Vaio Z. Do I have a bad drive or not?

[Oscar2]

I have a Vaio Z1 with two 128GB Samsung drives in Raid 0 (i.e. factory stock).

Lately the Intel Rapid Storage utility gives me an error that the unit in port 2 has failed (completely) and that it cannot be communicated with. Well, that is obviously not the case because (being Raid 0) if one drive were to do that, the laptop would be completely hosed.

But as far as I can tell, all my apps are running fine and all is well.

Now, I am assuming that may not be for long. But in the meantime:

1. What is the best and most thorough test I can do to the drive to determine what is wrong?

-AND-

2. What is the best way to replace it? (another identical Samsung?, a completely different pair of drives? do nothing?...)

I have reset the error a few times and it always comes back right away.

[namaiki]

What model Samsung drive is it? With the model number we can determine if it's two drives on one board and what type of cable is being used. Also, check SMART statistics for both drives using Hard Disk Sentinel trial.

On eBay there's a guy who is selling a 1x128GB boards. Not sure if yours would use those without checking the model number.

[Oscar2]

Here is what is the drive reports:

S/n: DF08401008SE808B5515
Samsung MMDPE56GQDXP-MVB
Size 122.104 MB

[namaiki]

I think that is a single board that contains 2x128GB SSDs. Not 100% though.

For now, what health does Hard Disk Sentinel report for each drive? Does it say anything about errors reported or bad sectors?

If you end up needing to replace the board you could replace it with one of the following:

1-857-577-11 $ SSD (MMDPE56GQDXP-MVB) [256GB MLC/2con/FLASH/SATA] 2x128 (what you currently have)
1-857-579-11 $ SSD (MMDPE28GDDXP-MVB) [128GB MLC/FLASH/SATA] 1x128GB (the eBay one)

If you wanted to do add another SSD board, you would need to purchase a double ended LIF cable called FPC-209. Part number: 1-881-492-12

You can purchase parts from Sony here: https://www.servicesplus.sel.sony.com/sony-parts.aspx

[Oscar2]

Ok, so I ran HD Sentinel.

On the good drive (disk 0) the health meter says 96%
On the bad drive (disk 1) it shows the health as 74% (whatever that means).
The performance meter indicates 100% for both.

In the overview it has these comments:

For disk 0 (the good drive): "9 errors reported during write to the device.
At this point, warranty replacement of the disk is not yet possible, only if the health drops further.
It is recommended to examine the log of the disk regularly. All new problems found will be logged there."

For drive 1 (my bad drive): "51 errors reported during write to the device.
At this point, warranty replacement of the disk is not yet possible, only if the health drops further.
It is recommended to examine the log of the disk regularly. All new problems found will be logged there.
It is recommended to continuously monitor the hard disk status."

I executed the 'Short self test', it indicated no problems.

The other tests require activation of HD Sentinel (which I will do if it looks like it would be useful to do those tests, is it?)

The Smart tab shows these values:

disk 0:
Used reserved blocks (total): 219
Unused reserved blocks: 3,749
Runtime bad blocks: 9

disk 1:
Used reserved blocks (total): 301
Unused reserved blocks: 3,667
Runtime bad blocks: 51

[namaiki]

No need to purchase HD Sentinel to do it's tests. It just happens to be the only program that I recall that can read the SMART info for the drives in RAID.

For that error that you mentioned in your first post, does that happen in Windows or before Windows has loaded? Which version of Intel Rapid Storage drivers are you currently using?

[Oscar2]

The version of RST is 9.6.0.1014

As far as the error goes: the initial screen before windows boots indicates (in red) that disk 1 had errors.

When windows boots then RST shows a little pop up saying disk 1 has failed.
When you run RST it shows a graphic that disk 1 has failed and offers to reset it to normal (but not other options). If I reset it comes back on its own (within the same day).

What is RST detecting anyway? I did a disk scan using "HD Tune Pro" (several times) it showed no issues.

No need to purchase HD Sentinel to do it's tests. It just happens to be the only program that I recall that can read the SMART info for the drives in RAID.

For that error that you mentioned in your first post, does that happen in Windows or before Windows has loaded? Which version of Intel Rapid Storage drivers are you currently using?

[namaiki]

Sony eSupport - VPCZ1190X - Drivers & Software

Maybe you can try that, if you don't already have it installed. No idea if it would make any difference.

Have you tried verifying your array in Intel RST in Windows?
Screenshot: http://puu.sh/sftn

[psyang]

Based on my experience, make sure your backups are in good order.

My drives started reporting errors in the RST software in the same way you describe. No problems running windows, however. I also thought the errors were false-positives since errors on RAID0 array should not be able to run. That's only true if the errors occur on files critical to running windows. Not a (for example) disposable file in the temp directory, or part of the drive that is currently marked as empty. Namaiki gives good advice - I ran the RST software's "Verify" routine (open RST, click Manage, then Advanced, then Verify). It reported about 15 errors the first time through. You click to accept the errors, and the nice green checkmark returns, which will make you feel better until RST reports errors again the next day.

I began running verify weekly, and the error count didn't change. After a month, though, that number started to climb. I began running verify almost daily, and every day the error count rose by a few - maybe 2 or 3. After a couple more months, the count was over 100. I also started to notice strange behavior within Windows: could not switch from my external sound card to my internal, switching graphics would start to hang, hibernating often ended in a blue screen. Small annoyances that I could live with, but I had to face the fact that my hard drive was failing.

Eventually, windows stopped booting. I sent it in for warranty repair, and the drive was replaced. I've been running fine ever since. Replacement was about 4 months ago.

There were issues with older versions of RST - but I'm pretty sure it was pre-9.6.0.1014.

Bottom line - depending on how full your drive is, you may not notice issues from within Windows for a while. For me, it was almost 6 months between when I first noticed an error, to when Windows stopped booting. It was hard for me to accept my drive was failing, but I eventually had to bite the bullet. If you're under warranty, repair it now while a) your warranty is still active, and b) you can properly prepare to be without a laptop (as opposed to having your laptop suddenly not boot one day).

Good luck, and I said before, make sure you have good, recent backups.

-Peter

[Oscar2]

Thanks, that gives me really good insight on what is going on that I did not have previously.
And thank you namaiki as well.

I ran the RST verify. It reported: 0 verification errors, 13 blocks with media errors.
I'll go ahead and run it each day and see how the errors change. But I'll assume that drive is going to need to change soon enough.

Since my Z11 is not under warranty, I wonder what the best alternative is to replace the drive(s).

I looked up the drive on that Sony parts link. It would appear Sony would get $1200+ for that drive

Going the ebay route shows none of the 256GB drives and one guy selling the 128GB:
MMDPE28GDDXP-MVB New Samsung 128GB Slim LIF SSD Drive | eBay

If I get a dual cable then I could use two 128s

That guy wants $74 for the 128GB vs Sony and their $1200 for the 256GB.
That doesn't even make the tiniest bit of sense. Is this likely to be one of those deals that is too good to be true?