SMART error using PrimoCache in Windows 10 1903

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LawrenceLee
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SMART error using PrimoCache in Windows 10 1903

Post by LawrenceLee »

I am using Primocache 3.0.9 In Windows 10. I keep getting a SMART warning “current pending sector count error” on my new Crucial MX500GB SSD that flips from 1 to 0. This is being reported in a program called Hard Disk Sentinel software which are used to monitor my Hard Disk and SSD's. I have attached a picture of the error.

The health of the SSD keeps toggling also between 100% and 99%. This seems to go along with what I'm seeing in the SMART warning

To see if this error would repeat I actually deleted my caching task. Once I deleted the caching task I do not see the error anymore in Windows 10 occurring.

My system is a dual-boot system. If I boot into my Windows 7 partition, Hard Disk Sentinel does not report this “current pending sector count error” at all.

Is this related to some software issue in Primocache 3.0.9 being reported incorrectly. I did not see this issue prior to Primocache.
Attachments
Windows 10 SSD Health Reporting.JPG
Windows 10 SSD Health Reporting.JPG (283.31 KiB) Viewed 6886 times
Windows 10 Smart Error.JPG
Windows 10 Smart Error.JPG (202.84 KiB) Viewed 6886 times
LawrenceLee
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Re: SMART error using PrimoCache in Windows 10 1903

Post by LawrenceLee »

This seems to be a legitimate error. Using the crucial executive software monitoring shows that this current pending sector count error is occurring.
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Crucial SMART Error Capture.png
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Re: SMART error using PrimoCache in Windows 10 1903

Post by Support »

Could you upload a screenshot of your PrimoCache main dialog which shows the cache configuration and statistics for our reference. Thanks.
We didn't notice this kind of issue and receive similar reports before. We searched the Internet about this error and find the following link.
https://forums.unraid.net/topic/73907-c ... gs-on-ssd/
It seems that this is a firmware bug on Crucial MX500 SSDs.
LawrenceLee
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Re: SMART error using PrimoCache in Windows 10 1903

Post by LawrenceLee »

I reformatted, re-partitioned and resized cache on the Crucial MX500 SSD a number of times to see if I could "fool" the drive into using a different memory area that does post this problem. The problem continued to reoccur nonetheless.

I took the step of replacing the MX500 SSD with the Samsung 840 Pro and the problem has not reoccurred. It seems to be a problem with the Crucial SSD and not PrimoCache.

I read the link that you sent and it seems like this is a known problem with Crucial MX500 SSD's. Compared to the Samsung 840 Pro the Crucial MX500 performs significantly better as a caching drive. I ordered a new one to replace the MX500 I have and I will see if this new part exhibits the same issue.

Thanks for researching this issue…
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Re: SMART error using PrimoCache in Windows 10 1903

Post by Support »

Thank you for the further information!
LawrenceLee
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Re: SMART error using PrimoCache in Windows 10 1903

Post by LawrenceLee »

@support

As mentioned in my last post I replaced my initial crucial MX500 Drive with a new drive.

The new drive exhibits the same SMART warning “current pending sector count error”. The health of the drive toggles back and forth between 99% and 100% as mentioned before.

In my opinion the Crucial drives shows some performance advantages over my Samsung 840 Pro or 860 Pro drives. Also the "Crucial Storage Executive" software provides a deeper dive into the SMART parameters and diagnostics than does the Samsung Magician software. So in spite of this minor niggle I will keep using the MX500 Drives. For the cost of the Samsung 860 Pro I have double the capacity for my cache which stands at 256GB. I will repost if there is anything else to be said on this issue. Definitely not a PrimoCache issue. Cheers…
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Re: SMART error using PrimoCache in Windows 10 1903

Post by Support »

Thank you for your following up and sharing the information!
LawrenceLee
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On an entirely different note...

Post by LawrenceLee »

support,

This was interesting. My large 256 GB cash is really doing something.

I mapped two files; a 64 GB and a 100 GB that are resident on my 4 TB raid as a virtual disks (E: and F: drives). It appears that PrimoCache cashed possibly the entirety of these files as I accessed individual files out of these virtual disks.

The free space of my 256 L2 cache dropped to 32 GB. During that time my disk monitoring program Hard Disk Sentinel measured temperatures on my L2 SSD caching drive up to 51 Celsius. That's indicating that lots of activity was going on in the cache.

Wahoo! This program is really working hard!
Attachments
2019-11-23 22_45_01-Disk_ 1, CT500MX500SSD1 [1939E2210EFA]  -  Hard Disk Sentinel 5.50 PRO.png
2019-11-23 22_45_01-Disk_ 1, CT500MX500SSD1 [1939E2210EFA] - Hard Disk Sentinel 5.50 PRO.png (217.18 KiB) Viewed 6690 times
2019-11-23 22_46_02-PrimoCache 3.0.9 - Registered.png
2019-11-23 22_46_02-PrimoCache 3.0.9 - Registered.png (254.64 KiB) Viewed 6690 times
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Re: SMART error using PrimoCache in Windows 10 1903

Post by Support »

PrimoCache is disk-sector-level caching program. It only cache disk sectors that were read. If you see that the entirety of these files are cached, this means that the entirety of these files was read by Windows or other applications.
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