How to detect SSD failures with advanced SMART commands

If you're concerned about the health of your storage, you're in the right place: with the SMART technology You can anticipate critical SSD and HDD failures and save your data in time. This article explains. How to detect faults in your SSD using SMART commands.

Beyond mere curiosity, monitoring the condition of the disc is key to guarantee the availability of information and plan for capacity and performance. A hard drive that fails unexpectedly can disrupt services, damage your reputation, and cost you money. And while an SSD doesn't make the noise of an HDD, its symptoms do exist: speed drops, typing errors or data loss due to cell wear.

What is SMART and what can (and cannot) do

SMART is an acronym for Self‑Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting TechnologyA series of routines in the firmware monitor internal disk variables and issue warnings when they detect a risk of failure. Their goal is clear: to give you time to back up your data and replace the drive before disaster strikes.

To use it, it is necessary that the motherboard (BIOS/UEFI) and the drive itself supports and has SMART enabled. Today it is practically universal in SATA, SAS, SCSI and NVMe, and modern operating systems interact with it without problems.

The parameters it measures include everything: temperature, reassigned sectors, CRC errorsEngine spin-up time, uncorrectable read/write errors, pending sector count, seek speed, and dozens more attributes. Each manufacturer defines and standardizes its tables, with thresholds and acceptable values.

Important: SMART doesn't perform magic. It only warns you. predictable failures (wear, progressive mechanical problems, deteriorated NAND blocks). It cannot anticipate abrupt events such as power surges or sudden electronic damage. Studies like those by Google and Backblaze show that some features are useful, but They do not cover 100% of failures.

Linux: smartmontools, key commands and tests

In Linux, the smartmontools package includes two parts: smartctl (console tool for queries and tests) and smartd (a daemon that monitors and alerts via syslog or email). It is free and compatible with SATA, SCSI, SAS and NVMe.

Installation (example Debian/Ubuntu): sudo apt install smartmontoolsIn other distributions, it uses the corresponding manager; availability in Linux and BSD is widespread and It shouldn't cause you any problems..

First locate the units. You can list assemblies with df -h or identify disks and partitions with sudo fdisk -lRemember: smartctl acts on the device, not on the partition; that is, on /dev/sdX or /dev/nvmeXnY.

Essential commands with smartctl for Get Started to work with SMART on a specific disk:

• Check SMART support and status: sudo smartctl -i /dev/sda
• Activate SMART If it is disabled: sudo smartctl -s on /dev/sda
• View all attributes and logs: sudo smartctl -a /dev/sda
• Short self-test (fast): sudo smartctl -t short /dev/sda
• Long self-test (comprehensive): sudo smartctl -t long /dev/sda
• Health Summary: sudo smartctl -H /dev/sda

Schedule the short test every week and the long test every month with cron to minimize impact and have historical dataRun the tests in the early morning or during periods of low load; during a long test you'll notice increased latency and drop in IOPS.

Device naming conventions in Linux

Depending on the controller and interface, you'll see different paths. Some common examples for recognizing drives and controllers: /dev/sd, /dev/nvmen, /dev/sg*In addition to specific routes on 3ware or HP controllers (cciss/hpsa), understanding the exact route prevents analyze the incorrect device.

Typical errors and logs (ATA/SCSI/NVMe)

SMART keeps logs of recent errors and displays them in decoded form. ATA You will see the last five errors with statuses and codes; in SCSI Read, write, and verification failure counters are listed; in NVMe Error log entries are printed (by default the 16 most recent).

Common abbreviations in error outputs (useful for quick diagnosis): ABRT, AMNF, CCTO, EOM, ICRC, IDNF, MC, MCR, NM, TK0NF, UNC, WPIf they appear repeatedly, there is a physical or connection problem to investigate.

It is also important to identify critical attributes by ID, which often correlate with imminent failures: 05, 10, 183, 184, 188, 196, 197, 198, 201, 230A sustained increase in any of them is a bad sign.

SMART attributes: how to read them and which ones to pay attention to

The programs display each parameter with several fields. It usually includes Identifier (1-250), Threshold, Value, Worst, and Raw Data, in addition to flags (whether it's critical, statistical, etc.). The normalized value starts high and decreases with useExceeding the threshold triggers the warning.

Among the most useful attributes for detecting wear or damage, look at: Relocated_Sector_Ct (reassigned sectors), Current_Pending_Sector (unstable pending sectors), Offline_Uncorrectable (errors without offline correction), Relocated_Event_Count (reassignment events) and, on HDD, Spin_Retry_Count (engine start retries). These are relevant on SSDs. Wear Leveling Count y Program/Erase Failures.

