What do you do with your old SSDs?

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Because I've upgraded my various systems, I have several 120 and 240 GB SSDs that I'm not using. I feel that I should be able to put them to some good use. What do you guys do?
 
i use them for laptops/tablets usually since you don't need shit for hdd space in them or give them to family/friends since i know most of them barely use their computers but always complain about how slow they are.
 
If they don't end up as an OS drive on an older computer, I've added them to C as mounted volumes and just pointed steam at them as game drives. They typically won't show up in file explorer as drives (so they're easy to ignore) but I can still use them as steam library space.
 
If you have to many spares send them my way, lol. I could throw them in my server in a RAID and get a bit of performance out of them :). So far I've just moved them around from main desktop to kids desktops to laptop, and one in my server as the OS drive.
 
I use 2.5" mobile drive docks, I swap OS just like changing socks. No more opening up case to swap SSD.

Else open them up and hang the circuit board.
 
If they don't end up as an OS drive on an older computer, I've added them to C as mounted volumes and just pointed steam at them as game drives. They typically won't show up in file explorer as drives (so they're easy to ignore) but I can still use them as steam library space.
Interesting. I like this idea.
 
I use 2.5" mobile drive docks, I swap OS just like changing socks. No more opening up case to swap SSD.
Is the mobile drive dock USB? I thought that you can't boot from a USB drive? No? What OS?
 
Is the mobile drive dock USB? I thought that you can't boot from a USB drive? No? What OS?

No it's the type that you stick into a 3.5" bay, internally use SATA and power connectors to it. Something like Vantec EZ Swap EVO. :)

OS support should not be an issue.
 
put them all into one PC and mount them at one big virtual drive? Or maybe sell them?
 
For a long time I had a 32g cache SSD in tandem with the HDD and set it as readyboost. Worked quite good. As a creature of habit it remember your frequent usage and boost it along.

Now that SSD prices had dropped to where I got a 500g SSD I put the cache SSD in my other PC as a main drive for Kubuntu. Loaded it up with apps and still have space left.

Very good alternative to Windows.
 
Use them for test builds. I have a couple of old cast iron 32GB SSDs that are fine for slotting in a customers machine to put a custom fresh build on and then clone over quick once the purchased new SSD shows up delivered the next day.
 
I only have one which isn't used, sitting in the closet. It's an early OCZ, and that absolute turd caused no end of problems.

Not sure why I keep it. Someday it will get the thermite treatment and I'll laugh about all the joy it caused.
 
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I use them in older machines to speed them up a bit.
 
I just want to mention that I had a Mushkin SSD in my wife's desktop system. Then one day it stopped, no warning of course :mad:. Then one of my friends said something like, "Dude, don't you KNOW that Mushkin is a crap brand?" No I hadn't,:eek: but every since then I worry about the service life of SSDs, particularly older models.
 
Local backups for music, video, photos, game save files, etc. Long term backups on two 2TB hard drives.
 
I just got a pair of intel 545s, and I ended up giving my mom my old m4 256 for her dell with a third gen dual core. I thought that thing was a pos, and it was with the tb Toshiba that she traded me for, but didn't know. But now that thing is great, it feels like a desktop kinda sorta.. Could always sell them locally for a fair price. They are great for picture.
 
I just want to mention that I had a Mushkin SSD in my wife's desktop system. Then one day it stopped, no warning of course :mad:. Then one of my friends said something like, "Dude, don't you KNOW that Mushkin is a crap brand?" No I hadn't,:eek: but every since then I worry about the service life of SSDs, particularly older models.
I’ve had every brand of hard drive and SSD die on me over the years. Hardware will eventually fail. That’s why it’s important to keep backups.
 
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My wife usually gets them as a hand-me-down, although I sold one. I used drive wipe (or something like it) a couple times and sold it on Craiglist. If you sell hardware at 1/2 retail, people will take stuff off your hands in no time.
 
I just want to mention that I had a Mushkin SSD in my wife's desktop system. Then one day it stopped, no warning of course :mad:. Then one of my friends said something like, "Dude, don't you KNOW that Mushkin is a crap brand?" No I hadn't,:eek: but every since then I worry about the service life of SSDs, particularly older models.

sure mushkin 10 years ago sucked but those days are long gone when it comes to SSD's and memory since very few of the brands produce their own hardware anymore. it's pure luck of the draw on how drives fail, some are gradual and some just outright fail without warning..
 
