Email notification of SMART failure on SSD but Scanner is not showing any issues

[ianp]

For the last couple months every 2-3 weeks I get an email notification from Scanner saying there was a SMART failure detected and that my Samsung 128gb SSD is expected to fail within 24hrs.. When I log into the server and open Scanner there are no issues with the drive. SMART is predicting no failures, it seems to be operating normally. Is there another test outside of Scanner I could do to see if there are any problems with this drive?

 

UPDATE:

This server had two Samsung SSD. The 128gb OS drive that was throwing the occasional SMART warnings and a 256gb that I used as a landing drive. I never received any warnings on the 256gb drive. I pulled the 128gb drive with the issues and replaced it with the 256gb drive. After a couple days I started to get the same SMART warning for the 256gb drive. Could this indicate a problem with the cable or with the actual motherboard? Im going to swap cables for now and if the warning comes back Ill try plugging the drive into a different port on the motherboard. 

 

Edited November 12, 2025 by ianp

[Shane]

It can occasionally happen that a drive will detect a problem that gets flagged in SMART but is able to repair that problem straight away or soon after.

For example: a drive may hit a sector it has trouble reading, so that goes into SMART's pending sector counter, then the drive is able to successfully repair the sector, so it gets taken back off the counter - but if it was in SMART long enough to be noticed by Scanner then Scanner is going to report it.

If it's happening "often" then it can be an indication that the drive has an ongoing borderline problem and you might want to run a diagnostic* on it and/or not use it for critical data. It may stay like that for the rest of its (warrantied) life, it might get worse or it may just drop dead one night (so like any other SSD really 😜 ).

*for Samsung there's the Samsung Magician software.

[ianp]

18 hours ago, Shane said:

It can occasionally happen that a drive will detect a problem that gets flagged in SMART but is able to repair that problem straight away or soon after.

For example: a drive may hit a sector it has trouble reading, so that goes into SMART's pending sector counter, then the drive is able to successfully repair the sector, so it gets taken back off the counter - but if it was in SMART long enough to be noticed by Scanner then Scanner is going to report it.

If it's happening "often" then it can be an indication that the drive has an ongoing borderline problem and you might want to run a diagnostic* on it and/or not use it for critical data. It may stay like that for the rest of its (warrantied) life, it might get worse or it may just drop dead one night (so like any other SSD really 😜 ).

*for Samsung there's the Samsung Magician software.

Than you for this. The drive was purchased new in 2016 so amazingly its still under warranty. I setup the Samsung Magician software but all the diagnostic options are not compatible with this drive. I use this drive for the OS on my server so its not really storing critical data but if it were to die suddenly that would suck. Will see if I can cover it under warranty but will most likely replace it either way. Thank you for the help!

[ianp]

UPDATE:

This server had two Samsung SSD. The 128gb OS drive that was throwing the occasional SMART warnings and a 256gb that I used as a landing drive. I never received any warnings on the 256gb drive. I pulled the 128gb drive with the issues and replaced it with the 256gb drive. After a couple days I started to get the same SMART warning for the 256gb drive. Could this indicate a problem with the cable or with the actual motherboard? Im going to swap cables for now and if the warning comes back Ill try plugging the drive into a different port on the motherboard. 

[Shane]

It does seem suspicious that the problem affected the other drive only when you put it where the first one was placed, yes.