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

[SPDIF]

Post a screenshot please with crystaldiskinfo so we can see it and help you better.Or you have a fake one, many fake Samsung SSD are around now these days.

 

[smbaker]

I can't give you crystaldiskinfo as they're not installed in a windows machine, but here's something equivalent. They're in a RAID6, so I'm not particularly worried about losing the data on them. I can tolerate two disks worth of failure before data loss occurs. So both of them could go. I am planning on picking up a spare if the price comes down in the new year, and I'll swap one of these out with it, then I can RMA it. However, I'm skeptical that Samsung will accept an RMA. Both of these drives will pass an extended smart test with no problem. The one with the three UNC errors is a bit disconcerting. These errors happened before, and then immediately after upgrading the firmware. It's been almost a week since and no more UNC errors. Whatever the firmware does, it seems to either mask the problem, or at the very least keeps the OS from freaking out that data has been lost. An increment of attribute 252 causes no drama.

However, I'm trying to interpret the results. Let's take the drive with the 3 UNC errors. That means three unrecoverable data errors, yet the reallocated sector count, used reserved block count, and runtime bad block count are all one. It has 292 incidents of attribute 252, but those also didn't yield any reallocated sectors. What do people make of attribute 252? (with reasonable speculation since I understand Samsung has not disclosed it) What does an increment of 252 actually mean?

Scott

 

[SPDIF]

If a see the used hours and data written, they are not exactly new. RMA them is too late for that now. But defect sectors is a bad sign, better replace them. They are pretty used up as i see it.
Remember it's an EVO not an PRO, they have much lower TBW to be written.

 

[SuperConker]

Since you have bad Blocks i would hurry up and backup your data before it's too late.

These drives have a 5-year warranty so it is not too late to RMA them.

 

[smbaker]

@SPDIF, If my back of the envelope calculations are right, it has 57 TBW, and it's rated 5 years / 2400 TBW. 57 is well less than 2400, and 1.7 years is less than 5 years. The warranty covers 'conforms to specifications' which would imply that they do not lose data. 1 UNC error on the one drive counts as loss of data, and IMO should be grounds for a warranty return. But I'm not Samsung. The other drive is less clear to me since it has no UNCs, though it does have a bad block.

@SuperConker, they're in a RAID6, that's backed up to another RAID6 (which is devoid of Samsung SSDs), so I'm not all that worried about data loss.

 

[SPDIF]

Well yes you always can try to RMA it, nothing bad with trying. But those bad sectors are really a bad sign. I always replace them ASAP if i see a drive with that.
But with that used hours, i don't know if Samsung is willing to replace that.

An explanation of those bad flash blocks number 252, here is more info about that.

Bad blocks are blocks that contain one or more invalid bits whose reliability is not
guaranteed. Bad blocks may be present when the device is shipped, or may develop
during the lifetime of the device.

https://www.micron.com/-/media/client/global/documents/products/technical-note/nand-flash/tn2959_bbm_in_nand_flash.pdf

You have 292 of them, replace it before data loss occurs.

 

[Mik22]

Hello - I had purchased an EVO 500GB Sata drive 12 months ago for an older Dell 7720 Inspiron (very slow to boot but not bad after that.) I let the new drive lay around a month or 2 before getting ready to install it, and then while searching for some info, I ran across the bad news about the EVO drives. It was too late to return it by then and the reports were so bad that I decided not to install it, especially given a July 2022 Mfg date -- 4 months BEFORE Samsung made their upgrades. Yesterday I was searching on this forum for current info on EVOs, before purchasing another drive, and saw the comments from 11 and 12 Dec 2023 that hint that the 500GB drives were possibly never affected by all the mayhem of the larger drives. So my question is: is there any consensus that a July 2022 500GB EVO is low enough risk to go ahead and use it or should I just throw it away and move on?
Mik

 

[SPDIF]

Hello - I had purchased an EVO 500GB Sata drive 12 months ago for an older Dell 7720 Inspiron (very slow to boot but not bad after that.) I let the new drive lay around a month or 2 before getting ready to install it, and then while searching for some info, I ran across the bad news about the EVO drives. It was too late to return it by then and the reports were so bad that I decided not to install it, especially given a July 2022 Mfg date -- 4 months BEFORE Samsung made their upgrades. Yesterday I was searching on this forum for current info on EVOs, before purchasing another drive, and saw the comments from 11 and 12 Dec 2023 that hint that the 500GB drives were possibly never affected by all the mayhem of the larger drives. So my question is: is there any consensus that a July 2022 500GB EVO is low enough risk to go ahead and use it or should I just throw it away and move on?
Mik

Keep it laying down or just throw away would be crazy of course. Just fire it up, and make sure that you first check it with Samsung Magician to install firmware if any. The 500Gb where not affected, i never seen one here in the shop. But you never know, i think it will be okay. If not you still can RMA it back to Samsung if it's behaving bad, because it's new and never used.

