[smartmontools-support] Drive is dead, but SMART overall-health self-assessment is PASSED?!?
Thane K. Sherrington
thane at computerconnectionltd.com
Wed Sep 16 22:50:07 CEST 2026
What does smartctl -x /dev/sdb generate?
On 2026-09-16 4:12 p.m., David Niklas via Smartmontools-support wrote:
> Hello,
> I had an SSD die on my recently. It was very sudden. No warning at all.
> My data is backed up.
>
> It's a Patriot Burst 960GB drive. It had about 70% health remaining and
> it is about 5 years old. "Spinning rust" really looks like a good option
> when your other choice is "non-spinning money-eater".
>
> The partition table and MBR are not accessible. I only managed to get a
> full SMART log out of the drive once. The smart log is just wrong. E.G.
> the drive has not been power cycled 16056564 times. Likewise, the value
> doesn't increment when unplugged/plugged. I tried running a long
> self-test, but, as mentioned above, I couldn't view the results.
>
>
>
> But why does the drive say, "SMART overall-health self-assessment test
> result: PASSED" ?!?! Shouldn't it say, "Failed"?
>
> Thanks!
>
>
>
> Attached below is the SMART log:
> # smartctl -a /dev/sdb
> smartctl 7.4 2023-08-01 r5530 [x86_64-linux-6.12.XX] (local build)
> Copyright (C) 2002-23, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
>
> === START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
> Device Model: SATAFIRM S11
> Serial Number: XXX
> LU WWN Device Id: 0 000000 000000000
> Firmware Version: SBFMJ1W3
> User Capacity: 960,197,124,096 bytes [960 GB]
> Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
> Rotation Rate: Solid State Device
> Form Factor: 2.5 inches
> TRIM Command: Available
> Device is: Not in smartctl database 7.3/5528
> ATA Version is: ACS-4 (minor revision not indicated)
> SATA Version is: SATA 3.2, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 1.5 Gb/s)
> Local Time is: Tue Sep 15 23:14:06 2026 EDT
> SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
> SMART support is: Disabled
>
> SMART Disabled. Use option -s with argument 'on' to enable it.
> (override with '-T permissive' option)
>
>
> # smartctl -s on -a /dev/sdb
> smartctl 7.4 2023-08-01 r5530 [x86_64-linux-6.12.XX] (local build)
> Copyright (C) 2002-23, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
>
> === START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
> Device Model: SATAFIRM S11
> Serial Number: XXX
> LU WWN Device Id: 0 000000 000000000
> Firmware Version: SBFMJ1W3
> User Capacity: 960,197,124,096 bytes [960 GB]
> Sector Size: 512 bytes logical/physical
> Rotation Rate: Solid State Device
> Form Factor: 2.5 inches
> TRIM Command: Available
> Device is: Not in smartctl database 7.3/5528
> ATA Version is: ACS-4 (minor revision not indicated)
> SATA Version is: SATA 3.2, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 1.5 Gb/s)
> Local Time is: Tue Sep 15 23:14:10 2026 EDT
> SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
> SMART support is: Disabled
>
> === START OF ENABLE/DISABLE COMMANDS SECTION ===
> SMART Enabled.
>
> === START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
> SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
>
> General SMART Values:
> Offline data collection status: (0x00) Offline data collection activity
> was never started.
> Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
> Self-test execution status: ( 0) The previous self-test routine completed
> without error or no self-test has ever
> been run.
> Total time to complete Offline
> data collection: (65535) seconds.
> Offline data collection
> capabilities: (0x79) SMART execute Offline immediate.
> No Auto Offline data collection support.
> Suspend Offline collection upon new
> command.
> Offline surface scan supported.
> Self-test supported.
> Conveyance Self-test supported.
> Selective Self-test supported.
> SMART capabilities: (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
> power-saving mode.
> Supports SMART auto save timer.
> Error logging capability: (0x01) Error logging supported.
> General Purpose Logging supported.
> Short self-test routine
> recommended polling time: ( 2) minutes.
> Extended self-test routine
> recommended polling time: ( 30) minutes.
> Conveyance self-test routine
> recommended polling time: ( 6) minutes.
>
> SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
> Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
> ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAG VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE UPDATED WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
> 1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate 0x000b 100 100 050 Pre-fail Always - 0
> 9 Power_On_Hours 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 271978
> 12 Power_Cycle_Count 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 16056564
> 168 Unknown_Attribute 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
> 170 Unknown_Attribute 0x0003 018 018 010 Pre-fail Always - 360777253178
> 173 Unknown_Attribute 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 281474976710655
> 192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 0
> 194 Temperature_Celsius 0x0023 067 067 000 Pre-fail Always - 33 (Min/Max 0/33)
> 218 Unknown_Attribute 0x000b 100 100 050 Pre-fail Always - 0
> 231 Unknown_SSD_Attribute 0x0013 100 100 000 Pre-fail Always - 0
> 241 Total_LBAs_Written 0x0012 100 100 000 Old_age Always - 34226040839
>
> SMART Error Log Version: 1
> No Errors Logged
>
> SMART Self-test log structure revision number 0
> Warning: ATA Specification requires self-test log structure revision number = 1
> No self-tests have been logged. [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]
>
> SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 0
> Note: revision number not 1 implies that no selective self-test has ever been run
> SPAN MIN_LBA MAX_LBA CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
> 1 0 0 Not_testing
> 2 0 0 Not_testing
> 3 0 0 Not_testing
> 4 0 0 Not_testing
> 5 0 0 Not_testing
> Selective self-test flags (0x0):
> After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
> If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.
>
> The above only provides legacy SMART information - try 'smartctl -x' for more
>
>
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