Question Is it possible to tell the age of a hard drive from the command line?

[Pentacore]

I'd like to know the age of my hard drives without having to open my case and physically look at the labels. I was hoping this could be done from the command line somehow with PowerShell or otherwise. I got some interesting info in PowerShell using the command: Get-PhysicalDisk | select * | Out-GridView, but manufacturer date is nowhere to be found. I tried querying WMI objects in PowerShell but nothing either. Giving up on the command line, I tried the latest version of Hard Disk Sentinel, and while it gave me a ton of interesting data on my hard drives such as power on time, still no dates.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Tech Junky]

CDI provides it you just click each drive

CrystalDiskInfo

About CrystalDiskInfo A HDD/SSD utility software which supports a part of USB, Intel RAID and NVMe. Aoi Edition Standard Edition Shizuku Edition Kurei Kei Edition Download System Requirements OS Windows XP/Vista/7/8/8.1/10/11Windows Server 2003/2008/2012/2016/2019/2022 Architecture x86/x64/ARM64...

crystalmark.info

May not provide dates but quite a bit of info. Could always look in your email for receipts. Or Amazon history if you bought online.

 

[Pentacore]

Thanks for that! I was only aware of Crystal's benchmark tools. Didn't realize they had a disk info tool too. Shows a lot of great info but still no manufacturer's date. I tried HWInfo as well. I work on random computers a lot and getting this info quickly would be useful. I guess I just need to open the cases and look. I don't think it's possible any other way.

 

[Tech Junky]

Linux tools can get more info than anything in Windows. I don't think the date is part of what's burned in though.

 

[Tech Junky]

for instance the 1st disk output is my new U3 drive and the other is my original M2 that's a couple of years old now. The power on hours should be a good indicator of age if it's a 24/7 device.

https://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/find-hard-disk-hardware-specs-on-linux/

In this case I'd just take the SN and pop it into a warranty checker for the OEM and get it that way.

Warranty Status | WD Support

support-en.wd.com

smartctl -a -i /dev/nvme0
smartctl 7.3 2022-02-28 r5338 [x86_64-linux-6.5.1-060501-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-22, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Number:                       Micron_7450_MTFDKCC15T3TFR
Serial Number:                      231940ADEA84
Firmware Version:                   E2MU200
PCI Vendor/Subsystem ID:            0x1344
IEEE OUI Identifier:                0x00a075
Total NVM Capacity:                 15,362,991,415,296 [15.3 TB]
Unallocated NVM Capacity:           0
Controller ID:                      0
NVMe Version:                       1.4
Number of Namespaces:               132
Local Time is:                      Fri Sep  8 11:54:04 2023 CDT
Firmware Updates (0x17):            3 Slots, Slot 1 R/O, no Reset required
Optional Admin Commands (0x005e):   Format Frmw_DL NS_Mngmt Self_Test MI_Snd/Rec
Optional NVM Commands (0x00df):     Comp Wr_Unc DS_Mngmt Wr_Zero Sav/Sel_Feat Timestmp Verify
Log Page Attributes (0x1e):         Cmd_Eff_Lg Ext_Get_Lg Telmtry_Lg Pers_Ev_Lg
Maximum Data Transfer Size:         1024 Pages
Warning  Comp. Temp. Threshold:     77 Celsius
Critical Comp. Temp. Threshold:     85 Celsius

Supported Power States
St Op     Max   Active     Idle   RL RT WL WT  Ent_Lat  Ex_Lat
 0 +    25.00W       -        -    0  0  0  0        0       0
 1 +    20.00W       -        -    1  1  1  1        0       0
 2 +    18.00W       -        -    2  2  2  2        0       0
 3 +    16.00W       -        -    3  3  3  3        0       0
 4 +    14.00W       -        -    4  4  4  4        0       0
 5 +    12.00W       -        -    5  5  5  5        0       0
 6 +    10.00W       -        -    6  6  6  6        0       0
 7 +     8.25W       -        -    7  7  7  7        0       0

=== START OF SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

SMART/Health Information (NVMe Log 0x02)
Critical Warning:                   0x00
Temperature:                        39 Celsius
Available Spare:                    100%
Available Spare Threshold:          10%
Percentage Used:                    0%
Data Units Read:                    1,231,309 [630 GB]
Data Units Written:                 4,582,855 [2.34 TB]
Host Read Commands:                 5,599,732
Host Write Commands:                4,478,828
Controller Busy Time:               26
Power Cycles:                       2
Power On Hours:                     71
Unsafe Shutdowns:                   1
Media and Data Integrity Errors:    0
Error Information Log Entries:      0
Warning  Comp. Temperature Time:    0
Critical Comp. Temperature Time:    0
Temperature Sensor 1:               47 Celsius
Temperature Sensor 2:               42 Celsius
Temperature Sensor 3:               39 Celsius

