How to check the SSD in my MacBook Pro? (Equivalent of HD surface scan?)

Yesterday evening my MacBook Pro no longer booted properly. After hours of troubleshooting I finally fixed it today. While I’m pretty sure this was a software issue I want to check the hardware to ease my mind. I already ran an extensive MemTest86 test on the memory today and that was fine. Now I would also like to perform a “surface scan” on the SSD, but I’m not aware of Mac software that can do that (I still use a Windows PC at home). I did find DriveDx, but the free trial only performs a short self-test (not the long self-test and I don’t think it has a surface scan).

What do you recommend to check the SSD in my MacBook Pro?

(Of course I ran Disk Utility, but I believe that only checks the logical filesystem; no physical tests?)

PS: If there’s good free software to do this that would have my preference right now (might change when I get a Mac at home)

I think the OP is aware that a SSD is nothing like a HDD. What he wants is something that will say “Your SSD is OK” or “Your SSD may have a problem”.

There are two things I can think of that would be free: 1) Apple Diagnostics, and 2) A Genius Bar appointment.

Ah yes, thanks. Forgot to mention that. I also ran that yesterday and it reported no errors. However, it ran so quick that I wonder how thorough it is.

Oh, I did not know that. I thought only/mainly write cycles determine the lifetime?

Yes. When data is written to a block, the entire block must be erased before it can be written to again. The lifespan of an SSD is measured in these program-erase (P/E) cycles. (Therefore, you do not want to try defragging an SSD, for example.)

Out of curiosity, I just ran the short smartctl test and it showed my SSD was OK. I used smartctl extensively on HDDs, and the long test (which took ages) gave excellent results. Not sure if applicable to SSDs.

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