If possible show a screenshot with CrystalDiskInfo if you can, when you begin to use it. Install windows for example then check it out. Then we can tell you if it's okay or not.
If you don't use it to begin with, there's no telling if it bad or not. And maybe then you just loose money, just use it and install a new windows on it for test.

 

[Samohtimovic]

Hey, new user here. I just found this discussion on 870 EVO and i'd like to ask if this ssd i have is considered bad. I bought it in april 2021, put some programs in it and never bothered to check it's status. I can't really say i understand s.m.a.r.t. values, but it's been giving me errors for a few months already, so i'm trying to understand if it's just wear or something faulty...

I set the raw values to "10 [DEC]", they should be correct to my understanding. Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[SPDIF]

Sorry, bad news this drive is dying, replace and RMA back to Samsung. Backup your data before it's to late. That's the first i see from 500GB that is dying. Good to know.
Your data is from the time of the pandemic, yes many bad electronics where made during that time, because they could not find chips anywhere.
So they just used what they could find for the cheap 870EVO and finally Samsung cutted there own flesh with that...

If you lucky Samsung will provide a new one for you.

A healthy one should show something like this, see all the zero's, that a healthy 870EVO.

Your drive has already 124 bad blocks of memory.

If you decide to buy a new one to anyone ready reading this topic, make sure it's a new SSD made in 2023, don't accept an old one lying on the shelves for some years! Send back or ask your money back! The date of production is always printed on the box outside.

 

[erokube]

Hm, very interesting topic. Thank you all for sharing your experiences.
Here is my 870 EVO
2.5 years old, and many many corrupted files I can not copy or properly open.

 

[Samohtimovic]

Sorry, bad news this drive is dying, replace and RMA back to Samsung. Backup your data before it's to late. That's the first i see from 500GB that is dying. Good to know.
Your data is from the time of the pandemic, yes many bad electronics where made during that time, because they could not find chips anywhere.
So they just used what they could find for the cheap 870EVO and finally Samsung cutted there own flesh with that...

If you lucky Samsung will provide a new one for you.

A healthy one should show something like this, see all the zero's, that a healthy 870EVO.

View attachment 328416

Your drive has already 124 bad blocks of memory.

If you decide to buy a new one to anyone ready reading this topic, make sure it's a new SSD made in 2023, don't accept an old one lying on the shelves for some years! Send back or ask your money back! The date of production is always printed on the box outside.

First of all, thanks for your help.

This ssd was produced in february 2021, and the samsung's site lists it as technically still covered by warranty. I'll see if i can get it changed...

 

[SuperConker]

Hey, new user here. I just found this discussion on 870 EVO and i'd like to ask if this ssd i have is considered bad. I bought it in april 2021, put some programs in it and never bothered to check it's status. I can't really say i understand s.m.a.r.t. values, but it's been giving me errors for a few months already, so i'm trying to understand if it's just wear or something faulty...

I set the raw values to "10 [DEC]", they should be correct to my understanding. Thanks in advance for any help.

Hm, very interesting topic. Thank you all for sharing your experiences.
Here is my 870 EVO
2.5 years old, and many many corrupted files I can not copy or properly open.

I really don't like how CrystalDiskInfo gives these drives a Blue (Good) icon and 99% health
people could misunderstand this if they don't know what to look for.

These two drives should be shown in Red (Bad) and also show something much lower than 99% health.


How do they look if you check with Hard Disk Sentinel?

 

[Samohtimovic]

I really don't like how CrystalDiskInfo gives these drives a Blue (Good) icon and 99% health
people could misunderstand this if they don't know what to look for.

These two drives should be shown in Red (Bad) and also show something much lower than 99% health.


How do they look if you check with Hard Disk Sentinel?

This is what HD Sentinel shows. Clearly lower health status, with the same error values. Note that i am currently backing up the data from the disk, and a couple files were lost because of corruption (nothing important)

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

Why did the guy on reddit delete himself after posting this though?

