How do I check my SSD write cycle?

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How do I check my SSD write cycle

What is an SSD write cycle?

An SSD write cycle refers to the process of writing data to blocks on a solid state drive (SSD). Unlike traditional hard disk drives (HDDs) that store data on spinning magnetic platters, SSDs use flash memory chips to store data digitally in individual memory cells (Seven Forums, 2019).

SSDs organize their memory cells into pages, which are then grouped into blocks. To write new data, the SSD controller must first erase an entire block before writing pages within that block. Erasing and rewriting blocks is what increments the write cycle count on an SSD (WhatIs.com, 2022).

Each block of memory cells in an SSD has a limited number of erase/write cycles it can handle before that block potentially fails and becomes unusable. The number of write cycles an SSD is engineered to withstand is known as its endurance rating. Consumer SSDs typically have write endurance ratings between 300-1000 cycles (WhatIs.com, 2022).

Why check SSD write cycles?

There are a few key reasons to monitor the write cycles on your SSD:

To check the SSD’s health and lifespan. SSDs have a finite number of write cycles before their performance starts to degrade. By monitoring the number of write cycles, you can assess the remaining lifespan of your SSD and watch for signs of failure (Source).

To plan for future replacement or upgrades. Knowing the approximate write cycles left can help you budget and schedule an SSD replacement or upgrade before failure happens. This avoids unexpected downtime or data loss.

To optimize usage and extend lifespan. If you notice write cycles decreasing quickly, you may be able to modify your usage to reduce unnecessary writes. For example, moving temporary files to a HDD, enabling SSD overprovisioning, or adjusting your OS settings.

Tools to check write cycles

There are various tools available to check the write cycles on an SSD drive. Some popular options include:

Hard drive utilities like Hard Disk Sentinel provide comprehensive drive health monitoring and can report the total host writes for an SSD. This gives an estimate of the remaining lifespan based on the drive’s endurance rating.

Smart tools like CrystalDiskInfo use the S.M.A.R.T. data from SSDs to show information like total host writes and overall drive health. This free utility works on Windows and helps gauge wear level.

Manufacturer tools like Samsung Magician are designed for specific SSD models. They can monitor drive performance, run diagnostics, optimize settings, and check total writes. This provides customized insight for your SSD.

Overall, monitoring write cycles is important to check SSD health and determine remaining lifespan. The ideal tool depends on your specific drive and platform, but comprehensive utilities like Hard Disk Sentinel provide the most detailed wear level data.

Check cycles in Windows

Windows provides several ways to check SSD write cycles. The easiest is to use the PowerShell Get-PhysicalDisk cmdlet. To do this:

  1. Open PowerShell as administrator
  2. Type Get-PhysicalDisk and hit enter
  3. Locate the drive and review the ‘Host Writes’ and ‘Life Time Writes’ attributes
  4. ‘Host Writes’ shows total writes since last reboot
  5. ‘Life Time Writes’ shows total writes over life of drive

This gives you current write cycles. To check against total provisioned writes, look at the ‘Total Write Endurance’ value and compare to ‘Life Time Writes’. The ‘Total Write Endurance’ is the total writes the drive is engineered for before failure.

So in summary:

  • Use PowerShell Get-PhysicalDisk
  • Review Host Writes for writes since reboot
  • Check Life Time Writes vs Total Write Endurance

This provides an easy way to monitor SSD health from the command line in Windows.

Check cycles on Mac

One way to check the write cycle count on a Mac is by using the smartctl terminal command. Smartctl is a tool that can read SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) data from SSDs and other storage devices. Here are the steps:

  1. Open the Terminal app on your Mac.
  2. Type smartctl -a /dev/disk# where # is the disk identifier of your SSD. For example: smartctl -a /dev/disk2
  3. In the output, look for the Media_Wearout_Indicator attribute. This shows the percentage of SSD life remaining.
  4. Also look for the Total_LBAs_Written and Total_LBAs_Read attributes. These show the total bytes written to and read from the SSD.
  5. Compare the total bytes written to the SSD’s lifespan or terabytes written (TBW) rating to estimate remaining endurance.

For example, if your 500 GB SSD has 50 TBW endurance and smartctl shows 30 TB total bytes written, then you have approximately 40% of the write cycles remaining. Lower wearout indicator percentages and higher TB written means the SSD is closer to its end of life.

One caveat is that not all SSDs report this data exactly the same way. Consult your SSD documentation to understand how to accurately interpret the smartctl results.

