I recently bought a Samsung PM1733 (MZWLJ3T8HBLS-00007) from eBay, but weirdly it has only 3.2TB of usable space. Using PartedMagic and nvme-cli, I have tried deleting all existing namespaces, and recreating it but the maximum it would allow me to create is 3.2TB.
I am super confused, as I thought this model would have 3.84TB of usable space. The seller on ebay would not accept a return or offer any explanation, but I am very curious on the origin of this drive.
I have attached a screenshot using CrystalDiskInfo.
How large is the namespace capacity? This is usually listed in Bytes.
But I assume it’s the normal TiB vs TB + formatted size situation we all love for everything storage.
If SMART states around 3,840,398,934,016 bytes, that would be 3.84TB by storage manufacturer standards. (I was just copy&pasting my output and adjust to 3.8T)
Can’t say anything about that model but on my PM1733 7.68 TB models 7.68 TB (not TiB) are usable.
Also strange that it only reports PCIe 2.0 x32 as its supported interface speed, even if it can’t do PCIe Gen4 on your system it should state that it can operate with PCIe Gen4.
I’m always unsure with TiB vs TB on Windows because Windows calls everything TB. But if your drive reports 7.68TB and the OP only lists 3.2 instead of 3.84. Then that’s not the drive he ordered.
I always check new drives via smartmontools. I hate wierd GUI tools with hexadecimal raw values (wtf?).
I’d send it back asap. Law in most countries is very clear on this matter.
It’s showing PCIe 2.0 x32 because this drive has been passed through to a guest VM in VMware ESXi. I have tried it on a physical PC as well, no difference in size observed.
I don’t think it’s a GB/GiB/TB/TiB conversion issue, as I have another “good” PM1733 drive that shows the full capacity.
Here are some outputs from smartctl and nvme-cli
smartctl -a /dev/nvme0
smartctl 7.2 2020-12-30 r5155 [x86_64-linux-5.15.0-69-generic] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org
=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Number: SAMSUNG MZWLJ3T8HBLS-00007
Serial Number: S4YPNxxxxxxxxx
Firmware Version: EPK9CB5Q
PCI Vendor/Subsystem ID: 0x144d
IEEE OUI Identifier: 0x002538
Total NVM Capacity: 3,200,631,791,616 [3.20 TB]
Unallocated NVM Capacity: 0
Controller ID: 65
NVMe Version: 1.3
Number of Namespaces: 32
Local Time is: Fri Apr 28 07:56:46 2023 UTC
Firmware Updates (0x17): 3 Slots, Slot 1 R/O, no Reset required
Optional Admin Commands (0x00df): Security Format Frmw_DL NS_Mngmt Self_Test MI_Snd/Rec Vrt_Mngmt
Optional NVM Commands (0x007f): Comp Wr_Unc DS_Mngmt Wr_Zero Sav/Sel_Feat Resv Timestmp
Log Page Attributes (0x0e): Cmd_Eff_Lg Ext_Get_Lg Telmtry_Lg
Maximum Data Transfer Size: 32 Pages
Warning Comp. Temp. Threshold: 72 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 20.00W - 0 0 0 0 180 180
=== START OF SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED
SMART/Health Information (NVMe Log 0x02)
Critical Warning: 0x00
Temperature: 45 Celsius
Available Spare: 100%
Available Spare Threshold: 10%
Percentage Used: 0%
Data Units Read: 138,340,916 [70.8 TB]
Data Units Written: 6,391,693 [3.27 TB]
Host Read Commands: 564,220,396
Host Write Commands: 46,585,703
Controller Busy Time: 131
Power Cycles: 92
Power On Hours: 900
Unsafe Shutdowns: 40
Media and Data Integrity Errors: 0
Error Information Log Entries: 0
Warning Comp. Temperature Time: 0
Critical Comp. Temperature Time: 0
Temperature Sensor 1: 45 Celsius
Error Information (NVMe Log 0x01, 16 of 256 entries)
No Errors Logged
That then does sound like the model variant that is rated for more DWPDs which achieves this by keeping more NAND storage unallocated.
BTW, what does the sticker on the SSD itself say?
Then again, as mentioned by @Exard3k the seller made a mistake advertizing it as a 3.84 TB variant which likely came from them just googling the model number instead of checking the documented specs with actual reality.
The sticker/drive itself looks like an actual 3.84TB PM1733 drive. It is undistinguishable from the other 3.84TB PM1733 drives that I have.
Samsung datasheet actually says that that the drive can be re-configured to 3.2TB for extra DWPD, but if that was the case, surely it should be reversible (i.e. able to convert back from 3.2TB to 3.84TB).
Unfortunately Samsung does not provide any information on how to do this at all…
This is a 3.2TB drive. There is no doubt about that. That smartctl output is hard evidence.
And we don’t know if it really is 3DWPD, might as well be a damaged drive. And you didn’t order a 3DWPD drive, so this is irrelevant anyway.
I’d get my money back + send the disk back. And call my lawyer if the seller refuses. This is how you deal with people selling shit. And why I avoid ebay and dubious offers as much as possible. I sued one seller for fraud once and I even made a profit out of it. He deserved everything and more.
Have tried the DC toolkit but unfortunately the drive isn’t recognised. If I’m not mistaken the toolkit doesn’t support newer drives, by design. It doesn’t recognise my other (genuine) PM1733 as well.
If the item doesn’t match the listing description, or if it is faulty or arrived damaged, you may be eligible for eBay Money Back Guarantee. This means that you can return it even if the seller’s returns policy says they don’t accept returns"
Also see " + Your item didn’t match the listing, or it arrived faulty or damaged"
When that applies what the seller says doesn’t matter, ebay is heavily purchaser biased and you can start a refund request regardless within ebay’s time limit (30 days?). And that’s not even going into the legal side of things. If the seller still does not want to “accept a return”, what they are actually telling you is you won’t have to send the item back in order to get a refund. They either hope you don’t know about this, or don’t know themselves, but when they find out that’s how it’s going to be then they’ll change their tune real quick.