IIRC, I've been seeing stuff like that lately, LOL.

is from the time of the pandemic, yes many bad electronics where made during that time

Sounds just like a batch of LCD monitors I got, with bad pixels. All built during the very-bad-pandemic era.

 

[erokube]

My HD Sentinel results...

 

[RJARRRPCGP]

My HD Sentinel results...

Looks like it's faulty indeed!

 

[SPDIF]

Hm, very interesting topic. Thank you all for sharing your experiences.
Here is my 870 EVO
2.5 years old, and many many corrupted files I can not copy or properly open.

Hi,

I am sorry, but this SSD is also dying slowly like the other member before you. It's even worse, replace ASAP before you loose data. Again a SSD from the time of the pandemic... They better did not sell them anymore, if they could not find chips. But yeah at that time all manufacturers got greedy, not only Samsung. There where so many bad products produced back then, people still suffer from it.

But Samsung knows about this, and I'm almost sure you will get a new SSD. Don't wait any longer and RMA it back to them. They have to replace it, it's not your fault.

 

[erokube]

Thank you very much for advice.
How do you people do it? If I RMA it, send it back, I will need to buy some "temp" SSD for the time till thy send a replacement SSD ?
Or simply find some old SSD/HDD and survive on that for the time being?

 

[SuperConker]

This is what HD Sentinel shows. Clearly lower health status, with the same error values. Note that i am currently backing up the data from the disk, and a couple files were lost because of corruption (nothing important)

My HD Sentinel results...

Yeah those two drives are not only a little defective, they are way past the breaking point so to speak.


I wish CrystalDiskInfo would be more clear about it's Health-status and percentage when it comes to the 870.

People might think their drive is doing fine when they see that it's 99% (Good) marked in blue like that
(when in fact, the drive is actually broken past the point of no return).


At first glance, this doesn't look so bad:

But then you check it again with Hard Disk Sentinel and get a much clearer picture of what's going on:

It was sadly not possible to backup data from this drive.

 

[SPDIF]

Thank you very much for advice.
How do you people do it? If I RMA it, send it back, I will need to buy some "temp" SSD for the time till thy send a replacement SSD ?
Or simply find some old SSD/HDD and survive on that for the time being?

Yes it's annoying to say the least, but yeah you go on with what you have while you wait for your new drive to arrive. No one gives you a spare one to help you.
Yes an old HDD will do for the time being, it's slow but it works. Good luck and i hope they don't wait to long.

 

[Jon555]

Curiously CrystalDiskInfo calls SMART parameter FC (=252 decimal) "Vendor Specific" for an 870 drive and doesn't mind a raw value of 70.
HD Sentinel describes the drive as "Perfect".
Is FC really an issue?

 

[SPDIF]

Curiously CrystalDiskInfo calls SMART parameter FC (=252 decimal) "Vendor Specific" for an 870 drive and doesn't mind a raw value of 70.
HD Sentinel describes the drive as "Perfect".
Is FC really an issue?

No not really, as long that the other's like reallocated sector count stays zero it's not an issue. ID 252 actually means for Samsung SSD: Read ECC Count, happens also with old HDD.
It means an error has been detected while reading, but has been corrected. I have an 870EVO with that now on 155 decimal, but it still okay with HD sentinel and CrystalDisk.
It has since not go up anymore, i attached a NEW SATA cable and i did not see the problem return. Can be a dirty or bad contact on mobo or SSD/HDD, or an bad SATA cable.

Try a new SATA cable and clean the contacts with IPA and an cotton swab. My old one is from date 2020 and written 10TB, still okay. So don't worry about that.

On another PC besides me i also have an 870EVO that has a count of 7 for that ID, i did also install a new cable and since it did not go up anymore.

And Samsung does not accept this to send back as defective anyway.

 

[Jon555]

Thanks for that! At least my old 830 drive is still going strong, I suspect the reallocated sectors are just they hit some write limit... no BBs... about 9 years 8 months Powered On and 118TB written BTW...

The 870 is somewhat younger...

 

[SPDIF]

Wow, that 830 is pretty used up, but still going strong! They don't make quality like this anymore. And your 870 is as healthy as it can be, still young child...

Still have an old 860PRO here, just as your 830 you can't break these. Very strong and the best real MLC NAND used then.