SSD expected lifetime

luisxd

Limp Gawd
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Nov 26, 2014
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what is the expected lifetime of an ssd?, I have been using a Corsair Force ssd for years now and I've been thinking on replacing but I'm not sure if it's really neccesary.

Thanks in advance
 
Theoretically they can last a century but it might be worth upgrading depending on just how old it is (or rather, what model it is). Especially if you have the option for NVMe it might be worth making the switch.
 
Think the answer depends on how heavily you use it.
My aging 480 GB Intel 535 is at death's door after about 5 years, with 1% life remaining by the Media wear-out indicator. It is now on standby as a backup, as it would be risky to keep actively using it imho.
Usage has been about 60TB of host writes, translating into 780 TB of total NAND writes, recorded by the Intel SSD Toolbox utility.
I do not know which of the two is the relevant level of activity, but either 120 or 1500 writes per cell seems to be the max for this MLC design.
 
Potentially a really long time. Like any other electronics, it can randomly fail one day, but you are very unlikely to wear out the NAND. I have a 12 year old SSD (64GB one that cost me $1000 in 2008) that as of today, still shows 91% health.

2008?!, damn, and I thought mine was old lol
 
I read somewhere about a limit to writing data into the SSD but I wasn't really sure about it. I've been using it as a main-backup drive moving it from laptops as main drive.
 
I have Intel 520 SSD in full service since 2012. Still shows about 97% life remaining. Also have the Intel g2 which is basically from 2009. Basically being used as a storage for my NUC.

They are robust drives. I was thinking of replacing the intel 520 which is being heavily used at work, but there is some license software installed that I would not be able to reinstall without calling a rep. I am missing some performance compared to my home desktop with the Samsung EVO nvme.
 
Thank you, Archaea, for that tip on Crystalmark.info

I downloaded Crystaldiskinfo and it tells me my Intel 535 is still 88% good. It appears I was hasty putting it out to pasture as a backup.
Clearly Intel was being conservative when they note that a drive may still have considerable life left when it reaches 1% on the media wearout indicator.
 
Thanks, I just did and it says "Good: 87%", is it ok?
Yes but keep in mind that unused SSD keeps first data written without you using the SSD for about 10 years. One that 10% has been used around 1 year, and one that is mostly used (let's say at 80%) not more than 6 months in standard conditions (written at higher temperature let's say 40°C) and stored at 20°C. An old and used SSD is far from being that good. Knowing that you may even want to change them after 10% use.
 
Yes but keep in mind that unused SSD keeps first data written without you using the SSD for about 10 years. One that 10% has been used around 1 year, and one that is mostly used (let's say at 80%) not more than 6 months in standard conditions (written at higher temperature let's say 40°C) and stored at 20°C. An old and used SSD is far from being that good. Knowing that you may even want to change them after 10% use.
NAND endurance and offline data retention are separate matters. 80% life is also barely through how many writes it can take. Offline retention also really doesn't matter if you actually use said SSD either...
 
NAND endurance and offline data retention are separate matters. 80% life is also barely through how many writes it can take. Offline retention also really doesn't matter if you actually use said SSD either...
You could for instance have a computer you use for some tasks. You use it heavily for 3 months than you don't for another 6. This is not something very rare.
For instance I have several computers at my personnal offiice. Some time I hire people to work on them. Some of them may stay untouched for more than 6 months. This is not good for old SSDs. Though they are all except mine on raid 1 HDDs only.
I said 80% life but it isn't precise, it means closer you are to the end of life. Fact is the standards are made to be that for 6 months when it's close to the official end of life. Mind that server grade SSD are at 3 months only.
 
Jandor
I don’t know what you’re talking about but I’d like to learn more. Can you give me some search terms so that I can read up on this characteristic of SSDs.
 
