How long do SSDs last?
For anyone considering upgrading their PC, SSDs are
undeniably an option worth considering. Their lack of moving parts means that
they’re significantly quieter than HDDs, consume far less power and, most importantly
of all, they’re significantly quicker than any alternative form of
high-capacity storage media. As any one of our technicians specialising in SSD recovery will tell you, they're continousy growing in popularity.
That said, for several years many IT professionals recommended
against adopting solid state storage, their main concern being that the chips
that hold the data have a finite lifespan and can only have data written onto
them so many times before they fail. Whilst we know that HDDs can theoretically
last forever, though, we also know that they do not and, in fact, regularly fail.
So, just how long do modern SSDs last and are they as reliable as HDDs? Let’s
take a look.
Writing Frequency
Firstly, it’s important to note that whilst the NAND Flash-based
chips that hold data can only withstand so many re-writes and the total number
they can tolerate before they fail vary greatly from report to report, this
figure is guaranteed to be several thousand at least. Couple this with
wear-levelling (which we previously discussed here)
in order to ensure that new data is written across cells evenly in order to
prevent them from early burnout, and the lifespan of an SSD is not going to be
anywhere near as short as some would lead you to believe.
The majority of manufacturers now state the total number of
terabytes that users will typically be able to write to an SSD before the
memory cells fail in their entirety. Samsung, for example, claim that their
drives are all but guaranteed to withstand 150TBs worth of writes, arguing that
some have withstood as much as 600TBs.
To put this in context, even if an SSD only withstood the
guaranteed limit of 150TBs (i.e. 150,000GBs) then a user would be able to write
just over 40GBs to it every day and the cells would not wear out for a decade. This
is likely to be more than sufficient for those working in commercial
environments, meaning that it should be more than capable of meeting the needs
of your average home user.
In short, this is indefinite proof that any concerns you may
have regarding an SSD’s potential lifespan should not deter you from purchasing
one. If you’re considering upgrading your storage media to an SSD, we’d instead
recommend you consider whether the additional cost is a price worth paying for
the extra speed. It’s worth noting that SSDs are considered to be slightly more
reliable due to their lack of moving parts, but they’re still susceptible to
data loss due to human error, physical damage and power surges. Users that choose
SSDs will also get significantly less storage space for their money which is
something you’ll need to bear in mind, particularly if you’re likely to be
storing a large number of media files on your device.
Should you desire both substantial storage and speed, we’d
recommend a hybrid drive. These use technology from both HDDs and SSDs to
deliver drives that boast both superior read/write speeds and substantial
storage capacities.
Considering an upgrade because your hard drive’s failed? Get
in touch with the hard
drive recovery experts, Fields Data Recover, today.