SSDs and data recovery: everything you need to know
With the cost of the hardware needed to manufacture SSDs continuing to fall, the popularity of this flash-based media is certain to grow.
SSDs offer a few advantages when compared to HDDs, but there are a few drawbacks, too, chief amongst which is that SSD data recovery can be a difficult task.
SSDs fail without warning
Whilst hard drives typically let users know that a failure is
imminent by making unusual sounds, the same cannot be said for SSDs.
Hard drives are mechanical devices that utilise moving parts whilst SSDs
do not. Instead, they use electronic components and are completely silent. As a
result, SSD failure often comes completely out of the blue.
SSDs have a specified shelf life
Mechanical devices fail, but they do not fail exclusively because of the
regularity with which they’re used.
Cars are a good example of this: one model could last more than 200k
miles whilst an identical model could last for less than half of this. It is
not the frequency with which the car is driven that determines when it fails.
Rather, mileage is on of several things that can affect an automobile’s
functionality.
Hard drives are comparable in that the amount of times they’re used
alone does not determine when they’ll fail. The environment within which they
operate, how they’re used etc. all influence their lifespan. SSDs, however,
will fail after a set number of writes and re-writes.
In order to store data, SSDs write information to cells and each of
these cells can only withstand so many writes before they cease to function.
Generally speaking, SSDs are capable of withstanding thousands of writes
and rewrites, so this should not deter the average user but it’s certainly
something you need to be aware of, particularly if you’re likely to be using an
SSD in an enterprise environment.
SSD technology is constantly evolving
On the face of things, the fact that the technology used in SSDs is
always being updated is no bad thing. It’s led to better speeds, lower costs
and greater capacities, for example. When it comes to recovering data, though,
it’s a source of difficulty and frustration.
Hard drives have been using almost identikit setups for decades and, as
a result of this, data recovery engineers are au fait with the techniques that
need to be utilised in order to retrieve data when one fails. When they’re
tasked with recovering data from a failed SSD, they need to utilise bespoke
techniques or may even need to develop a completely new technique if the device
is relatively new.
Encrypted data is extremely hard to recover
Encrypting the data stored on an SSD substantially reduces the
likelihood of a full recovery in the event of data loss. Without getting too
technical, encrypted data is difficult to piece back together and we’d advise
any SSD user to consider whether or not they genuinely need to encrypt their
data as a result.
Always backup your data
Whatever type of media you use to store your data, we cannot stress the
importance of backing this up to at least one other location strongly enough.
No type of storage media is immune to data loss; people will make
mistake; accidents will happen. The only way to be certain you’re protected
against data loss is to regularly backup your
data.