Question Recommendations for testing a SSD for issues/damage?

[Cyber_Akuma]

So, my desktop has two SSDs in RAID0. Back in 2015 I was getting BSOD issues which I never had before. It seemed to happen whenever I was trying to mount a virtual CD-ROM so I assumed it was a driver issue... but then it would randomly BSOD while booting Windows.... but work fine if it manages to finish booting.

Since the whole free Windows 10 update thing was around this time, I took a spare 5400RPM HDD I had at the time, imaged the RAID to it, and updated that from Win7 to Win10.... I have been meaning to go back but always kept getting sidetracked.... plus I was always planning to just test out Win10 but go back to 7 since I didn't like it... but that's not going to be much of a viable option soon so I am going to just have to stick to 10.

Anyway, I am planning to finally image this HDD back to the RAID0 of SSDs... but I still want to test them first. I didn't want to test them while in RAID because that would just be testing the virtual drive itself and not the physical drives as individuals, so I got a OpticalDrive-to-HDD adapter for my laptop so I can plug in the SSDs in place of the optical drive as a second HDD and run testing software on them, as well as firmware updates. (I don't want to use my desktop for it because it would recognize them as part of the RAID instead of individual drives, also Samsung's software is unable to detect the drives or update their firmware in a RAID).

The only issue is... I have no idea what would be good testing software. I don't mind if it's destructive to the data, I have backup images and am currently running off of a HDD that I will image back to the SSDs anyway (Plus since I would only be able to test one drive out of a raid at a time, they would just appear as unformatted to the system anyway unless I format them), I just wanted to know any recommendations for good (and preferably free to use for home use) software I can use to test my SSDs to make sure they are still working fine.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Why would you want to RAID your SSDs? We've been down this road MANY times, and I can tell you without any doubt that it's not doing you any favors.

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ssd-raid-benchmark,3485-13.html


Even without an SSD.

Why RAID is (usually) a Terrible Idea

As president of Puget Custom Computers, I get a unique perspective on computer products and technology. Our company specializes in selling high performance custom computers, and that naturally brings up the question of RAID often. There is an overwhelming opinion out there that if you have the...

www.pugetsystems.com

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

It's already setup and done long ago, on top of that, at the time there were no commercial 2TB SSDs available for any reasonable price. I don't have the money to just go out and buy a single 2TB SSD just to un-raid them.

 

[Darkbreeze]

Understandable. However, if you require 2TB for your OS drive, you might want to consider it for the future.

In this case then, not really sure what you'd want to do to test or validate the array. But I know who does, and I'll send them here. They are likely to tell you the same thing I did, but I'm sure they have the additional information you're looking for as well.

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

I don't need to validate the array itself, just the individual drives, I can test them out of the array since I backed it up anyway, and can restore the backup image after testing and rebuilding the array.

 

[USAFRet]

These appear to be Samsung drives? Which ones?
The Samsung Magician would be the goto tool for testing.

But I agree with Darkbreze on the question of "Why the RAID 0?"
Beyond wanting the 2TB in a single drive letter, is there a specific reason you need it like that? Current OS and applications have gotten really good at managing multiple drives and drive letters.

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

They are EVO 840 drives, and both for wanting the single OS drive to be larger and faster sequential writes for captures.

Can we please just focus on the testing part?

 

[geofelt]

Samsung magician can test your drives and will also update the firmware which you likely need.

Samsung Magician Software Download | Samsung Semiconductor Global

Samsung Magician software is designed to help you manage your Samsung SSD with a simple, intuitive user interface. Download files & find supported models.

www.samsung.com

 

[Cyber_Akuma]

Yeah, Samsung Magician was going to be my first go-to, is that enough or is are there others one can recommend I also use to test them?

 

[geofelt]

I don't know about "enough".
But Samsung knows their hardware best.
You might find it convenient to simply change the sata data cables to a non raid port for testing.
Or... buy a usb to sata adapter cable if you are going to remove the drives.