How to test SSD's physical health (bumps/falls)

[sharksfin]

I'm considering buying a new SSD from a private seller (Craigslist). It's sealed in the original blister pack sorta package. But it may have had falls or bumps. Is there some way to check the physical health of the SSD?
I run Linux Mint 17.1, if that matters.

 

[Batmeat]

Generally the health is determined by the manufacturer software package. There is no way to physically tell just by looking at it.

 

[sharksfin]

Generally the health is determined by the manufacturer software package. There is no way to physically tell just by looking at it.

hi, batmeat. nice to hear from another exotic-sounding food!

Yeah, I didn't think eyeballing the SSD would help. I thought maybe there was a program or software we can run?

 

[Batmeat]

I don't know of any off the top of my head except the manufacturers software, I.E. Samsung magician for Samsung drives etc.

 

[XavierMace]

A fall/drop isn't going to hurt an SSD unless it was hard enough to break the PCB which would be immediately obvious by bent/destroyed casing. There's no moving parts like regular drives. You can pull the SMART data but with SSD's they often don't tell you much useful. Generally all people are doing is checking power on hours.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah. I was like, "SSD"... "Falls and drops"? ROTFL.

Generally, unless someone slams one on the ground (and then hits it with a sledgehammer, Gallager-style), an SSD will be fine. They're not shock-sensitive (like HDDs are).

 

[Valantar]

Yeah. I was like, "SSD"... "Falls and drops"? ROTFL.

Generally, unless someone slams one on the ground (and then hits it with a sledgehammer, Gallager-style), an SSD will be fine. They're not shock-sensitive (like HDDs are).

I guess if you're exceptionally unlucky, a bad solder joint might fail if it's knocked about sufficiently. Repeated drops from several stories up onto concrete, asphalt or rock, for example. But even a crappy blister pack would protect against that, considering the negligible mass of an SSD. SSDs don't have any components with enough mass by themselves to pull them loose under light physical stress either, so ...

You'll be fine. The only things to look out for are water damage (which would ruin the packaging), ESD damage (impossible when packaged unless you put extreme effort into achieving it), visible physical damage (bent/dented casing) or the product itself being fake. I guess the latter is the most likely, although that's more common for flash drives and SD cards.

 

[Elixer]

Crooked people can & do replace the PCB with lower models, that is another thing to look for.
If you got a laptop, get one of those USB->SATA cables, and plug it in, and dump the drive stats.
Then you can get some info.