Question Parts of SSD reading really slow (Crucial BX500)

[eli2k]

Hello, I recently had an issue with a SSD where reading certain files will take a really long time. Though it eventually succeeds.

I have posted SMART data below from CrystalDiskInfo. I am copying data from the drive to a safe place. I can see it will normally copy at 30-50 MB/s (I am using USB3 adapter), and sometimes it will slow to 100-300 KB/s. But luckily it can make it past it and complete the copy. (adding clarification: this SSD was in another computer, connected via internal SATA port and served as a datastore for VMs, and I notice one VM booting up very slowly)

Is this a sign of failing SSD? I see that the drive is listed for 360TBW endurance for this model. I am not sure if a complete reformat would help or not, either. I have not encountered this issue with SSD before, so I wanted to find out what steps to take. Thanks!

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 (03) CT1000BX500SSD1
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
       Enclosure : CT1000BX 500SSD1 USB Device (V=1F75, P=0611, pr1) - m3
           Model : CT1000BX500SSD1
        Firmware : M6CR030
   Serial Number :
       Disk Size : 1000.2 GB (8.4/137.4/1000.2/1000.2)
     Buffer Size : Unknown
     Queue Depth : 32
    # of Sectors : 1953525168
   Rotation Rate : ---- (SSD)
       Interface : USB (Serial ATA)
   Major Version : ACS-3
   Minor Version : ACS-3 Revision 4
   Transfer Mode : SATA/300 | SATA/600
  Power On Hours : 14083 hours
  Power On Count : 41 count
     Host Writes : 57007 GB
     Temperature : 28 C (82 F)
   Health Status : Good (89 %)
        Features : S.M.A.R.T., NCQ, TRIM, DevSleep, GPL
       APM Level : ----
       AAM Level : ----
    Drive Letter :

-- S.M.A.R.T. --------------------------------------------------------------
ID Cur Wor Thr RawValues(6) Attribute Name
01 100 100 __0 000000000000 Raw Read Error Rate
05 100 100 _10 000000000000 Reallocated NAND Block Count
09 100 100 __0 000000003703 Power On Hours Count
0C 100 100 __0 000000000029 Power Cycle Count
AB 100 100 __0 000000000000 Program Fail Count
AC 100 100 __0 000000000000 Erase Fail Count
AD _89 _89 __0 0000000000A5 Average Block Erase Count
AE 100 100 __0 000000000026 Unexpected Power Loss Count
B4 100 100 __0 000000000008 Unused Spare NAND Blocks
B7 100 100 __0 000000000000 SATA interface Downshift
B8 100 100 __0 000000000000 Error Correction Count
BB 100 100 __0 000000000000 Reported Uncorrectable Errors
C2 _72 _37 __0 003F0019001C Temperature
C4 100 100 __0 000000000000 Reallocation Event Count
C5 100 100 __0 000000000000 Current Pending ECC Count
C6 100 100 __0 000000000000 SMART Offline Scan Uncorrectable Error Count
C7 100 100 __0 000000000000 UDMA CRC Error Count
CA _89 _89 __1 00000000000B Lifetime Remaining
CE 100 100 __0 000000000000 Write Error Rate
D2 100 100 __0 000000000000 Successful RAIN Recovery Count
F6 100 100 __0 001BD5E88402 Cumulative Host Sectors Written
F7 100 100 __0 0000DEAF4420 Host Program NAND Pages Count
F8 100 100 __0 0000F8C49740 FTL Program NAND Pages Count
F9 100 100 __0 000000000000 Vendor Specific
FA 100 100 __0 0000002805CE Vendor Specific
FB 100 100 __0 000000000018 Vendor Specific
FC 100 100 __0 000000000000 Vendor Specific
FD 100 100 __0 0000000016EB Vendor Specific
FE 100 100 __0 0000000008FB Vendor Specific
DF 100 100 __0 0000000000AB Vendor Specific

-- SMART_READ_DATA ---------------------------------------------------------
     +0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +A +B +C +D +E +F
000: 10 00 01 2F 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 05 32
010: 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 32 00 64 64 03
020: 37 00 00 00 00 00 0C 32 00 64 64 29 00 00 00 00
030: 00 00 AB 32 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 AC 32
040: 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 AD 32 00 59 59 A5
050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 AE 32 00 64 64 26 00 00 00 00
060: 00 00 B4 33 00 64 64 08 00 00 00 00 00 00 B7 32
070: 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 B8 32 00 64 64 00
080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 BB 32 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00
090: 00 00 C2 22 00 48 25 1C 00 19 00 3F 00 00 C4 32
0A0: 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C5 32 00 64 64 00
0B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C6 30 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00
0C0: 00 00 C7 32 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 CA 30
0D0: 00 59 59 0B 00 00 00 00 00 00 CE 0E 00 64 64 00
0E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 D2 32 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00
0F0: 00 00 F6 32 00 64 64 02 84 E8 D5 1B 00 00 F7 32
100: 00 64 64 20 44 AF DE 00 00 00 F8 32 00 64 64 40
110: 97 C4 F8 00 00 00 F9 32 00 64 64 00 00 00 00 00
120: 00 00 FA 32 00 64 64 CE 05 28 00 00 00 00 FB 32
130: 00 64 64 18 00 00 00 00 00 00 FC 32 00 64 64 00
140: 00 00 00 00 00 00 FD 32 00 64 64 EB 16 00 00 00
150: 00 00 FE 32 00 64 64 FB 08 00 00 00 00 00 DF 32
160: 00 64 64 AB 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 78 00 00 11
170: 02 00 01 00 02 0A 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
180: 00 00 53 31 30 31 35 41 30 20 30 30 00 00 00 00
190: 53 4D 49 32 32 35 39 58 54 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 E4 01
1B0: 25 00 00 4E 32 38 30 30 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1D0: 02 00 00 00 4A 00 00 00 D5 5F 01 00 59 0A 67 0A
1E0: 0C 0A F0 1E 01 00 A5 00 0D 01 76 00 00 00 00 00
1F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 A7

