M1 Mac users report alarming SSD health readings

[chscag]

Interesting article. I guess we will see if this is true over time.

M1 Mac users report alarming hard drive health readings

Many M1 Mac users appear to be seeing really worrisome health warnings from their SSDs after only a few months of use, but there's hope this is a software issue that can be patched by Apple.

www.imore.com

 

[krs]

I'm currently using an external 1 TB SSD as the main drive with my 2012 Mini(until I get time to replace the original 500 GB spinner in the Mini).
Is there some application available that I can use to check the "health" of that external SSD?

 

[ferrarr]

I use DriveDX, and it checks external drives as well.
https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx

If someone is using Big Sur, the external drive needs to be unplugged* after startup, then plugged back in to get the drives to be monitored.

* Unmount the drive before unplugging.

 

[IWT]

If someone is using Big Sur, the external drive needs to be unplugged* after startup, then plugged back in to get the drives to be monitored.

That's great advice. I discovered that by accident and do it naturally, so it's become second nature. I'm so glad you reminded me and hopefully helped others.

Ian

 

[ferrarr]

That's great advice. I discovered that by accident and do it naturally, so it's become second nature. I'm so glad you reminded me and hopefully helped others.

Ian

I only recently realized it last month, after I did a clean install of Big Sur. I don't remember if it was the same before that.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

My SMART data looks fine for my M1 MacBook Air's SSD. *shrug*

 

[chscag]

Digging a bit deeper into the article and also the long thread over at MacRumors, it seems the most wear and tear on M1 SSDs were reported by developers and gamers.

It makes sense that they would be affected since their usage is usually greater than normal. Apple so far has been silent on this but in my opinion it may be overblown.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

Digging a bit deeper into the article and also the long thread over at MacRumors, it seems the most wear and tear on M1 SSDs were reported by developers and gamers.

It makes sense that they would be affected since their usage is usually greater than normal. Apple so far has been silent on this but in my opinion it may be overblown.

There's always the possibility also that a bad batch of SSDs slipped in, but yes... overblown. I'm hard pressed to believe that this is a problem with the M1 architecture.

 

[krs]

I use DriveDX, and it checks external drives as well.
https://binaryfruit.com/drivedx

Thanks,
I had DriveDX and already tried that.
I get a message that DriveDX will only report on drives with SMART - the external is a USB 3.0 Crucial 1 TB SSD, it is the one I want to check but it doesn't even show in DriveDX.
I'm running Mojave, 10.14.6

 

[ferrarr]

Thanks,
I had DriveDX and already tried that.
I get a message that DriveDX will only report on drives with SMART - the external is a USB 3.0 Crucial 1 TB SSD, it is the one I want to check but it doesn't even show in DriveDX.
I'm running Mojave, 10.14.6

Did you install the third party driver?

DriveDx - external USB and FireWire drive diagnostics support

binaryfruit.com

 

[krs]

Did you install the third party driver?

No, I didn't.
I must have missed that when I first downloaded DriveDX a while back.

However, I have to think about this because the external USB SSD is my main drive so I obviously cannot unmount it to install the driver there.

INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS

• Download driver installer:
  • for macOS 11 and Apple Silicon
  • for macOS 10.11-10.15
  • for macOS 10.6-10.10
• Unmount all external drives
• Unzip installer
• Use installer
• [macOS High Sierra +] You need to approve driver installation – follow our instructions
• Reboot computer
• Reconnect external drives
• Run DriveDx

Probably try to boot up on the old internal, install the driver there, reboot internal, reconnet the main external SSD and run DriveDX. Hope that doesn't mess up my main internal.

 

[ferrarr]

However, I have to think about this because the external USB SSD is my main drive so I obviously cannot unmount it to install the driver there.

I "believe" since it is the boot drive, it is not considered an external. So it should install in the same location, and still be allowed to test the external USB.

 

[krs]

DriveDX was originally installed on the 500GB internal spinner running ElCapitan.
Then I decided to upgrade to Mojave, but I could use more internal storage and I also wanted to switch to an SSD for better performance with APFS so I bought a 1 TB Crucial SSD.
Pressed for time and a bit cautious with my main Mac, I decided to run Mojave on the SSD in an external USB 3.0 enclosure and keep the internal ElCapitan spinner as a back up to fall back on if I didn't like Mojave.
Plan was to run like that for a ouple of weeks and if no issues install the SSD in the Mini to replace the spinner.
Well, it's been a few months now and I still haven't found the time to do the switch - mostly because other items mone up in the priority list and running Mojave as the boot drive on an external USB 3.0 enclosure works just fine.
DriveDX was migrated from ElCapitan on the spinner to Mojave on the SSD along with everything else via a clean Mojave install and Migration Assistant.
Now when I boot into Mojave, I can launch DriveDX but only the spinner shows up, so it seems the SSD is considered "external" even though it's the boot drive.
I will probably just wait until I move the SSD into the Mini.

 

[Jcutie]

This is exactly why I never buy the first version of an Apple product. People wind up being guinea pigs and beta testers.

 

[Lifeisabeach]

This is exactly why I never buy the first version of an Apple product. People wind up being guinea pigs and beta testers.

Generally my philosophy as well. Really, that holds true for the first gen of anyone's products. I'm a first-gen M1 MBA owner by virtue of necessity and these just happened to come out at the right time. And I have zero regrets here. Zero. This was a home run. No qualifiers to that opinion at all. There may have been some lemons, but that's going to be true of even a mature product line. Apple really did knock it out of the park here.

 

[MacInWin]

Just bought an M1 Mini for my wife so her Mini could take over for a dying 13-year old iMac running my home automation. Dang, is that M1 Mini fast! I clicked on the Word icon on the dock and Word was open before I let up on the mouse.

 

[chscag]

I'm an M1 believer as well and I don't even own one. There is an overwhelming agreement between M1 owners of the speed and working of these new machines.

Apple has promised that more is to come. I'm waiting for the first M1 or M2 iMac. My current iMac is still working great and does everything I want it to do, but sometimes I get the urge to have the latest and greatest.

Now if Slydude will just lend me some of that gold he has stored up.......

 

[ferrarr]

@krs, since you are running Mojave, the external should mount, and shouldn't have any issues with DriveDx. Have you tried contacting them? The only reason I

Support Email

By the way, I had the Crucial 500GB MX200 version of the drive you're asking about. Here is that drive (non boot) in an external USB 3 enclosure.


I just replaced that SSD with the 1TB version like you, in my Mac Mini.

 

[Randy B. Singer]

M1 Mac users report alarming hard drive health readings

Many M1 Mac users appear to be seeing really worrisome health warnings from their SSDs after only a few months of use, but there's hope this is a software issue that can be patched by Apple.

www.imore.com

FWIW, there was a long thread about this on the Macintosh consultants discussion list. No one had seen this in any of their clients' M1-based Macs. The conclusion was that it may be a load of BS.

A couple of users, concerned by the above article, sent me their DriveDX reports to look at, and both of their reports were consistent with SSD's that had barely been used and which were likely to live on for many many years.