[smartmontools-support] Drive is dead, but SMART overall-health self-assessment is PASSED?!?

David Niklas deference at null.net
Thu Sep 17 01:26:09 CEST 2026


Hello,
I'd love to indulge you, but I'm afraid I'm never going to find out. I
decided to poke at it to see if maybe one of the voltage rails was dead
and that was why the drive died. In doing so, I accidentally shorted two
of the 0.25mm pitch pins of one of the buck regulators. Now the regulator
is dead.

Thanks,
David

On Wed, 16 Sep 2026 17:50:07 -0300
"Thane K. Sherrington" <thane at computerconnectionltd.com> wrote:
> 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
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Smartmontools-support mailing list
> > Smartmontools-support at listi.jpberlin.de
> > https://listi.jpberlin.de/mailman/listinfo/smartmontools-support  
> 
> 



More information about the Smartmontools-support mailing list