Error Information (NVMe Log 0x01, 16 of 256 entries)
No Errors Logged

root@server:/home/mrumppe# smartctl -a -i /dev/nvme1
smartctl 7.3 2022-02-28 r5338 [x86_64-linux-6.5.1-060501-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-22, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Number:                       WDS100T1X0E-00AFY0
Serial Number:                      21383K800308
Firmware Version:                   614900WD
PCI Vendor/Subsystem ID:            0x15b7
IEEE OUI Identifier:                0x001b44
Total NVM Capacity:                 1,000,204,886,016 [1.00 TB]
Unallocated NVM Capacity:           0
Controller ID:                      8224
NVMe Version:                       1.4
Number of Namespaces:               1
Namespace 1 Size/Capacity:          1,000,204,886,016 [1.00 TB]
Namespace 1 Formatted LBA Size:     512
Namespace 1 IEEE EUI-64:            001b44 8b41008ee5
Local Time is:                      Fri Sep  8 11:54:44 2023 CDT
Firmware Updates (0x14):            2 Slots, no Reset required
Optional Admin Commands (0x0017):   Security Format Frmw_DL Self_Test
Optional NVM Commands (0x00df):     Comp Wr_Unc DS_Mngmt Wr_Zero Sav/Sel_Feat Timestmp Verify
Log Page Attributes (0x1e):         Cmd_Eff_Lg Ext_Get_Lg Telmtry_Lg Pers_Ev_Lg
Maximum Data Transfer Size:         128 Pages
Warning  Comp. Temp. Threshold:     84 Celsius
Critical Comp. Temp. Threshold:     88 Celsius
Namespace 1 Features (0x02):        NA_Fields

Supported Power States
St Op     Max   Active     Idle   RL RT WL WT  Ent_Lat  Ex_Lat
 0 +     9.00W    9.00W       -    0  0  0  0        0       0
 1 +     4.10W    4.10W       -    0  0  0  0        0       0
 2 +     3.50W    3.50W       -    0  0  0  0        0       0
 3 -   0.0250W       -        -    3  3  3  3     5000   10000
 4 -   0.0050W       -        -    4  4  4  4     3900   45700

Supported LBA Sizes (NSID 0x1)
Id Fmt  Data  Metadt  Rel_Perf
 0 +     512       0         2
 1 -    4096       0         1

=== START OF SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

SMART/Health Information (NVMe Log 0x02)
Critical Warning:                   0x00
Temperature:                        38 Celsius
Available Spare:                    100%
Available Spare Threshold:          10%
Percentage Used:                    2%
Data Units Read:                    70,063,710 [35.8 TB]
Data Units Written:                 76,018,894 [38.9 TB]
Host Read Commands:                 754,250,219
Host Write Commands:                2,333,203,882
Controller Busy Time:               2,065
Power Cycles:                       119
Power On Hours:                     15,468
Unsafe Shutdowns:                   96
Media and Data Integrity Errors:    0
Error Information Log Entries:      0
Warning  Comp. Temperature Time:    0
Critical Comp. Temperature Time:    0

Error Information (NVMe Log 0x01, 16 of 256 entries)
No Errors Logged

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah. Storage devices give a sum total of power-on-hours, and have no electronic indicator of purchase or mfg date, except for the serial number on the drive, used to look those values up in an external database somewhere.

 

[fzabkar]

Model Number: Micron_7450_MTFDKCC15T3TFR
Serial Number: 231940ADEA84

You probably won't find a manufacture date for this drive on the label, but the first 4 characters of the serial number are the date of manufacture in YYWW (year/week) format. In this case the drive was built during week 19 of 2023.

See the serial number in this marketing photo:

https://cdn.idealo.com/folder/Product/5950/0/5950096/s1_produktbild_max_2/crucial-mx500-2tb.jpg

How to get the manufacture date from Toshiba HDD and SSD serial numbers:

https://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?p=23377#p23377

You can get the manufacture date of an older WD drive by examining firmware module 02 using the demo version of WDMarvel.

 

[mikeymikec]

My old WD Black 1TB couldn't keep good time on the power-on hours figure at all, IIRC it was an order of magnitude off when I replaced it (not for any fault-related reason, just capacity).

 

[fzabkar]

My old WD Black 1TB couldn't keep good time on the power-on hours figure at all, IIRC it was an order of magnitude off when I replaced it (not for any fault-related reason, just capacity).

