Samsung 870 EVO - Beware, certain batches prone to failure!

[SPDIF]

My Crucial MX500 ssd 500 gb version is 98% health after 4.7 TBW, is that good or bad?

It's just normal for almost 5TB written, nothing to worry about.

 

[Wirko]

The fastest drives i sold here is; (All SATA-3, DRAM on board)

What about the Transcend SSD230S, is it up there with the best?

(The manufacturer does not directly state it's a TLC drive, but retailers often do, and it has a TBW rating of 560 cycles. Transcend has a separate "Q" line of SSDs declared as QLC. So I'd be fairly confident this one is TLC. The newer SSD225S is the same minus DRAM and with less TBW, for the same price.)

 

[SPDIF]

Transcend is also a good brand, i think nothing to worry about!

 

[deathlessdd]

This is an 870 evo 250Gig Already 1% worn Not very impressed with it...

 

[SPDIF]

You also have nothing to worry about, they al go down 1 percent shortly after use. It will stay like this for a very long time. It's normal behavior from the 870EVO.

As i see here, it's 100 percent healthy! I will stay on 1 percent, even after written TB data.

 

[deathlessdd]

You also have nothing to worry about, they al go down 1 percent shortly after use. It will stay like this for a very long time. It's normal behavior from the 870EVO.

As i see here, it's 100 percent healthy!

Hmm thats odd im not used to hard drives loosing 1% nearly a day after booting it...I had a crucial drive 240gig nearly go up 56% wear in less then 3 weeks...They dont make them like they used to. Both are used as an OS drive to proxmox.

 

[SPDIF]

Yes only Samsung knows that, but for the 870EVO it's normal, they all change to 99 percent after written some GB...
But you don't have to worry, it's 100 percent healthy.

The 1TB and 2TB do the same behavior.

Mine has now 2.2TBW and it will stay for many TBW on 99 percent.

 

[LKS255]

Hello! I have been looking to buy a Samsung 870 Evo 4TB or Samsung 870 Qvo 8TB for mass storage as 2nd drive. I am using wd black sn850x 2tb as my main drive. I found it interesting that I almost bought the 870 Evo but I saw youtube recommend me videos about failures of those ssd's. Does the 870 Evo still have these issues? What about the 870 Qvo versions? Do those have issues? I would like a reliable storage that's gonna last me years. I don't have any knowledge on ssd's just very basic computer knowledge. Should I still buy the 870 Evo and hope it doesn't fail or should I go for 870 Qvo? Maybe something else? I was thinking Samsung had the most reliable ssd's for reasonable pricing so I just want some opinions.

Edit: Or should I just forget sata ssd's and go with a 4TB nvme ssd? Which one if yes?

 

[chrcoluk]

My Crucial MX500 ssd 500 gb version is 98% health after 4.7 TBW, is that good or bad?

The TBW rating doesnt necessarily align with erase cycles, the crystal diskinfo % health on a SATA SSD is linked to its erase cycles counter. Please post a screenshot of crystal diskinfo on the drive or the wear levelling count (program erase cycles) decimal value.

Erase cycles limit is based on spec of the NAND used, TBW is what the manufacturer is prepared to support for warranty.

As an example the older versions of the MX500 (ones I purchased) have the same TBW rating, but due to poor firmware an accelerated erase cycles process which leads to the % going down much faster in diskinfo.

In short its normal for the % to go down gradually for SATA SSD's in diskinfo.

 

[Jon555]

(1) I think Samsung just round the % life left down on maybe one least significant digit in 16-bits or similar, so 99.999% -> 99%

(2) Samsung say the failure issue was fixed some time back, but any drive can die.

"Thank you for contacting Samsung Memory Support.

This is the firmware related problem and was improved at the middle of 2021-December already.
The update of the improved firmware was released from the December of 2021 and the products with the latest firmware don't have this problem.
You can check the SSD status with Magician (SMART) Diagnostic scan to see if the SSD is showing any fail.

We hope that we have given you sufficient information.
If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact us."

(3) NVMe will be pleasantly faster. I'd go for a brand you've heard of and who do a fair number of SSDs...

 

[hi1]

hello I want to buy a 2tb SSD initially I wanted to buy the 870 Evo but now I'm not sure should I buy it or buy a crucial mx500 or do you have a better one for longevity because I live in the third world country and i will not be able RMA it if it failed
my budget is only $140 I have family member in the US how will buy it and bring it with hem
he is coming back in the month or two

 

[SPDIF]

Both is a good SSD, the Samsung is faster and use less power to do the same work, and you have a longer warranty. The Samsung costs a little more then Crucial. You can rest assured, there are no problems anymore reported, so i would go for Samsung. But if you go for Crucial it is also a good and fast SSD, just a bit slower and use some more Power.

The Samsung one also has a higher TBW rating then Crucial, with means longer life and due to less Power also less heat dissipated.

