When manufacture date isn't directly available, calculate from power-on hours:

sudo smartctl -A /dev/sdX | grep Power_On_Hours

Then use the manufacturer's MTBF rating to estimate age. For example:

ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   085   085   000    Old_age   Always       -       12540

12,540 hours equals approximately 1.43 years of continuous operation.

For comprehensive drive health and age analysis:

sudo smartctl -x /dev/sdX

Key fields to examine:

• Power_Cycle_Count
• Start_Stop_Count
• Total_LBAs_Written
• Media_Wearout_Indicator

Create a bash script for batch processing:

#!/bin/bash
for drive in /dev/sd?; do
  echo "Checking $drive..."
  manuf_date=$(sudo smartctl -i $drive | grep -i "date" | cut -d':' -f2)
  power_hours=$(sudo smartctl -A $drive | grep Power_On_Hours | awk '{print $10}')
  echo "Manufacture Date:$manuf_date"
  echo "Power On Hours: $power_hours"
  echo "--------------------------"
done

Manufacturers use different encoding:

• Western Digital: "Week YY of YYYY"
• Seagate: Julian date codes (YYDDD)
• Hitachi: "YYYY-MM-DD" format

For Seagate drives, convert with:

date -d "2020-01-01 + $((julian_code - 1)) days" +"%Y-%m-%d"

If the drive doesn't support SMART or returns invalid data:

1. Check physical drive labels (requires physical access)
2. Query vendor APIs using serial numbers
3. Use alternative tools like hdparm or sg_logs

When provisioning servers from third-party providers, you might encounter used hard drives with unknown usage history. The smartctl utility from the smartmontools package provides valuable insights into drive health and age.

The most reliable indicators of drive age are:

• Power_On_Hours: Total active hours
• Power_Cycle_Count: Number of power cycles
• Start_Stop_Count: Spin-up/down cycles
• Manufacture_Date: Available on some drives

First, identify your drives:

lsblk
sudo fdisk -l

Then check SMART data (replace /dev/sdX with your device):

sudo smartctl -i /dev/sdX
sudo smartctl -A /dev/sdX
sudo smartctl -x /dev/sdX

For a quick age estimate:

sudo smartctl -a /dev/sdX | grep -E "Power_On_Hours|Power_Cycle_Count|Start_Stop_Count|Manufacture"

Example output parsing script:

#!/bin/bash
DRIVE="/dev/sda"
HOURS=$(sudo smartctl -A $DRIVE | grep Power_On_Hours | awk '{print $10}')
CYCLES=$(sudo smartctl -A $DRIVE | grep Power_Cycle_Count | awk '{print $10}')
MFG_DATE=$(sudo smartctl -i $DRIVE | grep "Date" | head -1 | awk '{print $NF}')

echo "Drive: $DRIVE"
echo "Manufacture Date: $MFG_DATE"
echo "Power On Hours: $HOURS ("$(($HOURS/24))" days)"
echo "Power Cycles: $CYCLES"

For comprehensive drive health assessment:

sudo smartctl --health /dev/sdX
sudo smartctl --test=short /dev/sdX
sudo smartctl --log=selftest /dev/sdX

Create a cron job to log drive statistics:

0 * * * * /usr/sbin/smartctl -A /dev/sdX | grep -E "Power_On_Hours" >> /var/log/drive_age.log

Typical enterprise HDD lifespan:

• Consumer drives: 20,000-30,000 hours
• Enterprise drives: 50,000+ hours
• High cycles (>50,000) indicate heavy usage

Some vendors provide additional data:

# For Seagate drives:
sudo smartctl -v 7,raw48:54 -v 8,raw48:54 /dev/sdX

# For Western Digital:
sudo smartctl -v 0x24 -v 0x25 /dev/sdX