Is it possible to find out if a SDD is old from S.M.A.R.T values?

Can someone check this smart log and see if it's possible to tell if the nvme drive is brand new or how old could it be?
My concern is with the "Power Cycles" and "Data Units Written" numbers.
Can a brand new sdd have these numbers after 2 hours of use?

haven't you got a program that shows data written in gb?

for example crystal disk info will display it. Or hdsentinel

SIW2 said:

haven't you got a program that shows data written in gb?

for example crystal disk info will display it. Or hdsentinel

Click to expand...

Thanks for the info :) I just downloaded crystal disk info and here is the result:


401 GB write seems too much for brand new PC ? Nothing ever copied to it except original factory windows and a windows update!

rezpower said:

Can a brand new sdd have these numbers after 2 hours of use?

Click to expand...

Your screenshot says 'Power On Hours: 9', and just 839,600 data units written. That doesn't seem unreasonable for 9 hour use.

Ideally you should have read the SMART data the first moment you turned it on, as I did for my Samsung 870 EVO ( I put it into a usb enclosure to test it before installing). It was the second time it had been powered up, the first being for testing in the factory.

rezpower said:

401 GB write seems too much for brand new PC ? Nothing ever copied to it except original factory windows and a windows update!

Click to expand...

After 7 days 'Power-on hours' I have now written 783GB to mine, just installing then running Windows....

It seems quite a lot for 10 hours. However, just running the samsung speed test thing writes 32gb of data in a few minutes.

Thanks a lot Bree . This sounds reassuring. What got my attention in the first place was the high "Power ON Count". 443 looks high!
I have got another brand new PC at home which has been used for 10 days and on that the "Power ON Count" shows 281. Anyway nothing catastrophical. I am sending back the defective laptop and want to make sure this vendor is not sending me refurbed or used products.

Hello,

You can use option 1 in the tutorial below to see the Estimated remaining life of the SSD.

Brink said:

Hello,

You can use option 1 in the tutorial below to see the Estimated remaining life of the SSD.

Check Drive Health and SMART Status in Windows 11 Tutorial

This tutorial will show you how to check the current health, SMART status, temperature, and estimated remaining life of drives in Windows 11. S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology; often written as SMART) is a monitoring system included in computer hard disk drives...

www.elevenforum.com

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot Brink. I am not at all concerned by the health of the ssd itself to be honest! I could trow it away and replace it by a new one! What I am concerned about is the Laptop itself. Just want to make sure it's not a used or returned laptop.

Agreed, it will not necessarily tell you if the laptop is used or returned unless it's a really used laptop with an estimated remaining life less than 99% for the SSD since a new laptop should not be lower than that.

You'll have to check factory seals on the box or laptop to make they are still in place and uncut before you got it. A new laptop from the factory will also often have film on it for scratch protection from shipping.

Of course if you didn't have an OOBE (Out of Box Experience) to set up the laptop fresh when first turned on, then it could be a return or used.

rezpower said:

What I am concerned about is the Laptop itself. Just want to make sure it's not a used or returned laptop.

Click to expand...

The only other clues, apart from the SSD's SMART data, may be in the bios. What make is the laptop? My Dell latitude has a System Logs section in its bios, things like Themal, Power, and BIOS Events are listed there.

Another useful check can be the OEM's support site, look up the PC using its serial number. Dell Support, as an example again, will show you the warranty details, including the shipping date.

Bree said:

Another useful check can be the OEM's support site, look up the PC using its serial number. Dell Support, as an example again, will show you the warranty details, including the shipping date.

Click to expand...

that is a good idea

SIW2 said:

that is a good idea

Click to expand...

I tend to buy nearly new used machines online. It's something I try to do for all of them. Sometimes. if I'm lucky, I can even check before buying if the seller's photos include the asset tag or serial number

Power on hours and power on count are displayed when using Crystaldiskinfo.

However these parameters may not be useful in determining the age of the SSD.


A SSD that has been in use over six years (in use on the computer to type this post) displayed:

Power on count 882
Power on hours 23041 (24hrs/d) = 960 days = (365 days / year) = 2.6 years

The drive is substantially older than 2.6 years.

Bree said:

The only other clues, apart from the SSD's SMART data, may be in the bios. What make is the laptop? My Dell latitude has a System Logs section in its bios, things like Themal, Power, and BIOS Events are listed there.

Another useful check can be the OEM's support site, look up the PC using its serial number. Dell Support, as an example again, will show you the warranty details, including the shipping date.

Click to expand...

Well I am not sure I have done the right thing, as I got seduced by a brand I never tried called Razerblade. The laptop looks VERY nice, but support is existent and majority of the owners of this laptop seem to be wealthy gamer kids. So there is no serious resource and help on the net either! I had an HP Elitebook workstation and I can tell you that the support I got from HP was excellent. Also I could find tons of info and guides and hacks and help for it. It still works like the first day after almost 10 years.
here is the link to the laptop:
I decided to buy it as it was on sale with 900 euros off! So I got it for 2799 euros! VERY expensive for me!

this is similar with 3060


the 3080 model

A Guy

Here for all you people who've had more coffee than me, and might need this for comparison...
This SSD has been in use, pretty much 24/7 since May 4th 2020...

The Power on Hours 20206/24/365 = 2.3 years.

The answer is simple - smart parameter 5 (% used) is zero.

All SSDs have a vendor set minimum write endurance e.g. 1000 TB, and as you write data, parameter 5 increases telling you what % of endurance you have used.

This does not mean drive will fail when it reaches 100% as real endurance is usually greater than vendor quoted endurance. Parameter 5 can go as high as 250%.

As parameter 5 says 0, SSD has been hardly used. If endurance was 1000 TB, you would have to write 10TB before it would show as 1%.

So regardless of what has gone on, your drive has a very long life left yet.

zbook said:

A SSD that has been in use over six years (in use on the computer to type this post) displayed:
...Power on hours 23041... = 2.6 years
The drive is substantially older than 2.6 years.

Click to expand...

Ghot said:

This SSD has been in use, pretty much 24/7 since May 4th 2020...
The Power on Hours 20206/24/365 = 2.3 years.

Click to expand...

cereberus said:

The answer is simple - smart parameter 5 (% used) is zero.
All SSDs have a vendor set minimum write endurance e.g. 1000 TB, and as you write data, parameter 5 increases telling you what % of endurance you have used.

Click to expand...

Age of the SSD and Power On Hours will always be different. The latter is only the hours it has actually been powered up and in use, unless it's left turned on and in use 24/7 then it should be significantly less than the physical age.

The only really significant factor as far as wear on an SSD is concerned is the Total Host Writes, which in turn gets reflected in the Wear Levelling count (endurance) that cereberus referred to.

Like Ghot I have a 500GB Samsung EVO 860. Mine had a hard life in a PC running VMs, hence nearly 17TB written and 97% wear left. Samsung's specified Total Bytes Written (TBW) for an 500GB EVO 860 is 300TBW, so plenty of life left in it yet.