[SOLVED] SSD wear indicator dropping very fast

[T-TJF]

Should I be worried?
I bought the SSD a month ago and the wear indicator has dropped significantly. I haven't even written much on it other than installing the OS and some games I often play.

As seen in the pictures, the lifetime write of the drive is only at 3.7TB - 3.8TB and Hard Disk sentinel states that "The status of the SSD is Perfect..." but how come the wear indicator has dropped so much in only a month?

Would love your guys' thoughts on the matter.

 

[Lutfij]

Welcome to the forums, newcomer!

Kingston's aren't really good SSD's. As for your SSD, did you make sure that the SSD is on the latest firmware? Considering that the drive is only a month old and you've lost about 8%, I'd ask you to pop up Task manager and see what sort of system resources are being used when you're idling and when you're taxing the system.

 

[USAFRet]

No matter what the software reports, are you prepared for total drive death in the next 5 minutes?

 

[T-TJF]

Picked the SSD cause it was the cheapest and it fits well with my budget at that time.
As for the firmware, I have checked the official Kingston software application for their SSDs and yes it states that it has no firmware updates and it is the latest one as shown below.

Definitely not ready for a drive death in 5 minutes... gonna backup now T_T

 

[USAFRet]

Picked the SSD cause it was the cheapest and it fits well with my budget at that time.

That thought often goes wrong.

Quality of Kingston SSDs has gone waaay downhill.


Start a comprehensive backup routine.
Replace it when it dies.
If still under warranty, free replacement.

But you need that backup routine anyway.

 

[T-TJF]

For now I will just keep on using it till it dies...
Backup routine has been started and I'm gonna make a habit out of this.

Quality of Kingston SSDs has gone waaay downhill.

Thanks for the info on this, gonna make sure I keep this in mind from now on.
Mind if I ask what your recommended SSDs would be?

 

[USAFRet]

For now I will just keep on using it till it dies...
Backup routine has been started and I'm gonna make a habit out of this.



Thanks for the info on this, gonna make sure I keep this in mind from now on.
Mind if I ask what your recommended SSDs would be?

Crucial, Samsung, WD, Intel.


Backups need to happen all the time, not just for physical drive death.
Many other ways for your data to go bye bye.

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[T-TJF]

Thank you very much!

 

[AdmiralSpeedy]

What's your definition of "very fast"? It's a $40 240 GB SSD that you have written almost 4 TB to already.

Based on the datasheet, that SSD is rated for ~80 TBW and you've written almost 5% of that, so the indicator being at 8% is probably just giving you some room so it doesn't just die on you the second it hits 0%.

 

[USAFRet]

What's your definition of "very fast"? It's a $40 240 GB SSD that you have written almost 4 TB to already.

Based on the datasheet, that SSD is rated for ~80 TBW and you've written almost 5% of that, so the indicator being at 8% is probably just giving you some room so it doesn't just die on you the second it hits 0%.

Also, an SSD doesn't die when it hits that magical warranty TBW number. Some drives have been proven to go 5x, 10x beyond their warranty TBW number.

Just like it doesn't (usually) die when it goes past the age on the warranty.


Having said that, one of my Sandisks did die at 33 days past the 3 year warranty. Nowhere near the TBW number, but dead of other causes.
Sandisk gave me a new one anyway.

 

[AdmiralSpeedy]

Also, an SSD doesn't die when it hits that magical warranty TBW number. Some drives have been proven to go 5x, 10x beyond their warranty TBW number.

Just like it doesn't (usually) die when it goes past the age on the warranty.


Having said that, one of my Sandisks did die at 33 days past the 3 year warranty. Nowhere near the TBW number, but dead of other causes.
Sandisk gave me a new one anyway.

I'm aware, but the TBW rating is at least one factor taken into consideration for the health rating.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm aware, but the TBW rating is at least one factor taken into consideration for the health rating.

And many of these tools go by only that.

Reported Writes/TBW = Percentage.
Not actual "health".

 

[Danra]

Sabrent is less known however they make good NVMe SSDs, I don't know if they make an SATA SSD. My 2TB Sabrent Rocket performs on par with a Samsung NVMe 970. I have had good luck with Samsung, however a large percentage of the Intel SSDs that I purchased have either failed or had poor performance.

