USB Drive testing failures - Data Verify failure

[Comark Corp]

Hello,

I am trying to do testing on 2.5" hard drives connected through a USB to PATA adapter (USB 2.0). I am running only the drive test at a 100% duty cycle. For some reason, I'm getting "data verify failure" on average about once few minutes. So, I created a .cmd script that copies and verifies the same data file that BurnInTest generates in a continuous loop and get no errors after hours of testing. I've tried three different adapters from different manufacturers, as well as a number of different hard drives. Using 5.3 build 1014.

The test script I made looks like this:

:start
xcopy /v /y bittestE00001.bin e:
fc/b crash.bin e:\crash.bin

if errorlevel 1 goto error
goto start

:error
ECHO an error occurred!

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

[David (PassMark)]

It might be interesting if you posted the log from BurnInTest showing the exact errors.

Your script would only seem to test a small part of the surface of the disk. BurnInTest will test the entire disk if you leave it to run. So I don't think you are comparing apples to apples.

Also, I think your script copies a file called bittestE00001.bin, but verifies a file called crash.bin, which is not the same file as you copied.

[Comark Corp]

It might be interesting if you posted the log from BurnInTest showing the exact errors.

Your script would only seem to test a small part of the surface of the disk. BurnInTest will test the entire disk if you leave it to run. So I don't think you are comparing apples to apples.

Also, I think your script copies a file called bittestE00001.bin, but verifies a file called crash.bin, which is not the same file as you copied.

Sorry about the filenames, I renamed the bittest file to crash.bin, but when I posted my question I renamed it back so as not to cause confusion. I guess that backfired, eh?

In actuality the file being copied and compared is crash.bin which is a renamed bittest file. And, as you say, I'm not testing the entire drive.

Here's the log. Thanks again.

PassMark BurnInTest Log file - http://www.passmark.com
================================================== ======

BurnInTest V5.3 Pro 1014
Logging detail level: Normal

******************
SYSTEM INFORMATION
******************
Computer Name: [deleted]

Date: 04/23/08 08:46:23
Operating system: Windows 2000 Professional Service Pack 4 build 2195
Number of CPUs: 1 (2 Core(s)/CPU, 1 Logical(s)/Core)
CPU manufacturer: GenuineIntel
CPU type: Intel(R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.00GHz
CPU features: MMX SSE SSE2 SSE3 DEP PAE
CPU1 speed: 3297.1 MHz
CPU L2 Cache: 2 MB (L3 Cache: 0 KB)
RAM: 2038 MB
Video card: Intel(R) 82945G Express Chipset Family (Resolution: 1152x864x32)
Disk drive: Model ST3120026AS (Size: 111.8GB)
Disk drive: Model TOSHIBA MK4025GAS USB Device (Size: 37.3GB)
Optical drive: HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4480B

