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SSD reliability?

B

Biges

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Feb 28, 2008
Messages
1,475
Hi!

I admit I'm hardly an expert on drives, I spent 99% of my forum time in the display section, so excume me, if my question is "noob" ;)

Are SSD reliable? Byt "reliable" I mean if the data on SSD need do or do not need to be backed up. Or if a manufacturer offers a warranty like "If you SSD crashes, we will restore all your data* free of charge!".

It it is not such case, than I don't really see an advantage over classic HDD.

Thanks for you answers.

* data = music, films, games, porn
 
They should be at least as reliable as a regular disk. Data should still always be backed up but I don;t see anything to really worry about. They are still too new to really see long term results tho.
 
Biges said:
Hi!
Are SSD reliable? Byt "reliable" I mean if the data on SSD need do or do not need to be backed up. Or if a manufacturer offers a warranty like "If you SSD crashes, we will restore all your data* free of charge!".

It it is not such case, than I don't really see an advantage over classic HDD.
Click to expand...
No manufacturer of SSD or HDD offers that kind of warranty.

You should always backup your data* to at least one other location preferably not normally attached to your main computer, personally I backup to 3 locations (WHS, external backup of said WHS, offsite to S3).

Physical disk drives aren't all that reliable that you should trust any of them 100%, things fail, disks and chips.

*probably mostly porn
 
Biges said:
It it is not such case, than I don't really see an advantage over classic HDD.
Click to expand...
The big advantages of SSDs are:
-No moving parts (you could drop it and it would still work)
-Fast seeks/reads (almost no seek time at any location on the drive and fast reads)

The downsides are:
-Limited lifespan due to flash having a limited number of writes
-Slow writes, especially on cheaper SSDs

No individual hard drive is perfectly "reliable," any drive can fail. SSDs do have the advantage of having no moving parts, they can handle a wider range of physical stresses (being dropped and such) than a regular hard drive.
 
Biges said:
Hi!

I admit I'm hardly an expert on drives, I spent 99% of my forum time in the display section, so excume me, if my question is "noob" ;)

Are SSD reliable? Byt "reliable" I mean if the data on SSD need do or do not need to be backed up. Or if a manufacturer offers a warranty like "If you SSD crashes, we will restore all your data* free of charge!".

It it is not such case, than I don't really see an advantage over classic HDD.

Thanks for you answers.

* data = music, films, games, porn
Click to expand...


Lets us this analogy.

Your Yugo = HDD, your SSD = Lexus

Both are reliable to a point, one superceeds the other (Lexus). While the Lexus is super reliable in comparison to the slower and clunky mechanical Yugo... they are still not going to offer you a brand new car if yours breaks down.

Does this make the Lexus any less advantageous? No. By simply buying the more reliable product you not only make yourself a better purchase, but you increase the chance of data protection due to drive failures... it's not about having your entire drive replaced and your data restored.
 
Ockie said:
Lets us this analogy.

Your Yugo = HDD, your SSD = Lexus

Both are reliable to a point, one superceeds the other (Lexus). While the Lexus is super reliable in comparison to the slower and clunky mechanical Yugo... they are still not going to offer you a brand new car if yours breaks down.

Does this make the Lexus any less advantageous? No. By simply buying the more reliable product you not only make yourself a better purchase, but you increase the chance of data protection due to drive failures... it's not about having your entire drive replaced and your data restored.
Click to expand...

SSD is like a fully electric car, no moving parts..
 
So basically they are the same in the terms of reliability as HDD? Or worse? Better?
 
Ockie said:
Lets us this analogy.

Your Yugo = HDD, your SSD = Lexus

Both are reliable to a point, one superceeds the other (Lexus). While the Lexus is super reliable in comparison to the slower and clunky mechanical Yugo... they are still not going to offer you a brand new car if yours breaks down.

Does this make the Lexus any less advantageous? No. By simply buying the more reliable product you not only make yourself a better purchase, but you increase the chance of data protection due to drive failures... it's not about having your entire drive replaced and your data restored.
Click to expand...

I don't have a car. I use public transport ans it is pretty reliable (at least in Prague), if something brokes down, it is replaced, so it always works ;)
 
Biges said:
So basically they are the same in the terms of reliability as HDD? Or worse? Better?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately, SSDs are just starting to hit the mainstream users, so there is not any data for long term reliability. In theory, they should prove to be more durable than mechanical drives, but that has yet to be proven out on the street.