 

[Bob.B]

Should I be worried?
I bought the SSD a month ago and the wear indicator has dropped significantly. I haven't even written much on it other than installing the OS and some games I often play.

As seen in the pictures, the lifetime write of the drive is only at 3.7TB - 3.8TB and Hard Disk sentinel states that "The status of the SSD is Perfect..." but how come the wear indicator has dropped so much in only a month?

Would love your guys' thoughts on the matter.

Based on HDS the health starts dropping on 7/3/21.
What did you install or enable on that date?

 

[mdd1963]

Also, an SSD doesn't die when it hits that magical warranty TBW number. Some drives have been proven to go 5x, 10x beyond their warranty TBW number.

Intel seems to adore the procedure to to just have an SSD's firmware to simply stop allowing any more writes once the magic TBW value is obtained....

 

[T-TJF]

Based on HDS the health starts dropping on 7/3/21.
What did you install or enable on that date?

Nothing, maybe playing a game and saving lots of times during that day?

What's your definition of "very fast"? It's a $40 240 GB SSD that you have written almost 4 TB to already.

Based on the datasheet, that SSD is rated for ~80 TBW and you've written almost 5% of that, so the indicator being at 8% is probably just giving you some room so it doesn't just die on you the second it hits 0%.

I guess I was alarmed at the drop because when I searched on other forums, they have SSDs that have been used for years and their wear indicator was still at 95%-97% with TBs worth of writes

As for the percentage of writes, I'm trying to find out what app. process or game could cause so much writes. Though I am certain it's from me constantly saving in games so I might just try and move the save files somewhere in an HDD

Edit: I've narrowed it down to a process that runs in the background which is "pagefile" that spikes to 1mb/sec and averages around 900kb - 200kb writes. Another is the browser I am using "Opera GX". I also added Internet Download Manager as a culprit since it creates a temporary file of the downloading file with the same size.

• I have reinstalled Opera GX to another drive as a portable installation so that all files will be installed in one Folder.
• For the pagefile, I have transferred it to the same drive that I installed my browser on.
• IDM will be reinstalled in another drive but different from the two listed above or just change the directory of its temps and stuff.

 

[T-TJF]

I installed an app called Process Explorer and I think I found my culprit that writes the most aside from browsers

gonna install it in another drive now...

 

[AdmiralSpeedy]

Nothing, maybe playing a game and saving lots of times during that day?




I guess I was alarmed at the drop because when I searched on other forums, they have SSDs that have been used for years and their wear indicator was still at 95%-97% with TBs worth of writes

As for the percentage of writes, I'm trying to find out what app. process or game could cause so much writes. Though I am certain it's from me constantly saving in games so I might just try and move the save files somewhere in an HDD

Edit: I've narrowed it down to a process that runs in the background which is "pagefile" that spikes to 1mb/sec and averages around 900kb - 200kb writes. Another is the browser I am using "Opera GX". I also added Internet Download Manager as a culprit since it creates a temporary file of the downloading file with the same size.

• I have reinstalled Opera GX to another drive as a portable installation so that all files will be installed in one Folder.
• For the pagefile, I have transferred it to the same drive that I installed my browser on.
• IDM will be reinstalled in another drive but different from the two listed above or just change the directory of its temps and stuff.

The pagefile is part of Windows, and also nobody's SSD is running for years with several TB written while remaining at 95%-97% unless it's a super expensive SSD with really good endurance.

My WD Black NVMe boot drive is almost 3 years old and it's down to 80% with 30 TB written.

 

[USAFRet]

The pagefile is part of Windows, and also nobody's SSD is running for years with several TB written while remaining at 95%-97% unless it's a super expensive SSD with really good endurance.

My WD Black NVMe boot drive is almost 3 years old and it's down to 80% with 30 TB written.

My current boot drive, 500GB Samsung 850 EVO
4.7 years, 67+TBW

 

[Maxxify]

240GB A400 TBW = 80TB. (TBW - NAND Writes)/TBW = (80 - 6.7)/80 = 92%. Not sure what flash it is using, but even entry-level TLC will be rated for 1000 PEC which would be three times this much.