SSD - life span?

[raro]

I bought an SSD drive about 5 months ago and today a pop up appeared telling me that I should make backups as that thing is crapping up. Seriously? I thought they would last longer than a normal HDD...

[B1TcoinLife]

I bought an SSD drive about 5 months ago and today a pop up appeared telling me that I should make backups as that thing is crapping up. Seriously? I thought they would last longer than a normal HDD...

What brand/model?

Backup asap and get a warranty claim in for a new one.....

[Pib]

SSDs have lifetimes far beyond the time a person is likely to keep a drive. It's mostly a myth versus substance regarding short lifespan assuming some unexpected failure occurs unrelated to the memory just wearing out.

Like my Samsung 840EVO 500GB SSD which is been in my laptop for almost two years now....the 840EVO uses TLC (triple level cell) NAND which usually has a 1,000 to 1,500 PE (program-erase or write-erase) cycles....most SSDs probably have MLC (multiple level cell) NAND which has a three fold/over 3,000 PE cycle and more durable than TLC NAND. According to my SSD drive SMART diagnostics it has incurred 8.39Terabytes (TB) in writes over the last two years which has used 11 (eleven) PE cycles...basically it has used approx 1% of a 1,000PE lifespan which would probably be around 200 years based on my current usage. The computer/drive is used pretty much in use from sunrise to going to bedtime as my primarily laptop. Now if I rode the drive hard each and every day like somehow managing say to accumulate 10GB in writes to the drive it's estimated the NAND may give out around the 50 years point. Of course in reality it would never last that long...50 to 200 years because there would some unexpected failure, I would have long ago upgraded, etc.

Just google expected lifespan of SSDs and you will come up with plenty of articles on real world SSD life span assuming a person don't have an unexpected failure not related to just the NAND wearing out due too many write cycles. Even the most supposedly reliable electronics items die early sometimes....just like how some folks croak from a heart attack in their twenties (or earlier) while most folks are well into their golden years before a heart attack may occur.

[Glimcoil]

Pib,

SSDs have lifetimes far beyond the time a person is likely to keep a drive. It's mostly a myth versus substance regarding short lifespan assuming some unexpected failure occurs unrelated to the memory just wearing out.

Like my Samsung 840EVO 500GB SSD which is been in my laptop for almost two years now....the 840EVO uses TLC (triple level cell) NAND which usually has a 1,000 to 1,500 PE (program-erase or write-erase) cycles....most SSDs probably have MLC (multiple level cell) NAND which has a three fold/over 3,000 PE cycle and more durable than TLC NAND.

I would say it all depends on what brand/model of SSD is used. In my personal experience I have a higher failure rate with SSDs than harddisks, but

I do believe it's changing with SSDs over the past year getting more reliable.

Potential risks:

- Low quality / Noname SSD: Yep, had a few which were horrible - failures, timeouts, not even supporting TRIM. Strongly suggest to stay away from

them for anything where you want to keep your data (ie they might be ok as cache/temp drive). (Not an issue for Samsung - they are among the best)

- Some (specially older drives) will not cycle over their flash and a constant rewrite of some file could cause an early failure (ie heavy cache usage on

a very small section of the drive

- And then some applications/users cause heavier use (but probably not the normal desktop/laptop user). (I have one SSD where I do an average of 700GB

of write per day - deleting and rewriting it again.)

My biggest concern (for normal laptop/desktop) users: PRIVACY

When the SSD starts failing, then you usually can't securely delete your data anymore without physically destroying the disk. Even in normal use, deleting

the disk might not really be possible. Keep this in mind if you ever try to sell an old SSD or if you need to do a warranty exchange.

[keeniau96]

Per what Pib wrote, SSDs have life expectancy far greater than HDDs. I have six SSDs installed in five different computers in my house, and have installed more than ten for others in the past year. Not a hint of problem with any of them. Three year SSD warranties are the least I have seen for major brand SSDs, and the Pro versions for some go up to ten years. OP should get warranty replacement for his problem. Remember that regardless of warranty and expected life sh*t can and will happen, so backup.

[crabdog]

To the OP did you install the software for your SSD? I have one Intel and an ADATA ssd and they both come with a program to maintain and optimize the drives. They recommend you run the optimization once a week or so.