Check cycles on Linux

On Linux, you can use the smartctl terminal command to check SSD write cycles. Smartctl allows you to view SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology) data about your drive’s health and usage.

To check write cycles, first install smartmontools if you don’t already have it:

sudo apt install smartmontools

Then run the following command as root or with sudo:

sudo smartctl -a /dev/sdX

Where /dev/sdX is the device name of your SSD drive. This will print out extensive SMART information.

Look for the ‘media_wearout_indicator’ attribute. This shows the total bytes written to the drive and the drive’s endurance limit. Divide the bytes written by the endurance limit to see what percentage of the drive’s lifespan has been used.

You can also view the ‘lifetime_writes_GiB’ or ‘lifetime_writes_MiB’ attribute to see the total bytes written in a more readable format.

For example, if an SSD has lifetime writes of 800 GiB and an endurance rating of 1600 TBW (terabytes written), it has used 50% of its write cycles.

See this ServerFault thread for more details on interpreting smartctl SSD data.

Interpreting write cycle counts

Write cycle ratings vary widely depending on the specific SSD model and type of NAND flash memory used. For example, SLC NAND flash can typically endure 100,000 write cycles or more, while lower-cost MLC NAND flash may be rated for only around 3,000 write cycles.

The remaining write cycle count provides an indication of how heavily the SSD has been used. A lower remaining cycle count suggests the drive has endured more write activity and heavy usage. Conversely, a higher remaining cycle count indicates lighter usage with less data written to the drive.

However, the raw write cycle count alone does not tell the full story. Other factors like the overall age of the SSD also affect its expected remaining lifespan. And modern SSDs use technologies like wear leveling to distribute writes across all cells, extending the total drive endurance.

Extending SSD Lifespan

There are a few ways to extend the lifespan of an SSD and delay reaching its write cycle limit:

Enable TRIM support – TRIM is a command the OS sends to an SSD to notify it which blocks of data are no longer in use and can be wiped internally. This helps the SSD better manage wear leveling. TRIM is supported in modern operating systems but may need to be manually enabled. In Linux, add the ‘discard’ option to fstab for the SSD partition to enable TRIM [1].

Limit unnecessary writes – Some activities like aggressive disk caching, logging, or virtual machines can cause extra writes. Limiting these where possible reduces wear. Applications can also be designed to minimize writes through strategies like buffered logging [2].

Adjust spare area provisioning – SSDs use extra spare area to manage wear leveling. Leaving additional unpartitioned space allows more effective wear leveling and extends lifespan, at the cost of total usable space [3]. The ideal spare area depends on usage.

When to replace an SSD

There are a few key signs indicating it may be time to replace your SSD:

Write cycles exceeded rating – SSDs are rated for a certain number of write cycles before they may start to fail. Consumer SSDs are typically rated for anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand write cycles. Once you near or exceed the rated write cycles, it’s a sign the drive is nearing the end of its reliable lifespan.1

Performance decreases substantially – As an SSD ages and wears out, you may notice a significant drop in performance like much slower read/write speeds and longer load times. This indicates the drive is having issues accessing data efficiently and is a tell-tale sign it may be time for replacement.2

Frequent errors or failed sectors – SSDs use spare capacity to replace failing or failed sectors/cells. But once it runs out of spare capacity, errors and bad sectors will become more frequent possibly leading to data loss or corruption. At this point replacement is critical to avoid potential data disasters.3

Next steps after checking

Once you’ve checked the write cycles on your SSD, you’ll have a good idea of how much life it has left. Here are some recommended next steps:

If your SSD is nearing its end-of-life (EOL) cycle count, start planning for a replacement. Most consumer SSDs are rated for somewhere between 100,000-600,000 write cycles before failure is likely.[1] Schedule a drive replacement once you get within 10-20% of the rated limit.

Consider adjusting your workload if you have high write activity. Things like video editing, database applications, virtual machines, and server workloads can burn through write cycles quickly. Try optimizing software settings or moving some write-heavy operations to secondary drives.

As a precaution, make sure important data on the SSD is regularly backed up. While SSDs rarely fail catastrophically, their performance degrades over time. Backups ensure you won’t lose critical data.

Replacing the SSD before failure occurs will let you migrate data over on your own terms. Check write cycles periodically to avoid unexpected downtime or data loss.

[1] https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/find-how-how-much-longer-your-ssd-will-last/