SSD Longer lifespan than traditional HDD? True?

[djjonastybe]

Intel® Solid-State Drive (Intel® SSD) have no moving parts, high reliability, and longer life-span than traditional hard drives.

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Is this true? I thought SSDs suffered from short lifespan...

I work on my laptop 12 hours a day maybe a bit more, will I benefit from a SSD? I am happy with traditional hard drives. But I wondered if I buy a SSD how long it will last depending on my 12h/day usage.

And then there is the question of which Operating System I should use.

Windows 7 requires a page file. While Ubuntu doesn't. And the changes the page file will be used on Ubuntu are small anyway.

[PhatKat]

Theoretically, yes, they should. But, they're still pretty new to the market, HDD's are warrantied for 3-5 years, so we'll see.

I vote yes.

[djjonastybe]

Originally Posted by PhatKat

Theoretically, yes, they should. But, they're still pretty new to the market, HDD's are warrantied for 3-5 years, so we'll see.

I vote yes.

What is the warranty of a SSD? 1y or 2y? or 5y?

[DF-1]

Originally Posted by djjonastybe

What is the warranty of a SSD? 1y or 2y? or 5y?

depends on the manufacturer, some have lifetime I think.

[Peter Buxu]

Originally Posted by DF-1

depends on the manufacturer, some have lifetime I think.

I don't think they offer a LIFETIME warranty on an SDD looL!!!

[naike]

My super old USB stick still works.

[kanej2007]

I say neither true or false, all about LUCK...

You could have a hard drive last you a few months or even a year or two.

Suddenly it can fukk up, just like that....

Same issue with SSD, could last months or even years...

I've known people having the same desktop with the same hard drives running over 10 years and never have they had any problems whatsoever...

Also depends on the USE of the drive, viruses/spyware/trojans/horses are another factor that could destroy any hard drive...

Then again, you could have a hard drive for 10+ years and have no problem with it...

[DirkGently]

From the ongoing testing at XS: The nand on my drive will last 120 years+ with my daily usage and assuming that the curve remains steady, and that the drive dies when the wearout indicator reaches zero. Providing that there is no other component in the drive that kicks it in the meantime, that's a pretty good lifespan!



Edit: Now that the forum is back up i've updated the graph to the latest version and snagged the link.


http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...e-25nm-Vs-34nm

[kanej2007]

@ DirkGently, your SSD drive will outlive you, lol...

[DirkGently]

Originally Posted by kanej2007

@ DirkGently, your SSD drive will outlive you, lol...

I think the book is finally closed on the endurance question. Hopefully people will stop with the FUD now and quit worrying where to put their temp files

[djjonastybe]

So actually it is eventually less worse than first expected. I noticed Intel is giving 5y warranty on the 320 series.

My class mates are telling my I should get one SSD for $100 - 60Gb. I only have laptop with one hard drive.

Is there a way I can monitor my daily usage? how much my hard drive has to work etc? So I can have an idea.

[TDurden]

Originally Posted by djjonastybe

So actually it is eventually less worse than first expected. I noticed Intel is giving 5y warranty on the 320 series.

lol who expected SSDs to be worse then HDDs? I bought Intel SSD almost two years ago and never looked back.

Here is some statistics: I actively use it everyday, total active power-on usage is 4587 hours or 191 days. Swap file is left on SSD, I never did anything else then to format drive and install Windows 7 on it.
Currently Media Wearout Indicator reports 98. It was 99 when I started to use it. I expect this SSD to last longer then I will use it.

[maleficarus™]

Traditional hard drives get a lifetime rating from what is called "mean hours". Which works out to around 3 yrs to 5 yrs. SSD's get rated to what is called "load cycles" that depending on the manufacturer works out to something like 5 yrs to 10 yrs.

In short SSD's will last upwards of 50% longer then a traditional HDD..

[IcE]

Based on Intel's numbers I've worked out the math and it shows that if I continue at current usage patterns my drive will last for 100 years. Pretty damn good lifespan, and it shows you don't need to worry about tweaking the hell out of Windows just to avoid frivolous writes. The only thing you have to worry about is getting a defective drive, which is somewhat common due to the difficulty of manufacturing these things.

[Mufflore]

Its too early to tell.
They havent been out long enough to find all the common failure modes of the technology, materials and methods used to make the drives, how prevalent the problems are and at what age and/or use they exhibit them.

Another thing you may wish to consider if you plan on leaving a machine off for very long periods or if you wish to store an SSD, is how long cells can retain data without being refreshed.
http://www.techopsguys.com/2011/02/19/

As NAND Flash devices age with use, the capability of the media to retain a programmed value begins to deteriorate. This deterioration is affected by the number of times a particular memory cell is programmed and subsequently erased. When a device is new, it has a powered off data retention capability of up to ten years. With use the retention capability of the device is reduced. Temperature also has an effect on how long a Flash component can retain its pro-grammed value with power removed. At high temperature the retention capabilities of the device are reduced. Data retention is not an issue with power applied to the SSD. The SSD drive contains firmware and hardware features that can monitor and refresh memory cells when power is applied.

