Self-Test

How, what, where and why - when using the software.
Megaman
Posts: 7
Joined: 2022.11.04. 15:44

Self-Test

Post by Megaman »

Dear Developer,

I wasn't sure if this is a bug or related to drive itself so I hope this is appropriate place to report this.
I have 3x SSD's 2x Firecuda 530's and Samsung 850 Pro. While doing either short or extended self-test I am able to "cancel" test on Samsung 850 Pro, but cancelling is not possible on Firecudas I can hit cancel, but is not actually cancelling the process, the only way I can stop is to exit Hard Disk Sentinel completely.
Is there reasonable explanation to why works on Samsung but not on Firecuda?
Thank you
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hdsentinel
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Re: Self-Test

Post by hdsentinel »

It is related to the drive itself.
Generally it is the responsibility of the drive how to accept the special commands like short self test / extended self test (or the command to cancel the running self test).
Hard DIsk Sentinel attempts to send the proper command - but yes, sometimes (depending on the drive itself and/or the current driver which manages the drive) the drive may "ignore" the command.

No need to restart at all, just send the test window to background (use the Background button if the test progress window is displayed) and let it running, it does not cause any troubles / performance degradation or similar with the drive.
Sometimes a complete re-detect (leftmost button showing two arrows in the main window) can help to re-read/update the complete status so then the drive finally reports that the self test stopped / finished.

Maybe you can use Report menu -> Send test report to developer option (the best is when the self test running and you send the progress window to background) as then I can check the actual situation, it may give some ideas, thoughts if there may anything to change, modify specifically for this SSD.
Megaman
Posts: 7
Joined: 2022.11.04. 15:44

Re: Self-Test

Post by Megaman »

Thank you for the explanation. I have follow your instruction and self-test report has been sent.
Thank you
Last edited by Megaman on 2024.03.22. 15:19, edited 1 time in total.
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hdsentinel
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Re: Self-Test

Post by hdsentinel »

Thanks for the report. Yes, I see.

In general, the short self tests / extended self tests work differently on SATA drives and NVMe SSDs, so the difference you see is probably "normal".
On SATA drives, generally we can any time start / cancel the self test. But this is not true with NVMe SSDs: generally there is an interesting behaviour when we use internal hardware self tests (Disk menu -> short self test, extended self test) on NVMe SSDs, depending on the driver used.

If you check the Information page of the Seagate SSDs, it shows

Disk Controller . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . : Standard NVM Express Controller (NVMe) [VEN: 1BB1, DEV: 5018] Version: 10.0.19041.3636, 6-21-2006

The Windows Standard NVM Express Controller driver has an interesting feature (bug? limitation? who knows....) that it prevents sending too frequent commands to the SSD which would control (start or cancel) the self test. This is not a bug/limitation/error of Hard Disk Sentinel and generally this is not too serious - a limitation of Windows.

So there may be "normal" and expected that the CANCEL command of the test blocked by the driver and never transferred to the SSD itself.

You can verify this: just use Disk menu -> Short self test and (as it probably finishes relatively quickly) try to launch the Disk menu -> Extended self test. There is good chance that you'll receive an error that too frequent commands can't be used as the command blocked.

According the experiences, you may need to wait 10-15 minutes (or even more) before
- starting a new self test
- or trying the cancel the self test
on an NVMe SSD with the Standard NVM Express Controller driver. This is normal.

A side note: by the Disk menu -> Device Specific Information, you can check the internal self test log of the SSD, so you can verify the last started hardware self tests and their results.
Megaman
Posts: 7
Joined: 2022.11.04. 15:44

Re: Self-Test

Post by Megaman »

You are not only a good developer of "Must Have" disk utility, but your support is very exceptional.

What you're describing with NVMe's and also I think Firecuda might have additional "limitations" figuratively speaking makes sense and yes, after run of self-test once there is limitation of how often that can be done before running it again.

Thank you very much for your help and in-depth educational explanation.
Have yourself and your Family wonderful weekend.
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