 

[mplayerMuPDF]

hello I want to buy a 2tb SSD initially I wanted to buy the 870 Evo but now I'm not sure should I buy it or buy a crucial mx500 or do you have a better one for longevity because I live in the third world country and i will not be able RMA it if it failed
my budget is only $140 I have family member in the US how will buy it and bring it with hem
he is coming back in the month or two

I would save some money and (ask your family member to) buy a used/open box SSD on eBay from a reputable seller. I have done this myself multiple times and have had good experiences except for one time (seller lied about the condition of the drive but I was able to return it within the window after I saw the SMART values). You can get an open box Micron 1100 for just $70: NEW - Open Box - Micron MTFDDAK2T0TBN 1100 2TB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s SSD Solid State. Or a used Micron 1300 (3D TLC) for just $65: HP Micron 1300 2TB SATA 2.5" SSD MTFDDAK2T0TDL L53461-0010

If you think that is too risky, you could also get a used 850 EVO (which AFAIK is known to be a very reliable drive without issues such as the 870, although I only have 860s myself) from this seller for $75: Samsung 850 EVO 2TB SATA 6Gb/s 2.5" SSD MZ-75E2T0 Laptop PC Drive. I can personally vouch for this seller as I have bought multiple different drives from them (at great prices) and they all only had very low to light wear (endurance wise) and I have not had any issues with those drives. You could buy two of those 850s from them for $140 and then you would have a spare.

 

[SPDIF]

For the people here that still think that only Samsung has had drives that loose data, and no response from manufacturer. Here you go; Sandisk AKA Western Digital has now the same problems...

SanDisk Extreme Pro Failures Result From Design and Manufacturing Flaws, Says Data Recovery Firm

It doesn't look like a firmware fix will be enough.

www.tomshardware.com

 

[P4-630]

Chips with issues, better buy Lays now.....

 

[SPDIF]

Or Croky for that matter...

And here it is even worse, hardware problems and bad soldering where a firmware update can't fix this...

 

[Jon555]

Or Croky for that matter...

And here it is even worse, hardware problems and bad soldering where a firmware update can't fix this...

I actually suspect (from the photo in the article) the issue is passives that are too high (vs. too long or wide) and contacting heat-sinks. Often older generation capacitors/inductors/impeders (in particular) are cheaper, but also taller for the same PCB footprint. (So I think the capacitor/whatever that's up in the air got that way when someone removed a heatsink it was, unintentionally, attached to.)

 

[CrystalCharm]

@SPDIF Sorry, I don't have time to read the whole thread. Versions of 1TB and larger are discussed mostly, but what about 500GB versions? Are they okay? I have a chance to buy brand new 500GB with a production date of autumn 23, but I don’t know what firmware it will have.

 

[SPDIF]

@SPDIF Sorry, I don't have time to read the whole thread. Versions of 1TB and larger are discussed mostly, but what about 500GB versions? Are they okay? I have a chance to buy brand new 500GB with a production date of autumn 23, but I don’t know what firmware it will have.

With the 500GB i never have seen a problem AFAIK. It should be good to go i think. I never have seen reported problems anywhere with this drive. Just make sure it is a new drive, and not an old stock. The date of production is always printed on the box and drive. Just let them know you want a NEW drive, and not an old drive the was laying down in stock for some years.

With the production date you told, it should be fine! Most drives are now shipped with the latest firmware, if they are from 2023.

 

[CrystalCharm]

With the 500GB i never have seen a problem AFAIK. It should be good to go i think. I never have seen reported problems anywhere with this drive. Just make sure it is a new drive, and not an old stock. The date of production is always printed on the box and drive. Just let them know you want a NEW drive, and not an old drive the was laying down in stock for some years.

With the production date you told, it should be fine! Most drives are now shipped with the latest firmware, if they are from 2023.

Thanks for your reply! I've been seen that in 23 on 500GB there was firmware svt02b6q with serial number S7. Can it be considered as last firmware?

 

[SPDIF]

It can be both SVT03B6Q or SVT02B6Q, depends what NAND is on the drive. But anyway from date 2023, it will work as it should without any problem.

Only the bigger 4TB drives sometimes are still shipped with SVT01B6Q firmware, as said it all depends what NAND Samsung used. Different NAND requires different firmware.

 

[chrcoluk]

For the people here that still think that only Samsung has had drives that loose data, and no response from manufacturer. Here you go; Sandisk AKA Western Digital has now the same problems...

SanDisk Extreme Pro Failures Result From Design and Manufacturing Flaws, Says Data Recovery Firm

It doesn't look like a firmware fix will be enough.

www.tomshardware.com

Sandisk has had issues in their history, wasnt long ago they were in the news as well. I dont think people have been saying Samsung is the only one with this behaviour though.

However samsung somehow seem to be getting a free pass from the tech media, that is different to the sandisk situation.

 

[SPDIF]

If there's one thing I've learned, it's that they all make mistakes sometimes. Always check that you have the latest firmware and that you are not purchasing old stock.

 

[smbaker]

I have the unfortune history of buying 5 of these drives a year or two ago. All of them eventually developed one of more UNC error. Since upgrading the firmware, the UNC errors have gone away, but I of course have the same increasing attribute 252 that other people have. Can anyone tell me what value of attribute 252 would be a concern for data loss? My highest drive has attribute 252 equal to 288. Another way to ask the question is, what is the highest attribute 252 you have seen?

Also, 252 is no longer being reported on my NAS as "Unknown Attribute", but as "Added_Bad_Flash_Blk_ct". At least somebody finally gave it a name, but it would be really handy if there was an official definition for it. For example, how does it differ from "Runtime_Bad_Block"? If these blocks are bad, how come "Used_Rsvd_Blk_Cnt" doesn't increase at the same rate attribute 252 increases?

Scott

 

[SuperConker]

Bad blocks on an SSD = time to RMA that SSD.

The 870 will also eventually get other errors on them (like CRC-errors) along with the bad blocks,
when that starts happening you will no longer be able to backup your data from these drives.