Since I haven't seen anyone else post about this, here's my take. I usually wipe them, and then install them
into an external USB or eSATA enclosure for use transferring files, testing alternative OSes, and just general
file portability. I had an external SSD before that become a regular thing. People were always amazed how
fast I could share a file with them.

Striker
 
I just want to mention that I had a Mushkin SSD in my wife's desktop system. Then one day it stopped, no warning of course :mad:. Then one of my friends said something like, "Dude, don't you KNOW that Mushkin is a crap brand?" No I hadn't,:eek: but every since then I worry about the service life of SSDs, particularly older models.
Pretty much any brand with a Sandforce controller in it from back in the day could randomly die at any point (mushkin used sandforce controllers most of the time). Those controllers had a ridiculous failure rate and amount of bugs in their firmware. When Intel picked that controller to be their new one they didnt even use it until their firmware team went over it for a year and submitted dozens of bugfixes for firmware to make the controller stable. The 1200 and 2200 controllers had all these issues. When Sandforce finally got access to the Intel fixed firmware and came out with the 3700 series is when they finally became stable drives.

Ah the dark days of solid state drives. I remember when I got my first 32GB SSD with its SLC nand, and they were still using controllers not designed for SSDs and it performed like crap in random 4k and windows would actually stutter because drive speed got so low when the minuscule cache ran out. We used to run a buffer program that would consolidate writes into sequential bursts to make Windows usable on the first couple gen SSDs.
 
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Pretty much any brand with a Sandforce controller in it from back in the day could randomly die at any point. Those controllers had a ridiculous failure rate and amount of bugs in their firmware. When Intel picked that controller to be their new one they didnt even use it until their firmware team went over it for a year and submitted dozens of bugfixes for firmware to make the controller stable. The 1200 and 2200 controllers had all these issues. When Sandforce finally got access to the Intel fixed firmware and came out with the 3700 series is when they finally became stable drives.

Ah the dark days of solid state drives. I remember when I got my first 32GB SSD with its SLC cache and they were still using controllers not designed for SSDs and it performed like crap in random 4k and windows would actually stutter because drive speed got so low when the minuscule cache ran out. We used to run a buffer program that would consolidate writes into sequential bursts to make Windows usable on the first couple gen SSDs.
Harking back to a much earlier generation of technology, the first floppy disk drives were also problematic, including the media. If I remember correctly drive failure rates out of the box were like 5%, which was not acceptable even then. For contrast, the original 5 1/4" drive for Apple, with 35 data tracks, was 160 KB formatted.
 
I have a box of harddrives. So I finally threw out the IDE drives, shifted the spinner SATA's over and now put SSD's in the "grab these first" section.

2.5" 120GB SSD for $17 at Microcenter, and they have tons of them. It's almost like why bother keeping it. Like keeping a 250GB 3.5" drive.
 
They work well for boot drives for specific use builds like a NAS or HTPC. Depends if you're using old or new Hardware along with it though, because the space and cable management means M.2 makes a lot more sense. I currently still have a 2011 Corsair Force SSD running a backup/file server at my parents house.

If you have a bunch of them, I would find a local craigslist seller that builds upgraded rigs out of old hardware. Sell him the pile for a fixed price.
 
On older computers with limited memory, they work wonders as a dedicated swap drive.

The laptop I'm using right now is limited to 8gb (ddr2!!!). Normally it drags down as I go past ~10gb in consumption (100+ browser tabs), but I can comfortably get 16gb with the dedicated ssd swap drive.
 
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I'm still using a 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 in my main rig. Just haven't jumped to an NVMe drive yet. When it comes out...probably just throwing it in the trash. My basic install footprint w/ OS, productivity apps, CAD, and games is over 500GB. My kids games install is approaching 1TB on their PCs.

I'd buy a new modern SSD for an external drive before wasting time/money buying an external case for it.
 
I'm still using a 240GB OCZ Vertex 3 in my main rig. Just haven't jumped to an NVMe drive yet. When it comes out...probably just throwing it in the trash. My basic install footprint w/ OS, productivity apps, CAD, and games is over 500GB. My kids games install is approaching 1TB on their PCs.

I'd buy a new modern SSD for an external drive before wasting time/money buying an external case for it.

Put em on the freebie thread or send them to me :D
 
Still use Intel 520 120gb in my work PC. That SSD has a Sandforce controller and has been going strong for years. The PC is too old for anything newer..

Also use Intel X25M gen2 in my Intel NUC as a secondwry. Still works and refuses to die.
 
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