Don
 
SSD - speed. Thats what you pay for.

Other than that, its not worth getting it. I mean, no moving parts, but who cares.. If you backup your data, then you barely care about the drive. And believe it or not, HDDs last long time..
 
no HDD in the world is 100% reliable. no MFG will warrant data recovery. ever.

you dont buy reliable drives, you buy MORE drives and backup
 
One plus of the SSD, assuming the drive itself does not fail in some catastrophic manner, you can always READ from the drive - even once you reach the write lifespan you can still pull the data off.
 
OK, let's put it in another way.

If a HDD crashes, usually the recovery prodcedure requieres the same model and move the magnetic discs from the old drive to the new case.

What if SSD gives up? What to do then? And why usually dies in SSD?
Don't tell me it is not known, SSDs are aroand for quite some years.
 
Biges said:
OK, let's put it in another way.

If a HDD crashes, usually the recovery prodcedure requieres the same model and move the magnetic discs from the old drive to the new case.

What if SSD gives up? What to do then? And why usually dies in SSD?
Don't tell me it is not known, SSDs are aroand for quite some years.
Click to expand...


Well the lifespan is great and the chances of an SSD dying is quite slim, in fact, super slim. SSD's have been used for years now in rugged systems and systems with incredible amounts of stress and beating, and they have a great record.

The recovery is not going to be so easy as a platter, they will need to figure out new techniques and the recovery will be more expensive.


However, recovery is not always possible with spinning disks either, in fact, even a 0 write erase can be unrecoverable with something like a dd command.


It does not matter if you have the hubbles hard drive (SSD, but anyways), you should ALWAYS do a backup. Recovery should not even be a alternative, recovery should be there if all else fails... not as your secondary solution.
 
Out of interest, what other factors would typically kill a SSD except for the finite amount of writes it can use, whilst in a normal operating environment.

Is it safe to presume that early death syndrome that can happen with HDD's should be solved in SSD's? The reason i ask is that every time i've suffered a HDD failure with early death its always seemed to be a mechnical part (actuator/platters/head etc).
 
I don't care if your HD or SSD is made from pure unobtainium and wired directly to your brain. If the data matters to you, ALWAYS BACKUP.

There is no situation in all of every universe ever where you don't have to backup important data.

If the data doesn't matter, or isn't that important, sure run without a backup. Otherwise, ALWAYS backup important data.
 
Toytown said:
Out of interest, what other factors would typically kill a SSD except for the finite amount of writes it can use, whilst in a normal operating environment.

Is it safe to presume that early death syndrome that can happen with HDD's should be solved in SSD's? The reason i ask is that every time i've suffered a HDD failure with early death its always seemed to be a mechnical part (actuator/platters/head etc).
Click to expand...

Fire, bullets, water etc.
 
Lazn_Work said:
I don't care if your HD or SSD is made from pure unobtainium and wired directly to your brain. If the data matters to you, ALWAYS BACKUP.

There is no situation in all of every universe ever where you don't have to backup important data.
Click to expand...

Please explain how to wire my SSD into my brain? I keep getting shocked and haven't seen a single directory yet.
 
ZodaEX said:
Please explain how to wire my SSD into my brain? I keep getting shocked and haven't seen a single directory yet.
Click to expand...

You need to increase the voltage, 13,500 where it's at. Just stick a coat hanger on a pole and head on over to your nearest transmission lines, that should do the trick.


No, really, please don't do this, lol
 
ZodaEX said:
Please explain how to wire my SSD into my brain? I keep getting shocked and haven't seen a single directory yet.
Click to expand...

You have to get one made of unobtainium with a wishalloy case first. Then use a handwavium cable to connect it. :D
 
Solid state circuits fail for any number of reasons. No moving parts != no failure.

You might be safer with a manufacturer who uses the highest quality components, top notch assembly, and state of the art QA...but some of their devices will still fail.

I doubt that these new consumer level SSD's are being manufactured to the same high standards as the industrial stuff that's been used in embedded systems for the last X years.
 
kristof said:
Solid state circuits fail for any number of reasons. No moving parts != no failure.

You might be safer with a manufacturer who uses the highest quality components, top notch assembly, and state of the art QA...but some of their devices will still fail.

I doubt that these new consumer level SSD's are being manufactured to the same high standards as the industrial stuff that's been used in embedded systems for the last X years.
Click to expand...

