How to detect if a disk is an SSD

[mfv]

> On Fri, 2016-12-02 at 08:47 Stefano Garzarella
> <s.garzarella at evidence.eu.com> wrote:
>
>Hi Brandon, Alexandre and Matthias,
>thank you very much for your answers!
>
>I think that camcontrol is the tool that we need.
>
>Best Regards,
>Stefano
>
>2016-12-02 2:23 GMT+01:00 Brandon J. Wandersee
><brandon.wandersee at gmail.com> :
>
>>
>> Matthias Petermann writes:
>>  
>> > Hello Stefano,
>> >
>> > one option might be to check the kernel log via
>> >
>> > % dmesg
>> >
>> > I would expect some entries like:
>> >
>> > ada4 at ata0 bus 0 scbus4 target 1 lun 0
>> > ada4: <SAMSUNG MZ7LM120HCFD-0E003 GXT3003Q> ACS-2 ATA SATA 3.x
>> > device ada4: Serial Number S2NRNXAGC00170D
>> > ada4: 150.000MB/s transfers (SATA, UDMA6, PIO 8192bytes)
>> > ada4: 114473MB (234441648 512 byte sectors)
>> > ada4: quirks=0x3<4K,NCQ_TRIM_BROKEN>
>> >
>> > which includes the model number / name. Feeding this into Google
>> > should  
>> provide clarity if it is a SSD or not.
>>
>> camcontrol(8) can be used for more extensive information, as well:
>>
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>> # camcontrol identify ada0
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>> pass0: <Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250GB EXT0DB6Q> ACS-2 ATA SATA 3.x device
>> pass0: 600.000MB/s transfers (SATA 3.x, UDMA6, PIO 512bytes)
>>
>> protocol              ATA/ATAPI-9 SATA 3.x
>> device model          Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250GB
>> firmware revision     EXT0DB6Q
>> serial number         S1DBNSADB01138V
>> WWN                   50025388a00b2df3
>> cylinders             16383
>> heads                 16
>> sectors/track         63
>> sector size           logical 512, physical 512, offset 0
>> LBA supported         268435455 sectors
>> LBA48 supported       488397168 sectors
>> PIO supported         PIO4
>> DMA supported         WDMA2 UDMA6
>> media RPM             non-rotating
>>
>> Feature                      Support  Enabled   Value
>> Vendor read ahead                     yes      yes
>> write cache                    yes      yes
>> flush cache                    yes      yes
>> overlap                        no
>> Tagged Command Queuing (TCQ)   no       no
>> Native Command Queuing (NCQ)   yes              32 tags
>> NCQ Queue Management           no
>> NCQ Streaming                  no
>> Receive & Send FPDMA Queued    yes
>> SMART                          yes      yes
>> microcode download             yes      yes
>> security                       yes      yes
>> power management               yes      yes
>> advanced power management      no       no
>> automatic acoustic management  no       no
>> media status notification      no       no
>> power-up in Standby            no       no
>> write-read-verify              yes      no      0/0x0
>> unload                         no       no
>> general purpose logging        yes      yes
>> free-fall                      no       no
>> Data Set Management (DSM/TRIM) yes
>> DSM - max 512byte blocks       yes              8
>> DSM - deterministic read       no
>> Host Protected Area (HPA)      yes      no      488397168/488397168
>> HPA - Security                 no
>>
>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>>
>> --
>> ::  Brandon J. Wandersee
>> ::  brandon.wandersee at gmail.com
>> ::  --------------------------------------------------
>> ::  'The best design is as little design as possible.'
>> ::  --- Dieter Rams ----------------------------------
>>  
>
>
>
Hello,

Another source of detailed information about a drive and its status is
the port sysutils/smartmontools.

Cheers ...

Marek