Another Netgate with storage failure, 6 in total so far

andrew_cb

Some more recent threads about storage failure.
Overall, storage failures seem to be the most common on the 4100, possibly it is the most popular model?

https://www.reddit.com/r/PFSENSE/comments/1ilhit2/my_netgate_4100_is_defect/
https://www.reddit.com/r/PFSENSE/comments/1ikprzt/4100_disassembly/
https://www.reddit.com/r/PFSENSE/comments/1ie17xz/ideas_for_an_eol_4100/
https://forum.netgate.com/topic/196253/sg-1100-storage-health-questions

stephenw10

Hmm, not sure why the pkg isn't in the CE repo. I guess there wasn't much call for it at the time. Seems like we could add that pretty easily. Let me see....

andrew_cb

@stephenw10 It would be great if you can get mmc-utils added to the CE repo!

andrew_cb

@w0w I share your frustration. One minute their Netgate is working, then just dies. Then they try to reinstall pfSense and the installer says no disks were found...

Those are great suggestions on how to spread awareness. This issue has been brought up many times before but it never goes anywhere, so hopefully we can bring about some change and prevent this from happening to others.

andrew_cb

@bmeeks It's possible that not many are using CE on a whitebox with eMMC, but I have seen threads about it on Reddit. I think Protectli, Firewalla, and Topton also use eMMC in some of their models, but I am not positive. Several models list 16 or 32GB storage, which is often eMMC.

w0w

I also want to mention the repair options. I'm not sure if it's possible to replace the eMMC chip with a larger one without modifying the BIOS, but I'm almost certain that you can replace it with the same model or a full equivalent.

Of course, this depends on the country and the price charged for the work. Again, whether the technician is truly a professional or just incompetent remains a question... But this option definitely exists.

andrew_cb

A thread from 2022 has resurfaced and it is eerily similar to the discussion happening now in 2025:

The expected lifetime of 16 and 32GB eMMC storage at various average write rates.
The increased wear from running popular IDS and IPS packages.
Request for adding mmc-utils to the base pfSense image (including a Redmine).
Users already experiencing storage wearout.
Suggestions to use ramdisks and disable logging of default rules.
The effects of ZFS vs UFS on storage wear.
TRIM appears to be disabled.
Requests/suggestion to include storage considerations on the product pages.

I cannot understand why Netgate did not investigate or take any action on these issues in 2022, 2023, or 2024.

@dugeem checked 3 devices and noted:

eMMC drives generally support TRIM, but in all cases it was disabled.

@jwt said

TRIM (or an equivalent such as DISCARD) are required by JEDEC standards as far back as 2010.

So there seems to be a discrepancy in whether TRIM support is actually enabled and working or not.

Further, the JEDEC eMMC v5.0 standard which enables eMMC health reporting is from 2013 and is supported by many Netgate devices, so it is confusing why it is not supported by the 4200 that was released in 2024.

@Cabledude asked in 2024:

Would the 128GB SSD benefit (have extended life) if RAM disk is used?

@stephenw10 responded:

Yes. But the write cycle life on any recent SSD is likely to outlive the usefulness of the device anyway. So I'd question the value in doing so.

If a 128GB SSD "is likely to outlive the usefulness of the device", then what is the implication for the lifespan of 16GB eMMC storage?

I am not sure what conclusion to draw other than beginning in 2022 Netgate knew or should have known that 16GB of eMMC storage was insufficient for running anything other than the most basic of configurations (and even then, it is necessary to disable most of the default logging and possibly use ramdisks).

@keyser 's words from 2022 seems tragically prophetic:

This is going to become a netgate scandal

I think it officially has now.