Let’s hope this is a bug Apple can fix with an OS or firmware update.
How do I check this?
According to the article, you need to install and run a tool that can show you the device’s SMART data.
Right now it is questionable whether what this tool is reporting is accurate. It is based on SMART reporting which drive makers adopted reluctantly and implemented in an inconsistent manner.
Apple needs to report on it, and if there is a problem fix it. This might include replacing drives which are abnormally worn.
With the known caveat that these numbers may not be what the SMART utility monitoring tools think that they are:
If you really want to check, these reports are using command line utilities run in the Terminal app called smartmontools. Probably the best way to check is to install the command line installation package homebrew in the Terminal. After you have homebrew installed, run the following commands in Terminal:
brew install smartmontools
sudo smartctl --all /dev/disk0
And the report from the smartctl command should give a report that shows the raw data, and looks like this:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EuPLlcuWgAM1WqM?format=png&name=900x900
It’s the large number of raw data units written in a very small amount of time that has people concerned. (But, again, it may be that the value in the SMART attribute is measure something completely different than what smartmontools thinks.)
