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checking storage health on macbook pro 16

I have a MacBook Pro 16" model that I am trying to get indicators on drive health for the internal storage.


I am using DriveDX to get more info on health and stats. can anyone point out any areas that I should watch out for in terms of health and premature failures ?


here is the output from DriveDX :


https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HEGQNdHBxLraQQoRqXC9EyuOt3647z4G/view?usp=sharing

Posted on Jun 24, 2021 1:16 PM

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Question marked as Best answer

The most important attributes to keep an eye on for this particular Apple SSD are:


Attribute# 3 Available Spare

Attribute# 5 Life Percentage Used

Attribute# 14 Media and Data Integrity Errors


For most attributes when the "Worst" column value nears the "Threshold" column value it usually indicates the drive is nearing end of life or nearing complete failure depending on the attribute type (Lifetime or Old Age type respectively). Temperature attributes are an exception as with many drives, but it depends how the manufacturer implements that feature.


Of course your SSD has a limited number of life time writes available. Typically most consumer level SSDs have a TBW (Total Bytes Written) as a maximum of 125TB to 300TB depending on the exact model of SSD and its size. There are no known references to what the Apple SSD supports. Before Apple added their own branding to obscure the information many of the Apple SSDs were Samsung SSDs, but of course Samsung has a lot of variety as well.


Posted on Jul 7, 2021 7:51 PM

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6 replies

Jul 6, 2021 11:12 AM in response to zero7404

would appreciate it a lot if anyone who's got experience with storage reliability on late model mbp's can give some tips/feedback, things I can keep an eye on over time ...


i did the built-in diagnostic test and everything came back good, no issues. but perhaps apple's 24 hr test (done at a store) could give more detailed info on storage condition and expected life.

Jul 6, 2021 11:48 AM in response to zero7404

I don't have one of those, but as a long time Mac user, I do know that SSDs can and will fail without warning (hence the absolute necessity of maintaining one or two good backups). They also have a certain number of writes.


Also remember that it isn't just "storage" - it's the place where your OS and all system files are kept and they need room to function properly; on an SSD, the absolute minimum would be 25 - 20 GB at all times. I tend to keep much more - if you do editing/rendering of graphics/movies, you need to have as much empty space as you have temporary files in your project.

Jul 6, 2021 12:53 PM in response to babowa

i'm aware of that 'issue' (sudden failure), if it even is an issue. i hope that the mbp's storage lasts as long as i want to keep the computer (6-7yrs, the age of my retired 2013 mbp).


concerning reads/writes, free space, swap space, etc. ... my usage represents some footprint on the storage medium but do not know how much of what i do is increasing the tally marks for my reads/writes.


i did not use DiskDx on my older mbp's original ssd (but I still have the SSD), but i did use the app to check the health of my newer OWC Aura Pro X2 ssd which is about 1.5yrs old. in that time span, the ssd logged about 36TB of data read/written to it and the app is saying that it's health is around 94%.


with a more recent 16" mbp I bought 2nd hand, the app is saying my storage health is 100% and - at the time i acquired it - had about 19TB of reads/writes. can't say how long the computer has been in use for since new, and going by the date it was officially released then i'd say the storage is in good health and lightly used.


i do use it for some audio/video work however i don't consider myself pro enough to use heavier tools like Logic, Adobe photo and video editing apps ... i stick with open-source such as audacity and gimp, and stock apps like garageband, imovie, etc.

Question marked as Helpful

Jul 6, 2021 1:51 PM in response to zero7404

An additional test you can do is to boot into the Recovery volume (boot with the Command + R keys held down), select Disk Utility and run First Aid on the drive. Then reboot normally.


I won't use a rotational drive any more except for Time Machine as they don't make SSDs large enough at this time.



Question marked as Best answer

Jul 7, 2021 7:51 PM in response to zero7404

The most important attributes to keep an eye on for this particular Apple SSD are:


Attribute# 3 Available Spare

Attribute# 5 Life Percentage Used

Attribute# 14 Media and Data Integrity Errors


For most attributes when the "Worst" column value nears the "Threshold" column value it usually indicates the drive is nearing end of life or nearing complete failure depending on the attribute type (Lifetime or Old Age type respectively). Temperature attributes are an exception as with many drives, but it depends how the manufacturer implements that feature.


Of course your SSD has a limited number of life time writes available. Typically most consumer level SSDs have a TBW (Total Bytes Written) as a maximum of 125TB to 300TB depending on the exact model of SSD and its size. There are no known references to what the Apple SSD supports. Before Apple added their own branding to obscure the information many of the Apple SSDs were Samsung SSDs, but of course Samsung has a lot of variety as well.


Jul 7, 2021 9:48 PM in response to HWTech

Thanks for the tips, will keep an eye on those attributes when running checks on the internal storage.


hopefully it is robust enough to last for a long time (6 - 7 yrs ?) ... don't know for sure. if it lets me down too soon, that would probably have me considering whether or not I should invest $$$ in apple hardware next time.


making everything but the battery serviceable is a planned obsolescence thing ....

checking storage health on macbook pro 16

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