The Power-On-Hours Count attribute is more correctly termed Power-On-Time. Most manufacturers use hours for the units, but some have used minutes and half-hours, IIRC. I suspect that your case was probably a firmware bug, though.

 

[Tech Junky]

manufacture in YYWW

That's a good trick for deciding things. I dug around on micron's site for info and didn't come up with anything. Tried registering an account but, they won't take personal emails. Reminds me of Cisco/juniper and the like for deeper info attached to accounts.

 

[fzabkar]

That's a good trick for deciding things.

I suspect that your WD SSD may be similarly encoded.

https://support-en.wd.com/app/warrantystatusweb

S/N -- 21383K800308 -> week 38 of 2021
Warranty Expiration Date -- 31-Oct-2026 -> 5 year warranty + 1 month
Model -- WDS100T1X0E-00AFY0

Description:

WDS100T1X0E-00AFY0​

ATLAS PC SN850​

M.2 2280​

TritonMp16+​

2x16D​

BiCS4 256Gb eX3 2P​

No Security​

WD Black,Channel​

​

This example is consistent with my suspicions:

https://thepcenthusiast.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/WD-Black-SN850-Gen4-SSD-Review-03.jpg

 

[Tech Junky]

WD

Is easy to do a lookup. It all depends on the drive though. Samsung might be significantly different and some of the smaller brands like MyDigitalSSD might require detective work to figure it out.

 

[fzabkar]

... smaller brands like MyDigitalSSD might require detective work to figure it out.

That sounds like a challenge.

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/2KWVT7XgbxzyBJwz3ybMKK.jpg

warranty sticker -> 5S1-180831010 -> year = 2018, month = 08 ???
date of manufacture of PCB -> 1814 (middle of top edge of PCB) -> week 14 of 2018
date of manufacture of SKhynix SDRAM - 827 -> week 27 of 2018


https://static.tweaktown.com/conten...x-pro-960gb-ssd-review-good-original_full.jpg

warranty sticker -> 5S1-180831010 -> year = 2018, month = 08 ???
date of manufacture of PCB -> 1814 (middle of bottom edge of PCB) -> week 14 of 2018
date of manufacture of SKhynix SDRAM - 822 -> week 22 of 2018


https://www.thessdreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/MyDigitalSSD-BPX-480GB-NVME-SSD-CDI.png
https://www.thessdreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/MyDigitalSSD-BPX-Exterior.jpg

S/N -> C723076A1F0800008943 -> ???
warranty sticker -> 511-161025169 -> year = 2016, month = 10 ???
date of manufacture of Nanya SDRAM - 1620 -> week 20 of 2016
date of manufacture of NAND flash - 1639 -> week 39 of 2016

Edit:

Could the warranty sticker be encoded as "abc-YYMMDDnnn", where YYMMDD are the year/month/day of manufacture?


https://techplayboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/mydigitalssd_bp5e_240_pcb_front.jpg
https://techplayboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/mydigitalssd_bp5e_240_phison.jpg

warranty sticker -> 511-151029105 -> year/month/day = 2015/10/29
date of manufacture of Phison controller -> 1539 -> week 39 of 2015
date of manufacture of PCB -> 1540 (bottom left corner of PCB) -> week 40 of 2015

Edit #2:

Here are several SSD OEMs who are using the same Phison reference PCB (A069010PF820001N) as in the previous MyDigitalSSD model:

https://www.google.com/search?q=A069010PF820001N&tbs=isz:m,itp:photo&tbm=isch

Even the warranty sticker is the same in many cases.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Almost every hard drive I've ever had, had the manufacturing date stamped on the outside. If you've got a screwdriver. *shrug*

 

[fzabkar]

Almost every hard drive I've ever had, had the manufacturing date stamped on the outside. If you've got a screwdriver. *shrug*

Here are several SanDisk products that don't have a manufacture date stamped on the label (some do, most don't):

https://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=3307

As in Micron's case, the leading 4 characters of the S/N appear to be in YYWW format.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Here are several SanDisk products that don't have a manufacture date stamped on the label (some do, most don't):

https://www.hddoracle.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=3307

As in Micron's case, the leading 4 characters of the S/N appear to be in YYWW format.

Well that's disappointing. (Sandisk, not you. Thank you for the information.)

 

[fzabkar]

Just to add another twist, Seagate used to encode the DOM on its older HDDs.

For example, this 7200.11 model has a date code of 09133:

https://live.staticflickr.com/3278/2954051152_d3e49cd518_b.jpg

This decodes to 2008-09-25:

https://bugaco.com/calculators/seagate_date_code.php