small.

60 to 100 for SSD; 40 to 50 for HDD.

Is that price difference a big deal to you?

I use 2 TB SSD for storage. My "original" data is about half of that...950 GB.

BUT............you need to decide the rate of growth of your data. It might be 20 GB a year or 500 a year. You are the authority on that.

Prices for 4 TB SSD are typically near 200 to 220. On sale for near 160 or so recently, depending on brand. 4 TB HDD is circa 70 or 80.

I'd avoid HDD as much as possible, barring budget reasons.

 

[JCC3001]

Oof thanks a lot guys. You both have been of great help so far.

Ok, so now I decided to buy one 500gb ssd, one internal 2tb ssd, and multiple external 2tb ssd.
Any brand and models recommendations?

 

[USAFRet]

Oof thanks a lot guys. You both have been of great help so far.

Ok, so now I decided to buy one 500gb ssd, one internal 2tb ssd, and multiple external 2tb ssd.
Any brand and models recommendations?

Externals don't need to be SSD, especially if they are for 'backups'.

Brands?
Samsung, Crucial, WD...

 

[Lafong]

Give us an outline of your "backup" idea?

Including whether internal or external or both.

What is your estimate of ALL personal data as of right now? Growth rate?

OS drive: any of several would be fine. Could be traditional 2.5 inch SATA or M.2 SATA or M.2 NVMe....depending on your budget and motherboard.

Typical brand recommendations.....Crucial, WD, Samsung.

What motherboard brand/model do you have?

 

[JCC3001]

Ok, here is my situation:
I have a lenovo 81bg ideapad 320 15ikb. I use a 250gb ssd for windows and apps. This one is not so important since I only have games and apps for work here, which I can download again. Other than my browser history/sessions and passwords, there is nothing much to worry about. Then, I have an internal 2tb hdd divided in 2 partitions. Here I save photos, videos, documents, and files from work. Which are flac files and samples. They are usually just sitting there with no much interaction once the work is done, except that sometimes I'm asked to mix them which can result in raw files ranging from 10gb to 25gb, counting different variations of the same original file. After some months or even a year, I'm asked to move some of them to someone else PC and delete them from mine. Because of this, I've never really had this hdd full. However there are times when it can reach peaks of 1.6-1.8tbs of work. The reason why I don't save them in an external disc is because, due to my job, I have to run from place to place and I'm scared it could fall and get damaged. This is why I say this is for storage. Lastly, I have an external 3tb hdd as backup that I update once every 1-2 months or so because of the nature of my job. As the files don't get opened much, unless it's one of the aforementioned cases where I have to edit and mix, or replace final files. Right now, this backup has about 1.3tbs, including both work and personal data.

In your opinion, what kind of models could be good options?

 

[Lafong]

Your pain point is what?

Lack of capacity on the 2 TB internal?

I don't detect a complaint about capacity on the 250 internal.


Why is the 2 TB internal split into 2 partitions?

Lack of speed? Where?

I don't see any problem with using the 3 TB external for backup. It appears to have plenty of capacity as you describe it.

I'm not quite clear on your complaints.

 

[JCC3001]

I'm not really complaining though. I started this thread to figure out if my current disc was ok or not.
It's ok but it turned out it was an unreliable model, then I asked for advice about what would be a good disc model so I can replace it before it fails.
Which lead to us talking about usage, backups and growth rate.

Why is the 1 TB internal split into 2 partitions?

Because this is the 2tb disc that was installed when I bought this laptop. Then I took the laptop to a tech center for maintenace and the employee recommended that I should install a ssd disc for the OS. Which I did. Then he said I should format the C partition to keep using the hdd and save my stuff there. That's what happened.

Anyway, do you guys know reliable ssd models (2tb) I could buy?

 

[Lafong]

I know little about that particular laptop.

I assume it will accept an ordinary 2.5 inch SATA SSD. You might want to confirm that with your manual or from the manufacturer's web site.

Standard in that category would be something like a Crucial MX 500. A Samsung 870 Evo or WD Blue would also work.

I'd just leave it as one single partition, undivided. That maximizes the efficiency of the 2 TB space. Divide it up as you see fit with folders.