[JaseTheBass]

I just bought a cheap Chinky SSD (Kingspec) for my home desktop. It's not critical and all my data is stored on seperate HDs in the case, but it will hopefully last longer than 5 months!

[Pakaty]

SSDs are supposed to be more reliable and last longer traditional spinning hard drives and generally are. But, they do fail.

I bought an OCZ ssd and it failed in about 6 months. It was hard to get a warranty replacement also. I ended up with cheaper ssd than the one I originally purchased. They won't be getting my business again, that's for sure.

[Pib]

The core difference between a SSD and a HDD is how they store data. The SSD uses NAND memory which can wear out after many years (more years than you'll ever keep the drive) and the HDD uses a spinning magnetic platter & read/write head. But each still has a bunch of other electronics to control that NAND memory or magnetic platter memory storage...any of that support electronics going bad makes the memory storage component unusable. I have no doubt that NAND memory is many more times reliable (and definitely many times faster) than a platter spinning at 5400RPM or faster which can crash due to a hard jar, platter bearings wearing out, the floating head banging the platter, etc--possible problems non-existent for a SSD.

[Don Mega]

Had the same Intel SSD as my C: drive now for 5 years. no issues at all.

I do have a ghost image on another drive though as Iam weary about the SSD just suddenly dying one day.

[Gary A]

I have an Intel SSD. It failed after two years. I bought it from Invade IT. It had a three year warranty. I asked Invade IT how often they failed and was told that this was the very first one. They replaced it promptly and since that model was obsolete, I got a newer model. There was no charge except the cost of mailing it to them.

[JaseTheBass]

Had the same Intel SSD as my C: drive now for 5 years. no issues at all.

I do have a ghost image on another drive though as Iam weary about the SSD just suddenly dying one day.

It must be quite wearying worrying about your SSD failing.

[Don Mega]

Had the same Intel SSD as my C: drive now for 5 years. no issues at all.

I do have a ghost image on another drive though as Iam weary about the SSD just suddenly dying one day.

It must be quite wearying worrying about your SSD failing.

very.

[rhythmworx]

Trim anyone?

Monitor tools?

Samsung EVO 850 should last and has a warranty for 5 years at writing 80Gb a day

Pro version 10 year warranty, not sure on the writing specs of that

Edited April 6, 2016 by rhythmworx

[Pib]

TRIM is standard in Win 7 and up (just talking Windows...it's in other OS such as the Mac/Linux OSs also). TRIM only assists the SSD built-in firmware algorithm to efficiently manage the SSD NAND memory, not only for storage space but longer life and faster write/read speed. A SSD can still operate without TRIM...it's just won't be as efficient operation.

The warranty period such as 3, 5, 10 years is really not related to the SSD's NAND memory...like it's only good for that length of time as the number because it's the number of P/E (program-erase or aka write-erase) cycles that is really the deciding factor for NAND lifespan such as the average 80GB per day spec. The warranty period really addresses the overall unit (all the components of the SSD) whether it's being lightly/infrequently or heavily/frequently used.

[Digitalbanana]

I've had my Intel SSD 5 years now, still going well. Cost me 450USD for 160GB back then!

[Pib]

TRIM is standard in Win 7 and up (just talking Windows...it's in other OS such as the Mac/Linux OSs also). TRIM only assists the SSD built-in firmware algorithm to efficiently manage the SSD NAND memory, not only for storage space but longer life and faster write/read speed. A SSD can still operate without TRIM...it's just won't be as efficient operation.

The warranty period such as 3, 5, 10 years is really not related to the SSD's NAND memory...like it's only good for that length of time as the number because it's the number of P/E (program-erase or aka write-erase) cycles that is really the deciding factor for NAND lifespan such as the average 80GB per day spec. The warranty period really addresses the overall unit (all the components of the SSD) whether it's being lightly/infrequently or heavily/frequently used.

A good layman's article on how TRIM works with your SSD's firmware....but bottom line TRIM is not required...it's just a good thing to go along with the SSD's firmware to best manage the SSD's memory maintenance.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/04/ask-ars-my-ssd-does-garbage-collection-so-i-dont-need-trim-right/