Here is the summary of my exchange with SanDisk.
I have shortened the text to keep the technical information useful.
I think it’s a little clearer now.
This may be useful for others, especially those who are fooled into electronics.
And more generally, whatever the type of key.
Q: I would like to have a purely technical explanation of how your products work.
For now I would like to have more general information
When a product (SanDisk here) is presented with the term SSD, can it be considered that this product will support the SMART protocol?
SanDisk: No sir. As my colleagues have already explained, this key uses SSD technology;
but it remains as a traditional USB key. It does not support the SMART protocol.
This information applies to all SSDs that use SMART technology
Q: So Sandisk SSDs do not support all the smart protocol?
SanDisk: But here it’s not a SSD, it’s a USB key
As I told you, even if your key uses SMART technology, it is a simple USB key
Yes SSD supports SMART protocol
Q: Does the support for this protocol depend on the format of the SSD?
SanDisk: SMART protocol support is applied only to SSDs; but to USB keys that use SSD technology
I meant the SMART protocol support is not applied to USB keys even though they use SMART technology
Q:… there are tests where your keys are displayed with ID = E8 at 100 and not zero.
It is written as “USB Flash Drive SSD” in Sandisk ads.
SanDisk: The format is a simple USB key. The key does not support SMART values.
Q: I do not understand why Sandisk engineers have made efforts to implement the SMART protocol and that Sandisk is advertising it if it is to display information that is deliberately false or inappropriate.
SanDisk: On the package, it says “with SSD performance” which means the drive has only one SSD.
The “life remaining” value is a specific SSD value that is not supported by this drive because it is not a real SSD.
Therefore, not all SMART values are supported.
When the read / write speeds of the drive are within specifications, the drive operates correctly.