You could for instance have a computer you use for some tasks. You use it heavily for 3 months than you don't for another 6. This is not something very rare.
For instance I have several computers at my personnal offiice. Some time I hire people to work on them. Some of them may stay untouched for more than 6 months. This is not good for old SSDs. Though they are all except mine on raid 1 HDDs only.
I said 80% life but it isn't precise, it means closer you are to the end of life. Fact is the standards are made to be that for 6 months when it's close to the official end of life. Mind that server grade SSD are at 3 months only.
Your scenario is uncommon and the OP was asking about reliability/endurance, not data retention. JEDEC spec for consumer drives is 1 year storage at 30C. I don't know anyone that keeps their home that high. Lower temperatures increase endurance exponentially, so at 20C, one could easily expect 4 years, though like I said, still irrelevant to the OP. 80% lifetime also is not even near the halfway point.
 
Jandor Your concern appears to be based on a misunderstanding. I tried to find some articles on this from a notable player, something by Microsoft, HP, or some other big company that would have run into this with their consumer products or even Enterprise Products by now. They aren't readily available in targeted web searches - which means this concern is either unfounded, or the occurrence is so low that it hasn't made any waves since that original article in 2015. What's more - the original article that made these waves was taken way out of context...

https://blog.macsales.com/43702-we-bet-you-didnt-know-that-your-hdds-or-ssds-may-need-exercise-too/

"SSD Failure Mechanisms
A few years back, a presentation was made at the JEDEC Standards Committee for solid state drive requirements at which a slide showing expected data retention rates for SSDs in a powered-off stored state was shown. That slide indicated the very poor ability of an SSD to retain data for any length of time when powered off. Specifically, it mentioned the following data retention rates:

Consumer grade SSD: 1 year at a 30 C storage temperature.

Enterprise grade SSD: 3 months at 40 C storage temperature.

In both cases, as the power off storage temperature increases, the data retention rate falls. In the case of consumer grade models, data retention can fall at one month at 50 C, while enterprise class SSDs can see less than one week at 50 C.

Pundits quickly picked up this information and it spread around the Internet, leading to the poor reputation SSDs can have for data retention when powered off.
The problem is that it’s simply not true. The information being conveyed in the original presentation pertained to a worst-case scenario, one where the SSD under question has nearly reached its end-of-life, and has had its P/E count (Program/Erase cycle count) reach the point where data cells would start showing write failures. But when the background information was removed and only the information on the slide was presented, a legend, or at least a reputation, was born."



https://www.pcworld.com/article/292...nt-lose-data-if-left-unplugged-after-all.html


"If you’re in a panic because the Internet told you that your shiny new SSD may lose data in “just a few days” when stored in a hot room, take a chill pill—it’s apparently all a huge misunderstanding.
In a conversation with Kent Smith of Seagate and Alvin Cox, the Seagate engineer who wrote the presentation that set the Internet abuzz, PCWorld was told we’re all just reading it wrong.
“People have misunderstood the data,” Smith said.

It looks like a misunderstanding of this 5-year-old PowerPoint page set the Internet ablaze
The original presentation dates back to when Cox chaired a committee for JEDEC, the industry group that blesses memory specs. It was intended to help data center and enterprise customers understand what could happen to an SSD—but only after it had reached the end of its useful life span and was then stored at abnormal temperatures. It’s not intended to be applied to an SSD in the prime of its life in either an enterprise or a consumer setting.

But that’s not how the Internet viewed it. The presentation—almost five years old now—surfaced in a forensic computing blog as an explanation for why an SSD could start to lose data in a short amount of time at high temperatures. Once media outlets jumped on the story, it spread across the globe."
 
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SSD NAND usual have S.M.A.R.T ( health diagnostics) which can be uses to avoid bad sector, the TBW (terabytes written) from JEDEC is a extreme stress test that most home computer will never be in, and, SSD TRIM is a command with the help of which the operating system can tell the solid state drive (SSD) which data blocks are no longer needed and can be deleted, or are marked as free for rewriting ( digitalcitizen.life ). Pretty much make SDD last very long unless it come from the database which they usual get rid off because the warranty expire (high chance it will have a lot of life in it).

So a reason to upgrade is when you want more power efficiency, speed, space saving (M.2 ssd), deal, or it is dying.
 
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