I just bought a WD Blue 500GB SSD that was sold as new but apparently as a returned item (package had been opened). I am uncertain if there is an issue to be concerned about in the SMART report–which I did in the Dashboard immediately upon receiving the drive. This shows Power On Hours of only 15, which seems reasonable if someone tried out the drive and decided to return it because it was not adequate for their needs. However, what concerns me is that the SSD shows a Drive Power Cycle Count of 4875 (RAW #, but I think this is the actual number of power cycles being indicated), and the Unexpected Power Loss Count is stated as 4869 (RAW value again). If these are the actual numbers, that would seem to indicate that the drive powered off, perhaps unexpectedly, MANY times in those 15 hours of run time. Only 6 power cycles were considered normal.
So, first of all, am I understanding the data given by SMART correctly?
My thought is that there could be several reasons for these numbers, and some might not have to do with any problem with the drive itself–I need help in how to consider this information. For example, there could have been a serious problem with the cable or the controller the drive was connected to. If that was it, it might not be the drive’s fault (though that might account for it being returned), but do I need to be concerned about the drive being damaged anyway? If I see no further progression in unexpected drive restarts, from here on, should I not be too concerned with these numbers? Or should I?
I should add that the SMART report includes a RAW SLC Block Erase Count of 3604523. Perhaps that’s just because whatever data was put on the drive by the first owner was then deleted? Also, Maximum Bad Blocks /Die is given as 36, and Total Bad Blocks shows as 521. (Both are RAW numbers.)
Any help with understanding how to read the SMART status with these numbers, or advice about how to consider the status of the drive would be welcome.
I can add that I just ran Crystal Disk Mark 5 on the SSD. I wasn’t expecting this to be a super-fast one, for an SSD–and it isn’t. However, it is comparable, and a little better that an Intel 240 GB SSD I also have. So as far as I can tell, performance is normal. Here are the results:
Test : 1024 MiB [W: 0.5% (2.6/465.8 GiB)] (x5) [Interval=5 sec]
Date : 2017/08/03 9:30:48
OS : Windows 10 Professional [10.0 Build 15063] (x64)
Any opinions on whether or not I should be concerned about the Unexpected Power Loss Count? After an additional 8 hours of run time, this number has not changed.
Thanks, Hamlet, I just saw your reply. My understanding is that the WD Dashboard is the program designed for their SSD’s. I thought that the DLG is primarily for HDD’s. The Dashboard gives a great deal of info about this drive. Is there some reason you think that DLG would give me something that their Dashboard software would not?
you are correct DLG does not work on SSD. The Dashboard will give you all the info you need.
that is a huge number of unexpected power loss. If the SSD is working normally it probably would not be an issue. It seems like it may have been caused by whatever machine it was previously in. That being said if I bought a sold as new item I would return it to the place of purchase and make them send me a new unopened product.
Well, I did get a discount on it for it being an opened package–it was obviously a return. You know, at this point, it seems to be functioning fine, and that unexpected power loss number has not increased. It’s performance on the SATA 2 system it is in (3 GB/sec) is equal to other SSD’s I’ve tried on same machine,…so at this point I have to assume there was another serious problem on the machine that caused this behavior, and probably led to the return–but at no fault of this drive. I’ll just hope I am not proved wrong in the near future–but I do have WD’s warranty if things turn for the worse.
