Windows – How to monitor SSD wear in Windows when the drives are presented as ‘generic’ devices

smartwindowswindows-server-2003-r2

Under Linux, we can monitor SSD wear fairly easily with smartmontools whether the drive is presented as a normal block device or a generic device (which happens when the drive has been hardware RAIDed by certain controllers such as the one on the IBM HS22).

How can we do the equivalent under Windows? Does anyone actually use smartmontools? Or are there other packages out there?

The problem is that SCSI Generic devices just don't show up in Windows. If the drives aren't RAIDed we can see them fine.

How I'd do it in Linux:

sles11-live:~ # lsscsi -g
[1:0:0:0]    disk    SMART    USB-IBM          8989  /dev/sda   /dev/sg0
[2:0:0:0]    disk    ATA      MTFDDAK256MAR-1K MA44  -          /dev/sg1
[2:0:1:0]    disk    ATA      MTFDDAK256MAR-1K MA44  -          /dev/sg2
[2:1:8:0]    disk    LSILOGIC Logical Volume   3000  /dev/sdb   /dev/sg3

sles11-live:~ # smartctl -l ssd /dev/sg1
smartctl 5.42 2011-10-20 r3458 [x86_64-linux-2.6.32.49-0.3-default] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-11 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

Device Statistics (GP Log 0x04)
Page Offset Size         Value  Description
  7  =====  =                =  == Solid State Device Statistics (rev 1) ==
  7  0x008  1               26~ Percentage Used Endurance Indicator
                              |_ ~ normalized value

sles11-live:~ # smartctl -l ssd /dev/sg2
smartctl 5.42 2011-10-20 r3458 [x86_64-linux-2.6.32.49-0.3-default] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-11 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

Device Statistics (GP Log 0x04)
Page Offset Size         Value  Description
  7  =====  =                =  == Solid State Device Statistics (rev 1) ==
  7  0x008  1                3~ Percentage Used Endurance Indicator
                              |_ ~ normalized value

Best Answer

You need a utility provided by your raid controller. For example, most HP raid controllers have a compatible utility for reading the smart info from drives connected to their controllers.