SMART reports SSD failure

[jchuzi]

I received a warning from TechTool Protection that one of my clones is failing. It is a 480 GB OWC Mercury Electra. The warranty expired a year ago, unfortunately.

SMART reports that the Relocated Sectors Count is 5 and that the Extended Health is in the middle between Pass and Fail. All other parameters are at the optimum level. Fortunately, I have two more clones (both OWC SSDs) and they are fine.

My question:  If I reformat the drive and make a new, pristine clone, will that suffice? Or, should I bite the bullet and simply replace it?

[Xairbusdriver]

Do you need/use a "scratch" disk?

Is "S.M.A.R.T." testing valid on SSDs?

My understanding is that the "wear" on those devices is the limited number of re-writes to any cell/sector. Not sure what you mean by "reformat. That can mean zeroing all locations. But it usually means simply erasing the files/block/sector allocation directory (although I'm not sure exactly what it's called now days). That's just a few megabytes of data and is why the task is so fast. It doesn't actually erase/delete what's on the rest of the drive.

The allocation/sector directory may be where the failed (Relocated Sectors) are, since those cells get written to more often than any others, I would think. Probably best to NOT use that drive for critical info. OWC may give you good advice... or they may just "encourage" you to replace it.

Whether or not it's good to have these warnings is still a question for those above my pay grade.

[Paddy]

Might want to read this thread at Micromat:

https://www.micromat.com/component/kunena/techtool-pro-11/5221-smart-failure-warning

And Jim: https://serverfault.com/questions/10326/do-ssds-support-smart

[jchuzi]

Looks like I'll be replacing the drive. Checkmate just notified me that 7 files are corrupted. Aside from OWC, do you have any recommendations for SSD brands?

[Paddy]

I love my little Samsung T3 and T5 drives. You can get the 1TB model in the US for $163 or so. ($250 CDN here in Canada). Great little drives - and the emphasis is on LITTLE. Fast as can be, too. I use them for my Lightroom library, as I have too many photos to store them on my internal SSDs these days.

[jchuzi]

I just ordered   1.0TB Mercury Extreme Pro 6G 2.5-inch 7mm SATA 6.0Gb/s Solid-State Drive from OWC to replace the failing 480 GB SSD.

[jchuzi]

I expect to receive my new SSD in a few days. In the meantime, I need to erase the defective SSD before discarding it. Is a simple erase sufficient for an SSD or should I use a 7-way erase?

[Xairbusdriver]

You may not have much of a choice:

Erase a volume using Disk Utility on Mac
With a solid-state drive (SSD), secure erase options are not available in Disk Utility. For more security, consider turning on FileVault encryption when you start using your SSD drive.

Find lots of sites that claim that "Erase" erases everything. I still think all it does is to over-write the File Allocation directory, which is basically a list locations that have data. Since that is probably less than a few MBs, it is very fast, even on a 5400rpm drive. I still think the only true disk 'erasing' of your actual data files occurs when you use "Security Options..." function. From the above Apple text, that option may not even be available. I don't have a non-booting SSD drive to test my theory.

Just to be safe, I would erase it in all seven dimensions! Regardless of what Dr. Einstein said. You might need an Klein cable for the seventh dimension...

[jchuzi]

I suppose that I could turn on FileVault encryption on the disk and not erase it(?)

[kimmer]

I have a spiffy new drill that you could use to put holes in it. 

[jchuzi]

I have a spiffy new drill that you could use to put holes in it. 

I was thinking of something nuclear...