S.M.A.R.T. - lifetime hours suddenly resetting

In my 6 x HDD RAIDZ2 pool I have two drives still from its inception around 2017, The other four have been replaced. After coming back from a two-week vacation when my TrueNAS was shut down, I discovered really weird SMART values for these two drives. Basically the 66k+ lifetime hours have suddenly reset and SMART is now counting lifetime from 0 again. Please see the report below, the section reporting the tests that have run.

Have you ever seen such a thing? Happened for both drives at the same time. (Before turning on the server again after the vacation, I did remove a drive that had previously been burnt in, so adaX assignments may have shifted. But SMART data is stored on the drive so I don’t see why that should have mattered.)

Could this be a “65,536 cutoff”? SMART not being capable of counting higher?

smartctl 7.2 2021-09-14 r5236 [FreeBSD 13.1-RELEASE-p9 amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-20, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Red
Device Model:     WDC WD40EFRX-68N32N0
Serial Number:    WD-WCC7K6RJXHK8
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 2b9e3a9f5
Firmware Version: 82.00A82
User Capacity:    4,000,787,030,016 bytes [4.00 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    5400 rpm
Form Factor:      3.5 inches
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ACS-3 T13/2161-D revision 5
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Mon Feb  9 06:45:02 2026 CET
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

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

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x00)	Offline data collection activity
					was never started.
					Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status:      ( 241)	Self-test routine in progress...
					10% of test remaining.
Total time to complete Offline 
data collection: 		(45000) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities: 			 (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
					Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
					Suspend Offline collection upon new
					command.
					Offline surface scan supported.
					Self-test supported.
					Conveyance Self-test supported.
					Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003)	Saves SMART data before entering
					power-saving mode.
					Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01)	Error logging supported.
					General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine 
recommended polling time: 	 (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time: 	 ( 478) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time: 	 (   5) minutes.
SCT capabilities: 	       (0x303d)	SCT Status supported.
					SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
					SCT Feature Control supported.
					SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   157   155   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       7141
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       125
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   010   010   000    Old_age   Always       -       66134
 10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       125
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       21
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       239
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   110   101   000    Old_age   Always       -       40
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   200   200   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%       228         -
# 2  Short offline       Completed without error       00%       145         -
# 3  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     65441         -
# 4  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%     65356         -
# 5  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     65274         -
# 6  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     65105         -
# 7  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%     65022         -
# 8  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     64938         -
# 9  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%     64799         -
#10  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     64723         -
#11  Extended offline    Aborted by host               10%     64685         -
#12  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     64640         -
#13  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%     62839         -
#14  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     62788         -
#15  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%     62543         -
#16  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     62020         -
#17  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     61777         -
#18  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%     61702         -
#19  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     61607         -
#20  Short offline       Completed without error       00%     61449         -
#21  Extended offline    Completed without error       00%     61354         -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

The value stored was probably overflowed due to size. 2 ** 16 is 65536 as you posted

1 Like

This is normal for some drives. the manufacturer didn’t expect the drive to last this long so as @SmallBarky said, the counter rolls over back to zero (0) and counts. Some counters are 16 bit, some are more. in your situation the Power On Hours is greater than 16 bits (probably 24) but the SMART Test Power On Hours is 16 bits.

Just to be clear, your drive is working normally and appears to be in very good condition. No errors at all. I hope it lasts 5 more years for you.

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