The temperature is controversial, but keeping the unit below 60 ° C This reduces the likelihood of errors. Check the chassis airflow and, if necessary, add NVMe heatsinks to the M.2 drives. avoid throttling and degradation.

Windows: WMIC, PowerShell and CHKDSK

For a quick check on Windows systems you can use the classic console with WMIC or PowerShell, without installing anything additional, and then supplement with a more comprehensive SMART tool if needed.

With Command Prompt as administrator, run: wmic diskdrive get model, statusIf it returns OK, the SMART status is correct; if you see Pred FailThere are critical parameters and it's relevant Make a copy and think about a replacement..

In PowerShell, start as administrator and launch: Get-PhysicalDisk | Select-Object MediaType, Size, SerialNumber, HealthStatus. Field Health Status will show you Healthy, Warning or Unhealthy, useful for detect problems at a glance.

To check for and repair logical file system errors, use CHKDSK. Run the following command in the console with elevated privileges: chkdsk C: /f /r /x to troubleshoot errors, locate bad sectors, and disassemble the drive if necessary; if you need a guide to Repair Windows after a serious virusCheck it out now. In NTFS, you can use chkdsk /scan for online analysis.

macOS: Disk Utility and Terminal

On a Mac, you have two very simple paths. On the one hand, Disk Utility (Applications > Utilities): Select the physical drive and press First aid to repair the file system; in addition, you will see the SMART status such as Verified or Failing.

If you prefer Terminal, run diskutil info /Volumes/NombreDeTuDisco and look for the line of SMART Status. If Verified is listed, breathe; but, immediate backup and consider making a change.

Extra Linux: dmesg, /sys and GUI with GSmartControl

In addition to smartctl, it's helpful to check the kernel log for any of the following: I/O errors or controller timeouts. A quick filter would be: dmesg | grep -i errorand complements it with terms like failed o timeout.

For basic device details you can read system paths such as /sys/block/sdX/device/model or statistics of /sys/block/sdX/statUseful when you want verify activity and model without external tools.

If you prefer a graphical interface, install G Smart Control (for example: sudo apt install -y gsmartcontrol) and run it with administrator privileges. It allows you to View attributes, run short/long tests, and export reports with a couple of clicks.

Recommended third-party tools

To go beyond the basics when detecting faults in your SSD with SMART commands, you have some very popular utilities:

• CrystalDiskInfo (Windows) is free, clear and compatible with internal and external SATA and NVMe; it displays SMART attributes, temperatures and hours of use.
• HD Tune It adds sector maps and speed tests (it has a paid version).
• Hard Disk Sentinel It focuses on continuous monitoring, advanced alerts and reports; its free version is limited but very powerful at interpreting SMART.
• G Smart Control It is free and allows you to run tests and view attributes with a graphical interface.

Signs that your SSD or HDD is on its last legs

List common symptoms: Slow startups, unexpected shutdowns, blue screens of death (BSoD or kernel panic)Files that won't open or become corrupted, inability to install or update, and drives that disappear from the system or the BIOS/UEFI.

On HDDs, mechanical noises (clicks, squeaks, buzzing) are a bad sign. On SSDs, look for write errors. errors when mounting volumes and an increase in reassigned sectors or attrition counts. If the problems are intermittent, don't be complacent: Make a copy now.

Buying smart: what to look for when choosing new records

It values ​​brands with a good reputation (Seagate, WD, Toshiba, Samsung), the unit type (SSD for speed, HDD for capacity), interface (SATA, NVMe in M.2/PCIe), cache, and heat dissipation. capacity It's advisable to overestimate it slightly above your actual needs.

Check the declared durability (TBW on SSD, warranties, MTBF with caution), the intended use (NAS models often perform and handle RAID better) and budget: sometimes paying a little more gives you peace of mind and useful life.

Limitations of SMART: context and studies

SMART is useful but imperfect: there are inconsistencies between manufacturers In definitions and standardizations, some attributes are very valuable (reassigned, pending, uncorrectable), while others contribute little. Backblaze points out that only a handful of attributes It correlates well with failures, and Google showed cases of failures without prior notice.

What does this mean? It means that SMART helps anticipate many problems, but your strategy must combine monitoring, redundancy (RAID), backups and recovery. Don't just trust a green traffic light.

If the tool or system reports Warning/Predictable Fail/Unhealthy1) Copy as much as possible now, 2) Validate with another utility to confirm, 3) Schedule the immediate replacementAfter making the change, check the RAID if necessary to avoid reconstruction risks.

Sticking to the essentials helps: SMART warns you about many of the problems that are coming up.But not all of them; the smart way to work is to combine it with scheduled tests, good backups, and a clear replacement policy when critical indicators start to move.