Yeah but no moving parts decreases physical failure by almost 100%..
 
kristof said:
Solid state circuits fail for any number of reasons. No moving parts != no failure.

You might be safer with a manufacturer who uses the highest quality components, top notch assembly, and state of the art QA...but some of their devices will still fail.

I doubt that these new consumer level SSD's are being manufactured to the same high standards as the industrial stuff that's been used in embedded systems for the last X years.
Click to expand...


usually they are the more stressed parts which are subjected to heat and sometimes of dubious origin, such as power supplies and optical drives. and video cards to a lesser extent.
 
The way I see it, depending on sending you disk out for data recover WHEN it fails opposed to doing backups is like eating your lazy self stupid and expecting the hospital to bring you back to life after you suffer a major heart attack opposed to taking care of yourself. Data recovery will be there as will the hospital, but the goal in life is to never depend on them.

There is nothing in this world that won't break. Buy the best SSD you can and still back it up to an offsite location, just like you do with your current HD.
 
maddude0025 said:
The way I see it, depending on sending you disk out for data recover WHEN it fails opposed to doing backups is like eating your lazy self stupid and expecting the hospital to bring you back to life after you suffer a major heart attack opposed to taking care of yourself. Data recovery will be there as will the hospital, but the goal in life is to never depend on them.

There is nothing in this world that won't break. Buy the best SSD you can and still back it up to an offsite location, just like you do with your current HD.
Click to expand...

Exactly.

HDD controllers fail, leaving the mechanical parts still working fine (can be fixed with a controller swap). What makes people think SSD controllers (or the main storage chips for that matter) won't fail? An SSD could potentially be destroyed by static discharge, as with any other static sensitive semiconductor device. While such static would also destroy a HDD controller, it will not damage the HDD platters. A controller swap would likely have the disk up and running, the SSD would be dead for good.

Backup, or prepare to lose it.
 
The way I see it SSD have their benefits, but for desktops, they are overally no better than HDDs, especially when need to often access many files.
But the marketing departments of memory manufacturing companies had successfully created a buzz around SSDs.
 
Biges said:
The way I see it SSD have their benefits, but for desktops, they are overally no better than HDDs, especially when need to often access many files.
But the marketing departments of memory manufacturing companies had successfully created a buzz around SSDs.
Click to expand...
Have you, like, tried a fast one yet? Lots of random read access and low latency is precisely where they SHINE.

I usually don't buy into the buzz, but I can say from personal experience it's justified this time. It greatly enhances the usability of a computer. A regular HDD is like trying to run underwater after you try a good SSD.
 
Biges said:
The way I see it SSD have their benefits, but for desktops, they are overally no better than HDDs, especially when need to often access many files.
But the marketing departments of memory manufacturing companies had successfully created a buzz around SSDs.
Click to expand...
You may want to sit on the fence a little while longer before drawing those conclusions. Personally i'm waiting for the 60-64gig prices to drop closer to $100. 32gig is not enough for the set of programs i plan on installing.

You're not going to store much *data on the current generation of SSD drives, they're just too darn small, or insanely priced imho.
 
Biges said:
The way I see it SSD have their benefits, but for desktops, they are overally no better than HDDs, especially when need to often access many files.
But the marketing departments of memory manufacturing companies had successfully created a buzz around SSDs.
Click to expand...

Once you actually get to use one you will know the benefits. I am now replacing all my drives with SSD's, other than my bulk storage drives due to the price.
 
SJetski71 said:
You may want to sit on the fence a little while longer before drawing those conclusions. Personally i'm waiting for the 60-64gig prices to drop closer to $100. 32gig is not enough for the set of programs i plan on installing.

You're not going to store much *data on the current generation of SSD drives, they're just too darn small, or insanely priced imho.
Click to expand...
60-64GB @ $100 a pop would be soooo ideal and a no-brainer purchase for the average enthusiast. Maybe we'll see that next year?

For me personally, the drop to $179-$199 was enough for me to invest in one for the boot drive. I paid about as much for my 74GB Raptors so my SSD purchase wasn't such a stretch. The performance increase was immense this time around. I'm seriously considering another 60GB OCZ Vertex to put into a RAID config with the currently installed Vertex. I originally thought I'd be ok with the SSD running the OS and important programs but since I've experienced the low latency goodness that SSD provides and I want it for all my programs.
 
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