Windows System Log - Bad Blocks

[dave_the_nerd]

Windows System Log is telling me Device DR0 is having bad block issues, but CHKDSK isn't finding any and SMART says it's fine too.

It's a 90 GB Vertex 3 SSD though, so I probably shouldn't trust the SMART info. Firmware 2.25.

I've seen these error messages in the log before, but now they're coming in spurts. (Used to be 1 or 2 every few days, now it's batches of 5.)

I'm getting hangs. The HDD light will go solid. I can move the mouse, but the computer is more or less unresponsive.

There are no other errors in the system log, anyway, except some share mounting goofs because of network dependencies loading in the wrong order. And a repeating error about Schannel doing something dumb. (Also network related, I guess.)

I'm able to boot from recovery CDs, etc., and everything else checks out. (No viruses, memtest passes, OCZ tools disk reports everything fine with the SSD.) But here's the kicker - the computer works fine in safe mode, even with networking enabled. Just chugs along.

I just rebooted normally. Intel RST is also reporting everything fine. The errors are still showing up in the system log though.

Any thoughts? Is it possible there's a now-corrupted driver inhabiting a bad block that CHKDSK isn't recognizing as bad for some reason? Or is it possible the OS is just coincidentally misinterpreting inconsistent SSD performance as a failed i/o and I just need a repair install?

I appreciate any thoughts or input.

 

[Cerb]

Hmmm. The symptoms are right for a drive needing to remap weak sectors, after many rereads and/or write (programming) attempts. Generally, the bad block error in the event log would be matched by an increase in re-allocated sectors and/or a program failure counter increasing.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

The failed sector number in SMART (value 5) is calculated as a % by the drive, though. (It doesn't actually show the number of bad sectors that it's remapped.) Something OCZ does the play dirty pool, I guess. It's probably rounding up.

I ran chkdsk /r /f a couple more times and the freezing stopped. So I'm assuming the bad sector finally remapped and everything's copacetic...

...until next time.

Thanks.