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GNU+Linux command memo

smartctl to check SSD lifetime and much more

Contrôle et surveille l’état d’un disque SMART (température, heures de fonctionnement, journaux d’erreurs…)

1. smartctl commands

The command generaly comes with the smartmontools package of your GNU+Linux distribution.

$ sudo smartctl -H /dev/$device (1)
$ sudo smartctl -l error /dev/$device (2)
$ sudo smartctl -a /dev/$device (3)
$ sudo smartctl -t short /dev/$device (4)
1 Display health status ; you may have to add -d 'scsi' for such drives, or some USB ones…
2 Recent errors
3 All info
4 Start short SMART tests (hint: a long one exists also)

2. Outstanding smartctl -a /dev/$device results

The number of hours the device was "on" :

[…]
 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0032  100  100  000 Old_age Always - 8612
[…]

The number of working hours (for disks) :

[…]
 3 Spin_Up_Time 0x0007 222 222 033 Pre-fail Always - 2246
[…]

The remaining lifetime of SSD in term of rewriting capacities :

[…]
 202 Percent_Lifetime_Remain 0x0031 096 096 000 Pre-fail Offline - 4
[…]

Here the SSD consumed 4% of its manufacturer guaranteed lifetime (during 3 years and 9 000 power-on hours).

An SSD can survive 3x (to 10x) its official TBW (TeraByte Written) value, but its warranty wont…