NVME-WDC-DRIVE-ES(1) NVMe Manual NVME-WDC-DRIVE-ES(1)

# [NAME](#NAME)

nvme-wdc-drive-essentials - Retrieve WDC device's drive essentials bin files and save to a tar file.

# [SYNOPSIS](#SYNOPSIS)

```
nvme [<global-options>] wdc drive-essentials <device>


                        [--dir-name=<DIRECTORY>, -d <DIRECTORY>]
```

# [DESCRIPTION](#DESCRIPTION)

For the NVMe device given, captures the drive essential bin files and saves them into a tar file. The tar file will be in the following format: DRIVE\_ESSENTIALS\_&lt;Serial Num&gt;\_&lt;FW Revision&gt;\_&lt;Date&gt;\_&lt;Time&gt;.tar.gz e.g. DRIVE\_ESSENTIALS\_A00FD8CA\_1048\_20170713\_091731.tar.gz

The &lt;device&gt; parameter is mandatory; NVMe character device (ex: /dev/nvme0).

This will only work on WDC devices supporting this feature. Results for any other device are undefined.

# [OPTIONS](#OPTIONS)

-d &lt;DIRECTORY&gt;, --dir-name=&lt;DIRECTORY&gt;

Output directory; defaults to current working directory.

# [GLOBAL OPTIONS](#GLOBAL_OPTIONS)

The following options are defined at the top-level nvme command and are available to this subcommand:

--dry-run

Print the command that would be executed, but do not actually execute it.

--no-ioctl-probing

Disable probing for 64-bit IOCTL support.

--no-retries

Disable retry logic on transient errors.

-o &lt;fmt&gt;, --output-format=&lt;fmt&gt;

Set the reporting format to *normal*, *tabular, 'json*, or *binary*. Only one output format may be used at a time.

--output-format-version=&lt;version&gt;

Select the output format version. Version *1* uses the original field naming, while version *2* (default) provides more consistent and script-friendly field names.

--timeout=&lt;ms&gt;

Set the timeout for the command in milliseconds.

-v, --verbose

Increase the level of detail in the output. May be specified multiple times to further increase verbosity.

These options can also be set as machine-wide defaults in [nvme-cli.conf(5)](/man/os/nvme-cli/nvme-cli.conf.5). A command-line flag always overrides the file.

# [EXAMPLES](#EXAMPLES)

•Gets the drive essentials data files from the device and saves the tar file in current directory (e.g. DRIVE\_ESSENTIALS\_A00FD8CA\_1048\_20170713\_091731.tar.gz):

```
# nvme wdc drive-essentials /dev/nvme0
```

•Gets the drive essentials data files from the device and saves the tar file to specified directory (e.g. /tmp/DRIVE\_ESSENTIALS\_A00FD8CA\_1048\_20170713\_091731):

```
# nvme wdc drive-essentials /dev/nvme0 -d /tmp/
```

# [NVME](#NVME)

Part of the nvme-user suite.

09/18/2026 NVMe

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Document: nvme-wdc-drive-essentials(1) from nvme-cli 3.1-r0 (Chainguard OS)
Source: https://github.com/linux-nvme/nvme-cli