SSD reliability

[Ralf Mardorf]

Hi,

while there are claims that it doesn't matter if a drive is not in the
smartmontools data base [1], I even wouldn't trust smartmontools if a
drive is in the data base.

However, even if you trust smartmontools, if you want to fix an issue,
you need software from the vendor.

While I usually also recommend to disassemble, clean and to put
everything together again, I doubt that it makes sense here.

It's possible that something else is fishy and that the drive is ok.
The best way to find out is to replace the drive by another one. If the
issue continues it's much likely something else, if not, the problem is
solved.

Why did I mention software from the vendor? Apart from several useful
tools and correct monitoring of SMART data, consider to check if the
firmware requires an update.

For my KIOXIA and OCZ Toshiba drives I can update the firmware while
the SSDs are in use, by running their tools:

  sudo /usr/local/bin/kioxia_ssd_utility/SSDUtility

Pre KIOXIA the OCZ Toshiba software was provided for download and
install on Linux machines. Nowadays it's a little bit annoying, the
software is provided by a Linux live media, hence I burned it to a DVD
and copied it from the DVD to my Linux install.

If you bought a SSD from a vendor who doesn't provide Linux compatible
software, you need to use this DOS, Windows or whatever else software,
but you need to use the Vendor's software to get more information.
Maybe it's that easy, that a firmware update does fix issues with ext4
file systems.

Btw. here the ambient temperature is around 30°C and my SSDs are around
30°C, too, while at the moment the computer is used to write this email
and not much more. IOW if the computer is more or less idle, SSDs
should stay with ambient temperature.

Regards,
Ralf

[1]
https://www.smartmontools.org/wiki/FAQ#SmartmontoolsDatabase