I bought an SSD that was advertised as "new," but CrystalDiskInfo reports a bad health status. It shows two critical warnings: "Available spare capacity has fallen below the threshold" and "Media has been placed in Read Only Mode." The drive also has around 20,000 power-on counts and 3,360 power-on hours, despite reporting 96% health. Is there anything I can safely do to clear these warnings or restore the SSD, or should I return it?
1 Answer
Those warnings indicate that the SSD is failing. The spare-capacity warning means it has used up too many of its backup NAND blocks, while read-only mode means the controller has restricted writes to protect the data that remains. Back up anything important immediately, avoid putting new files on the drive, and request a refund or replacement. There is no safe software fix that will make this drive reliable again.
I bought it from a resale marketplace. It has about 20,000 power-on counts and 3,360 hours of use, so I’m guessing it was definitely not new. The 96% health figure confused me, but the critical warnings seem more important.