HARD DISK MONITORING

How to: monitor (micro) SD card health and status

In this tutorial, it is described about how to monitor the complete status of appropriate industry standard (micro) SD cards, USB devices with Hard Disk Sentinel.

While most SD/microSD cards offer no status information and they can be tested only with the Disk menu -> Surface test functions in Hard Disk Sentinel Professional, many industrial SD / industrial micro SD cards can provide status information. Hard Disk Sentinel Professional (since version 4.71.7) supports these and the their status (health, complete self-monitoring S.M.A.R.T. data, error counters and statistical information) are detected and provided.

The detection of the status is not automatic as performing detection of a different type of SD card may cause performance degradation and unneccessary wear. Because of this, the device type need to be detected first with Hard Disk Sentinel Professional, and then every time it automatically detects the complete status.

Initial setup of monitoring SD card status

After plugging the device by an appropriate memory card reader, the card reader is displayed with "unknown" status:

Then click on Control device-specific detection on the right to open a window where it is possible to select the type of the device and enable the status detection of the SD card. A new window opens:

Click on Auto detect on the bottom. The software will perform auto-detection and if the proper SD/microSD memory card inserted, should be able to determine its manufacturer and type.

And after clicking OK in the message window and then OK in the previously opened window, the complete status should appear:

The S.M.A.R.T. tab lists the device status, including error counters, lifetime statistics, total amount of data written / read, wear information, spare blocks, ECC information and so.

The Information tab shows the device basic information.

Now, after complete close / restart, the registered version of Hard Disk Sentinel Professional will immediately recognise the device, so no need to detect type again later, need to be done only once on this system. By the unregistered (trial) version, the device type is not saved, so the above steps need to be done again after restart.

Technical details

Hard Disk Sentinel Professional saves a special hidden "flag" file on the SD card and automatically detect its presence which allows using the appropriate status detection for the corresponding device. This file uses no disk space (0 bytes in length) and should remain on the SD card. If removed and/or the SD card re-formatted, the above mentioned steps need to be done again to initiate the status detection.

Note: the status information, error counters are not stored in user accessible sectors. Clearing, re-formatting the SD card or even using the industrial and government standard data destruction method (Disk menu -> Surface test -> Reinitailise Disk Surface test in Hard Disk Sentinel Professional) will not clear / restore the status and possible errors of the SD / microSD cards.

Memory card readers

To perform the detection, newer SD / microSD card reader/adapter may be required, usually these are marked to be compatible with newer SDHC and SDXC memory cards.

Some examples:

   

Supported micro SD / SD card models

Apart from their industrial grade which offers higher level of reliability, as the complete status (SD card health, SD card status, SD card error countrs and generally SD card S.M.A.R.T.) can be determined, monitored by Hard Disk Sentinel - and this way it is possible to be prepeared about problems, degradations, we strongly recommend to select and use the following devices instead of simple storage cards with no status information.

MR01GMS3I-HM6 1GB SLC microSD 3.0 Wide Temp
MR02GMS3I-HM6 2GB SLC microSD 3.0 Wide Temp
MR04GMS3I-HM10 4GB SLC microSD 3.0 Wide Temp
MR08GMS3I-HM10 8GB SLC microSD 3.0 Wide Temp
MR16GMS3I-HM10 16GB SLC microSD 3.0 Wide Temp
MR01GSD3I-HM6 1GB SLC SD 3.0 Wide Temp
MR02GSD3I-HM6 2GB SLC SD 3.0 Wide Temp
MR04GSD3I-HM10 4GB SLC SD 3.0 Wide Temp
MR08GSD3I-HM10 8GB SLC SD 3.0 Wide Temp
MR16GSD3I-HM10 16GB SLC SD 3.0 Wide Temp

S351MMVU8-C1000-4 512MB
S30GMMUU8-C1000-4 1GB
S302MMZU8-C1000-4 2GB
S304MMZU8-U1000-4 4GB
S308MMZU8-U1000-4 8GB
S316MMZU8-U1000-4 16GB

DESDC-04GY81RC2SC 4GB MLC
DESDC-08GY81RC1SC 8GB MLC
DESDC-16GY81RC1SC 16GB MLC

Hyperstone controllers are used in a variety of solutions. 
For more information please contact Hyperstone directly:
www.hyperstone.com

Kingston SDCIT / SDCIT2 :

Kingston SDCIT/8GB
Kingston SDCIT/16GB
Kingston SDCIT/32GB
Kingston SDCIT2/8GB
Kingston SDCIT2/16GB
Kingston SDCIT2/32GB

Swissbit Industrial micro SD:

SFSD4096NgBM1TO
SFSD8192NgBM1TO
SFSD016GNgBM1TO
SFSD032GNgBM1TO

ATP Industrial micro SD:

AF512SDI-5ACXX
AF1GSDI-5ACXX
AF2GSDI-5ADXX
AF512UDI-5ACXX
AF1GUDI-5ACXX
AF2GUDI-5ACXX
AF512SDI-ZADXM
AF1GSDI-ZADXM
AF2GSDI-ZAEXM
AF512UDI-ZADXM
AF1GUDI-ZADXM
AF2GUDI-ZAEXM

Attention manufacturers: if you prefer your products to be listed here please contact at info@hdsentinel.com about the possibilities.