I'm using Bazzite and want to check the health of my SSD from the command line. I've seen that smartctl has a -H or --health option, but I'm not sure how to identify the correct device or run the command. I'd also like to know whether SSD health can be expressed as a percentage, and whether the same process will work on devices such as a Steam Deck or Steam Machine.
3 Answers
For an NVMe SSD, the important fields in the report usually include `Critical Warning`, `Available Spare`, `Percentage Used`, and `Media and Data Integrity Errors`. `Percentage Used` is an estimate of the drive’s endurance consumed, not the amount of storage currently in use. A result showing `PASSED`, no critical warnings, and zero media or integrity errors is generally a good sign. Install the smartmontools package first if `smartctl` isn’t available.
SMART health isn’t usually one simple percentage. It reports several values, and the meaning depends on whether the drive is SATA or NVMe. First list the disks and their device paths with `lsblk`. Then run a full report with `sudo smartctl -a /dev/DEVICE`, replacing `DEVICE` with the correct path. SATA drives are often named `/dev/sda`, while NVMe drives commonly use `/dev/nvme0n1`. For a quick overall result, `sudo smartctl -H /dev/DEVICE` may show whether the drive passed its health assessment.
If you prefer a graphical option, GNOME Disks can display SMART information when it’s installed. Select the drive, open its health or SMART data, and review the same values shown by smartctl. The terminal method is still useful because it works well over a remote shell and provides the complete report.
That clears it up. My report showed an overall result of PASSED, 100% available spare, 2% percentage used, and no media or data integrity errors, so it looks healthy.