In the last six months I've noticed significant sluggishness in the performance of my 2012 MBA. I chalked it up to Sierra/High Sierra, but I recently downloaded SSDReporter out of curiosity and it states my drive is at 38% health, which according to the app is the "warning threshold." Is this something I can take seriously? I didn't think a 5 year old SSD would already be so degraded. Is there any other way I can check the health of my SSD? And if it is failing, would popping a new one in solve a lot of my performance issues?
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Is my SSD starting to die?
- Thread starter oldtime
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Sure it can be depending on usage patterns. Apple's SSD are very high quality with exceptional write endurance. Five years of heavy writing could wear one of them out. Something as simple as not having enough RAM can cause heavy write use. As the computer is constantly paging data in and out of the SSD to free up RAM.
If you only have 4GB RAM. It's probably time to upgrade to a new computer. 4GB doesn't handle much anymore. You can have a single tab in Chrome which uses over 1/2 a GB.
If you only have 4GB RAM. It's probably time to upgrade to a new computer. 4GB doesn't handle much anymore. You can have a single tab in Chrome which uses over 1/2 a GB.
SSDs are generally more reliable than HDDs, and testing has shown that you have to write a very large amount of data, everyday, for a very long time before they show signs of wear. But they do fail. The SSD in my 2013 15-MBP failed a few months ago. The sluggishness can be a sign of a failing drive, and drive utilities typically don't show false positives. Can you take it to an Apple store? They offer free diagnostics. If the drive is failing, a new one will solve your performance issues. You're backing things up, right?
Does SSDReporter provide the actual SMART metrics used to make that health assessment? (for example, wear leveling count.) If not, you could download another SMART app that provides more detailed metrics.
What size SSD is it and how filled is it? Smaller SSDs wear quicker, and if near filled they will wear at a more accelerated rate.
What size SSD is it and how filled is it? Smaller SSDs wear quicker, and if near filled they will wear at a more accelerated rate.
Apple Store is a bit of a drive, unfortunately. Back things up weekly via TM.
128. It's typically been at 75-90% of capacity since I've had the laptop. I'll try to find a better app that's a bit more detailed.
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Indeed, I've got 4GB of RAM and it hasn't felt like enough for at least 2 years now. I'll probably upgrade soon and get a machine with 16GB just to future proof since I like to keep my laptops for 5-6 years before replacing them.
Velocity observed above:
"Something as simple as not having enough RAM can cause heavy write use. As the computer is constantly paging data in and out of the SSD to free up RAM."
Which is why I TURN OFF VM disk swapping on my Macs.
Easily done via terminal.
If you have enough RAM (you don't necessarily need lots, I'm doing this with 10gb installed), and if you are careful to manage the number of apps, windows open, there won't be any crashes. I have none of that.
And NONE of that "disk thrashing" that comes from constant page-ins and page-outs as a result of VM swapping...
"Something as simple as not having enough RAM can cause heavy write use. As the computer is constantly paging data in and out of the SSD to free up RAM."
Which is why I TURN OFF VM disk swapping on my Macs.
Easily done via terminal.
If you have enough RAM (you don't necessarily need lots, I'm doing this with 10gb installed), and if you are careful to manage the number of apps, windows open, there won't be any crashes. I have none of that.
And NONE of that "disk thrashing" that comes from constant page-ins and page-outs as a result of VM swapping...
Then it is possible the SSD has reached its end-of-life. At 75-90% filled capacity on a very small SSD, the rate of wear can be greatly accelerated. Further, filled SSDs tend to have poor write performance and with macOS a very filled SSD can result in poor overall system performance, and so the SSD being near filled could also be the culprit for poor performance.
I use DriveDX. It is a paid App but comes with a free trial. It is based off of SmartMonTools, which is free but doesn't have the nice UI of DriveDX.
test the speed with the free Blackmagic Disk Speed Test at apple app store
on the PC side both the Intel and Crucial SSD have programs to show life remaining
for non apple SSD I have to place them in a PC system to update the firmware.
More main memory helps but the Apple OS uses ALL the memory so you can't just look and say I need more if you see it all used.
on the PC side both the Intel and Crucial SSD have programs to show life remaining
for non apple SSD I have to place them in a PC system to update the firmware.
More main memory helps but the Apple OS uses ALL the memory so you can't just look and say I need more if you see it all used.
I really don't know what to make of these SMART drive utilities. The SMART part of both the latest and last versions of Techtools says my Samsung 850 EVO SSD is failing (for the last year), SMART Utility gives the same diagnoses, while SSDReporter, Disk Sensei and DriveDX report no issues.
I have not experienced any issues at all, either speed issues or corrupted files, with this SSD, and to mention it again, it's been a year of warnings on only those 2 SMART drive utilities.
I have not experienced any issues at all, either speed issues or corrupted files, with this SSD, and to mention it again, it's been a year of warnings on only those 2 SMART drive utilities.