-- SMART_READ_THRESHOLD ----------------------------------------------------
     +0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +A +B +C +D +E +F
000: 10 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 05 0A
010: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 09 00 00 00 00 00
020: 00 00 00 00 00 00 0C 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
030: 00 00 AB 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 AC 00
040: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 AD 00 00 00 00 00
050: 00 00 00 00 00 00 AE 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
060: 00 00 B4 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 B7 00
070: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 B8 00 00 00 00 00
080: 00 00 00 00 00 00 BB 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
090: 00 00 C2 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C4 00
0A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 C5 00 00 00 00 00
0B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 C6 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0C0: 00 00 C7 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 CA 01
0D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 CE 00 00 00 00 00
0E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 D2 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
0F0: 00 00 F6 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 F7 00
100: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 F8 00 00 00 00 00
110: 00 00 00 00 00 00 F9 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
120: 00 00 FA 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 FB 00
130: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 FC 00 00 00 00 00
140: 00 00 00 00 00 00 FD 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
150: 00 00 FE 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 DF 00
160: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
170: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
180: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
190: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1A0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1B0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1C0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1D0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1E0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1F0: 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 4F

 

[Shmee]

It is possible that the USB connection could be severely bottle necking the SSD. What USB port is it attached to? A USB 2 port will limit to around 50MB/s at best, I believe. Also, it depends on the media you are copying files to, from the SSD. If you are copying to a HDD, particularly an external one, I could expect slow transfers.

 

[eli2k]

It is possible that the USB connection could be severely bottle necking the SSD. What USB port is it attached to? A USB 2 port will limit to around 50MB/s at best, I believe. Also, it depends on the media you are copying files to, from the SSD. If you are copying to a HDD, particularly an external one, I could expect slow transfers.

Thanks for replying. I should have added another detail I forgot -- this SSD was attached to internal SATA port, and it was a datastore for VMs, and I was noticing one machine boot up really slowly and noticed a lot of latency on disk monitoring. So I removed it and am using USB adapter to copy all the files off. But I would like to know what else I should look at before trying to send for RMA.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Once a BX 500 reaches steady-state, I would expect it to only be marginallly faster than a modern platter drive.

 

[coercitiv]

I have posted SMART data below from CrystalDiskInfo. I am copying data from the drive to a safe place. I can see it will normally copy at 30-50 MB/s (I am using USB3 adapter), and sometimes it will slow to 100-300 KB/s. But luckily it can make it past it and complete the copy. (adding clarification: this SSD was in another computer, connected via internal SATA port and served as a datastore for VMs, and I notice one VM booting up very slowly)

Is this a sign of failing SSD? I see that the drive is listed for 360TBW endurance for this model. I am not sure if a complete reformat would help or not, either. I have not encountered this issue with SSD before, so I wanted to find out what steps to take. Thanks!

After you complete your backup try to locate 1-2 files that have this very low 100-300KB speed, as well as files that can be copied at 30MB+. Are the "slow" files very old and the "fast" files relatively recent?

The Crucial BX500 is a product where Micron put all kinds of flash over the past 5 years. Depending on when and where you bought yours, the SSD may be using anything from TLC with 3000-5000 P/E cycles down to QLC with 900 P/E cycles. This will definitely have a major impact on data retention. Therefore, there is a considerable chance that your SSD is having difficulties reading the older data. (which you can confirm manually by locating older files, or using something like HDTune to monitor reads over the entire data pool of the drive)

Normally there should firmware controlled mechanics in place to mitigate this decay, the drive could simply refresh the data every now and then (trading some wear to keep speed decent). If everything else looks fine with the drive, you can always refresh the data on the disk yourself or use it for another project. (a complete reformat obviously helps because all files will be new, but there are utilities that can rewrite all existing files, allowing you to keep the disk in the same project)

 

[eli2k]

After you complete your backup try to locate 1-2 files that have this very low 100-300KB speed, as well as files that can be copied at 30MB+. Are the "slow" files very old and the "fast" files relatively recent?

These are large 64GB+ files (VM images), and they are recent files. When copying it over, at various intermittent points it will slow down significantly, then pick up again.

I think I will try to copy all data over. And then reformat and run some diskwide benchmarking to see if the speed is generally consistent across the entire drive, and RMA if any issues there?

 

[fzabkar]

Your SMART data contain these text strings:

S1015A0 00
SMI2259XT <-- flash controller
N2800

 

[eli2k]

Your SMART data contain these text strings:

S1015A0 00
SMI2259XT <-- flash controller
N2800

What does that mean? It is a really crappy flash controller?

 

[fzabkar]

Your SSD is the most recent incarnation. I have one also. People are reporting problems with this version, but mine is OK so far.

 

[eli2k]

Thanks, I see. I am going to migrate all the data off and figure out what to do afterwards.