******************
DETAILED EVENT LOG
******************
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 08:46:23, Status, PassMark BurnInTest V5.3 Pro 1014
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 08:46:24, Status, Main Tests started
SERIOUS : 2008-04-23 08:53:05, Disk, E: Data Verify failure
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 08:53:05, Disk, File: E:\BurnInTest test files\~bittestE00010, Value Read: 16, Value Expected: 17, Offset 126010120, Ops: 7717715968
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 08:53:05, Disk , Disk Error (E: Data Verify failure in Cycle 9 with pattern Sequential data pattern
SERIOUS : 2008-04-23 08:54:35, Disk, E: Data Verify failure
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 08:54:35, Disk, File: E:\BurnInTest test files\~bittestE00012, Value Read: 140, Value Expected: 172, Offset 399264673, Ops: 9317548032
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 08:54:35, Disk , Disk Error (E: Data Verify failure in Cycle 11 with pattern Sequential data pattern
SERIOUS : 2008-04-23 08:55:08, Disk, E: Data Verify failure
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 08:55:08, Disk, File: E:\BurnInTest test files\~bittestE00013, Value Read: 0, Value Expected: 150, Offset 24887178, Ops: 9745563648
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 08:55:08, Disk , Disk Error (E: Data Verify failure in Cycle 12 with pattern Sequential data pattern
SERIOUS : 2008-04-23 08:55:44, Disk, E: Data Verify failure
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 08:55:44, Disk, File: E:\BurnInTest test files\~bittestE00014, Value Read: 0, Value Expected: 43, Offset 103300382, Ops: 10243899392
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 08:55:44, Disk , Disk Error (E: Data Verify failure in Cycle 13 with pattern Sequential data pattern
SERIOUS : 2008-04-23 08:57:49, Disk, E: Data Verify failure
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 08:57:49, Disk, File: E:\BurnInTest test files\~bittestE00017, Value Read: 2, Value Expected: 26, Offset 243943690, Ops: 12486901760
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 08:57:49, Disk , Disk Error (E: Data Verify failure in Cycle 16 with pattern Sequential data pattern
SERIOUS : 2008-04-23 08:58:22, Disk, E: Data Verify failure
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 08:58:22, Disk, File: E:\BurnInTest test files\~bittestE00018, Value Read: 0, Value Expected: 59, Offset 25971498, Ops: 12916162560
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 08:58:22, Disk , Disk Error (E: Data Verify failure in Cycle 17 with pattern Sequential data pattern
SERIOUS : 2008-04-23 08:59:03, Disk, E: Data Verify failure
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 08:59:03, Disk, File: E:\BurnInTest test files\~bittestE00019, Value Read: 0, Value Expected: 144, Offset 200883070, Ops: 13523419136
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 08:59:03, Disk , Disk Error (E: Data Verify failure in Cycle 18 with pattern Sequential data pattern
SERIOUS : 2008-04-23 08:59:38, Disk, E: Data Verify failure
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 08:59:38, Disk, File: E:\BurnInTest test files\~bittestE00020, Value Read: 37, Value Expected: 39, Offset 72895508, Ops: 13993508864
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 08:59:38, Disk , Disk Error (E: Data Verify failure in Cycle 19 with pattern Sequential data pattern
SERIOUS : 2008-04-23 09:00:14, Disk, E: Data Verify failure
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 09:00:14, Disk, File: E:\BurnInTest test files\~bittestE00021, Value Read: 128, Value Expected: 176, Offset 104745628, Ops: 14499971072
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 09:00:14, Disk , Disk Error (E: Data Verify failure in Cycle 20 with pattern Sequential data pattern
LOG NOTE: 2008-04-23 09:01:29, Status, Test run stopped

**************
RESULT SUMMARY
**************
Test Start time: Wed Apr 23 08:46:23 2008
Test Stop time: Wed Apr 23 09:01:27 2008
Test Duration: 000h 15m 04s

Test Name Cycles Operations Result Errors Last Error
Disk (E: New Volume) 22 15.686 Billion FAIL 9 Data Verify failure
TEST RUN FAILED

*******************************************
SERIOUS ERROR SUMMARY FOR THE LAST TEST RUN
*******************************************
SERIOUS : 2008-04-23 08:53:05, Disk, SERIOUS: Data Verify failure (x 9)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Comark Corp]

FWIW, I just tried a 1 hour test with your USB 2.0 loopback devices.
There were no failures.

[Comark Corp]

Thought I'd follow up with my findings. It turns out that a particular USB to PATA chip is responsible. This chips were located in a number of these devices we had lying around, including ones from Rosewill and Kingwin. The vendor ID of the internal chip is 152D which according to http://www.linux-usb.org/usb.ids is
152d JMicron Technology Corp. / JMicron USA Technology Corp.
2338 JM20337 Hi-Speed USB to SATA & PATA Combo Bridge

The Rosewill RCW-618 device can be seen here:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119244

We managed to find a device with another chipset inside and
the problem does not occur.

kudos to Passmark - I guess the data patterns you use are
quite effective!

Thanks for your help.

[David (PassMark)]

Thanks for posting the solution.

It is kind of scary however that such serious and easily detected faults are in all these USB drive adapters. There must be a lot of people out their getting some low level data corruption without knowing why.

If you have an account with Newegg maybe you should post your findings to Newegg as a review to avoid grief for others.