Chances are its not going to matter until the drive is say 5 years or older.
But it does demonstrate that if you wish to preserve an old SSD, it may need powering up every so often.

[UZ7]

I think the life depends on the constant writing on the drive, delete/write/delete/write but even then you would have to constantly do that everyday for 5 years (theoretically) before it runs down it's life.

[deltatux]

The write capacity of SSDs are a lot lower than HDDs, however if you're talking about sudden failures, then SSDs are obviously better than HDDs because there's no moving parts. If you drop an SSD, most likely it'll still work.

deltatux

[PhatKat]

Originally Posted by deltatux

The write capacity of SSDs are a lot lower than HDDs, however if you're talking about sudden failures, then SSDs are obviously better than HDDs because there's no moving parts. If you drop an SSD, most likely it'll still work.

deltatux

SSD's have been used in rough-and-tumble equipment for a long time now, namely military equipment.

[deltatux]

Originally Posted by PhatKat

SSD's have been used in rough-and-tumble equipment for a long time now, namely military equipment.

Those are usually SLC SSDs, they're a lot more expensive and last a lot longer. Most commercial SSDs are MLC. They're slower and don't last long.

deltatux

[Mufflore]

Originally Posted by UZ7

I think the life depends on the constant writing on the drive, delete/write/delete/write but even then you would have to constantly do that everyday for 5 years (theoretically) before it runs down it's life.

For a few modes of failure yes.
Those are not the only ways it can fail though.

[TDurden]

Originally Posted by deltatux

Those are usually SLC SSDs, they're a lot more expensive and last a lot longer. Most commercial SSDs are MLC. They're slower and don't last long.

deltatux

If you are talking about a decade or more when you say MLC SSDs dont last long then OK. Because thats how much it can take for SSD to wear out in a typical home user PC usage pattern.

I don't think many HDDs last for so long.

[djjonastybe]

So a SSD is like high performance but has to be powered on regularly if you do not want to lose your data. Which means a SSD is less reliable if you plan on using it as storage and putting it away for long long time.

I have seen hard drives surviving for 15 years. But what I do have much experience with is that a HDD is so easy to kill. Even when placed in a laptop and you move a lot.

Since I joined university, I destroyed like 4-5 mechanical hard drives just by going to school. Having to pack, unpack etc.

I certainly will buy a SSD, but damn they cost so much. I would like to have at least a 256Gb SLC SSD. I like to have dual boot. I can't do that on a 60Gb SSD

What about defragging on a SSD? How often do you defrag? Eventually every file system needs to be defragged, also ext4 gets fragmented.

Let's say once a month?

Maybe next year I will upgrade to a newer notebook with SATA III equiped. And hopefully SSD's will have a greatly dropped price.

[Mufflore]

When an SSD is new, it is claimed that it will hold data for 10 years or so without refreshing.
As it wears and/or the higher the temp, this drops.
Temperature looks to be pretty crucial as well as wear!
Note: the following data relies on a 2005 datasheet for Non Volatile Memory, no distinction is made between the different SLC and MLC SSD types so this is a ballpark.
http://communities.intel.com/message/95107

1008 hours at 150C is equivalent to 1150 years at 25C

125C higher temp equates to around 1/10,000th of the life (if accepting Freescale Semiconductors findings), so this looks crucial.
ie if you store an SSD in a safe and there is a fire, its data may be destroyed even if the safe isnt penetrated.
Its wise to put the SSD in a temperature isolating material that doesnt burn easily.
After a fire, its a good idea to get the data off it quickly.

From the PDF dated 2005, linked on that page (http://www.freescale.com/files/micro...etin/EB618.pdf), it can be seen that the life expectancy difference between 25C and 55C storage temp is around 18x for both types of bake test, meaning that temperature alone will theoretically reduce the life of data by 1/18th moving from 25C to 55C.
If the 10 year data retention specs are rated at 25C, we now have an approximation of the projected life of data at higher temps, while the SSD is powered off.

So with a new SSD, if the specs say 10 year data retention at 25C, this will reduce to just over half a year at 55C according to this 2005 study.
Who knows how this deteriorates as the SSD ages though.
To be safe, store well away from sunlight and radiators and other heat sources.
fyi


If you install Win7 on an SSD, it will disable defragmenting on that drive.
Because there is no seek head to move, there is very little need to defragment.
It can also cause excessive wear so is ill advised.

[djjonastybe]

What happens around thems of 5-15*C which is the average of my country?

[Passion Fruit]

Originally Posted by djjonastybe

What happens around thems of 5-15*C which is the average of my country?

It'll burst into flames as you remove it from the packaging and turn to ash in your hands....

/facepalm