SSD health down to 99% our of nowhere

[tropic_thunder_21]

Hello,

I looked in the forum (also googled for quite a lot) about this issue i am facing, and did not found another topic on this exact problem. So i thought to make a new one.

I purchased a brand new Toshiba SSD about 3 weeks ago, 240 GB, just to run Windows and other programs on it.

Yesterday i was installing some Windows updates (i don't let it to do so automatically), and everything was going well, until just after the restart, when the SSD's health suddenly dropped to 99%. Attached you will find 2 screens from the overall and smart sections displaying the information about this SSD. The problem seems to be the #173 - Erase Count.

Would you please help me understand what is the issue here and if anything can be done about this ?

Thanks very much in advance for all replies.

Best regards
Narek

[hdsentinel]

Hello,

Thanks for the information and sorry for the confusion.
I can confirm that it is completely normal and expected, nothing "can be done about this" (and nothing needs to be done).

Not sure why you did not find the answer, as it is already discussed on the forum:

https://www.hdsentinel.com/forum/viewto ... 074#p16074

and also described in the Help too:

https://www.hdsentinel.com/help/en/52_cond.html
(see the bottom of the page about SSD health)


No, I can confirm that you do not need to worry.
As the software displays the status is PERFECT, there are no problems with the SSD.

Yes, the health is not 100%, "only" 99% - but it is still "EXCELLENT" see next to the health % bar.

As you may know, the memory cells in solid state devices experience wear during each write operations and each cells tolerate only a limited number of overwrite passes.

The "wear-leveling" feature of the SSD tries to hide/minimise this effect but generally the SSD device reports the overall health of the memory cells by various attributes.

If there are no further problems found, Hard Disk Sentinel reads these attributes which determine the complete health of the solid state device.

This is what you can see in the text description area: there are no problems found, but the 173 Erase Count attribute determines the overall health of the device. If you want, you may check how that attribute changes with time on the S.M.A.R.T. page.

This is completely independent from software, OS, restarts and so: as the amount of written data increases, the health slowly but surely decreases.
This is normal - and you do not need to worry about it now, as only 1% of the total lifetime used.

I'd suggest to please use Report -> Send test report to developer option, then I can check the complete status.
The best would be if you can send developer report now (for reference) and maybe later upon any possible change, degradation, as this always helps in investigating a particular model, its reported health.

[tropic_thunder_21]

Hello,

Thanks very much for your response.

I did see the topics about the wear of the SSDs, but i assumed that this might be different as in the SMART of my SSD there is only the erase count attribute and not the wear level.

I did also send the report as you advised.

It's just very strange to me that the health would decrease so rapidly. I mean i haven't written to it more than couple hundred GBs. If it continues this way (1% in 10 days' time), the health will be down to 50% next summer.

Thanks again for your reply.

Regards
Narek

[hdsentinel]

Thanks for the answer and the report, I'm checking and verify the status.
Maybe if you'll ever see further decrease, please send a new report too, so then it is possible to compare, verify the amount of "wear" caused by written data.

Please do not worry, things are not so bad of course.
Some years ago the "trend" was that SSDs tried to maintain 100% health and show everything is just like new - and may even failed suddenly at 100% level, without noticeable signs.
Nowadays, things seems changing: sometimes SSDs relatively quickly go down to 99% and then the health decrease is slower. So it should not drop to 50% (or lower) so quickly.

I still feel it is better to see and keep an eye on changes, degradations - as this would always give the opportunity to prepare for planned replacement.

[tropic_thunder_21]

Hello,

So, not even 4 days have passed, and it keeps decreasing )) I sent a report to you again, as you had told ))

I will go to the store from where i bought this SSD and see what they propose.

But it would be great if you could give me some feedback from your side too ))

Best regards
Narek

[hdsentinel]

Yes, I can completely understand your thoughts, personally I also feel it is so interesting to see such relatively fast change in the reported overall health.

I'll verify the behaviour of this particular model and examine what can be in the background and check if it would be required to interpret the counters differently somehow. Would be ideal to have an official explanation from the manufacturer, just not sure if we can get some official information.

To be honest, I'd not really prefer to ask the shop as they may not really able to do anything.
Generally as the SSD is working correctly, there are no problems / issues with it, they can't offer replacement, can't provide different device instead of this one. The health decrease can be generally annoying, but as long as the health is high, we can be sure that the device is perfectly working - and may help to plan replacement only when it drops.

Warranty replacement may be possible only when the device reports that the error-level threshold exceeded (when 0 % health displayed, as displayed for hard disks on https://www.hdsentinel.com/faq.php#health but generally the warranty situation is similar with SSDs) or maybe if it produces other errors or do not work at all.

[sirius2834]

Hello,

I have similar problem. I've purchased a Toshiba TR200 SSD 21 days ago and the health steadily keeps decreasing from 100% - now is at 92%. I use the Linux version of HDS:

Hard Disk Sentinel for LINUX console 0.17x64.8556 (c) 2017 info@hdsentinel.com

HDD Device 4: /dev/sde
HDD Model ID : TOSHIBA-TR200
HDD Serial No: 18NB70Dxxxxx
HDD Revision : SBFA12.4
HDD Size : 228937 MB
Interface : S-ATA Gen3, 6 Gbps
Temperature : 32 °C
Highest Temp.: 35 °C
Health : 92 %
Performance : 100 %
Power on time: 21 days, 14 hours
Est. lifetime: more than 1000 days
The status of the solid state disk is PERFECT. Problematic or weak sectors were not found.
The health is determined by SSD specific S.M.A.R.T. attribute(s): #173 Erase Count
No actions needed.

It is a bit worrisome I would say - during the past 10 years I always used HDS and never had false data reported. As far as I know these new 3D chips have nothing to do with the reporting itself, in fact they should be better in terms of reliability as the data is being stored in a more "spacier" way.

[hdsentinel]

Sorry, but this is not a "problem" and generally there is no "false data reported" of course.

As discussed, most SSDs provide attribute(s) to check the actual health level of the memory cells, which slowly but surely change with usage (writes: program/erase cycles). These are identified and displayed by the software.

This does not cause troubles in the operation of the SSD or does not mean that Hard Disk Sentinel shows an incorrect value.
The SSD is working correctly, without problems.

The health change is not evil, it is a good thing - as by checking such values, we can check the usage level of the device and plan for replacement when it's required.
This is no question when the health is over 90%, maybe required to consider replacement on 25% or lower only.

Plus the rate of changing can help to identify if (for example) some programs write so many data and the situation can be changed (for example disable such write-intensive software or re-direct to hard disk or so).

With some Toshiba SSDs, recently found that they may provide wearout level slightly differently than expected, so some versions (including the Linux version) which released before them may display slightly lower health than should in this case.

If you have the opportunity, please save a report with the Linux version (using -r switch) and send the report to info (at) hdsentinel (dot) com
So I can check the current model and improve its support in the Linux version too, just like as it changed in the just released Windows version.

In other words, if you can check the current Toshiba model with the latest 5.30 Windows version and you see higher health - then that should be correct for this model now.

[9495278989]

I have used kingston a400 ssd. It also showed 1% decrease in the first week, but it has been 99% till today (9months old). I think it is pretty normal.