5 ms·

Usually, an SSD will by far outlast an HDD. The risk of drive failiures is always quite large with mechanical drives. This of course depends on useage, but with

Usually, an SSD will by far outlast an HDD. The risk of drive failiures is always quite large with mechanical drives. This of course depends on useage, but with an estimated workload of 10 GiB/day a 256GiB will last for about 70 years[1]. (These numbers are for MLC NAND) [1] : http://www.anandtech.com/show/6459/samsung-ssd-840-testing-the-endurance-of-tlc-nand http://www.anandtech.com/show/6459/samsung-ssd-840-testing-t...

rolleiflex 14y ago
Also, most of the time, when SSD's fail, they become read-only, which is a far better outcome than a spinner starting to scratch its plates. So even if SSD's had short lifespans it wouldn't be as destructive.
- cake 14y ago
  most of the time All the crashes I've read about on the web were fatal failures with total data loss. I hope it'll get better.
  - w1ntermute 14y ago
    Well, here's one story on the web for you about SSD failure without total data loss: I've had an SSD that just refused to write anymore, but all the data was still readable. All I had to do was buy another SSD, dd the old SSD's data over to it, and go on my merry way.
    - pessimizer 14y ago
      Same thing happened to me, and at the time I had no idea that that was how SSDs failed - it was my OS disk, and suddenly I couldn't sudo. Popped in a bootable USB, and had the data copied off and a replacement SSD in within a couple of hours. I wouldn't depend on that failure mode, but it's a nice feature.
  - hosay123 14y ago
    My first, only, and last-until-hell-freezes-over SSD went crazy last week, after a series of bizarre kernel panics that now appear to relate entirely to the SSD (machine is fine after a reinstall). Following a final reboot the Macbook's firmware displayed a "missing startup folder" icon. On flying home I discover that several GB from the start of the drive has gone missing entirely (check out http://i.imgur.com/riK4CBt.gif http://i.imgur.com/riK4CBt.gif -- grey is good, black is zero blocks). Never again relying on a disk technology that doesn't respond to a hammer when it's dying.
    - aaronblohowiak 14y ago
      One data point is a poor basis for decision making.
      - hosay123 14y ago
        Right. So I could drop $2-3k on gaining experience from a meaningful sample size, all the while risking more lost business days, or I could just believe all those anecdotes it took me close to half a decade to convince myself to ignore. I've got bigger problems than seek latency, will retry in a couple more years.
        Devilboy 14y ago
        Maybe you could try making backups next time?
        dasil003 14y ago
        Would certainly be smarter than banking on the reliability of a single HDD.
        hosay123 14y ago
        Unfortunately you can't back up billable hours, and carrying an entirely separate laptop or disk on the expectation that your main one will fail seems a bit too weird, especially when robust alternatives exist
  - pc86 14y ago
    Isn't total data loss the default for a mechanical drive failure as well? I don't think this should be counted as a major weakness of SSDs.
    - devcpp 14y ago
      First, no. HDD recovery is expensive but possible in many cases. Secondly, no one say it should be counted as a weakness, the guy above was just pointing out that it's probably not a strength, as someone above claimed.
      - Retric 14y ago
        Expensive SSD recovery is also an option.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
- chollida1 14y ago
  Really? I've had 4 SSD drives fail across 20 desktops and in all cases the data loss has been total. I've never seen, heck or even heard of, an SSD drive go int read only mode. Is there some special tinkering you need to do to get one to go into read only mode?
fulafel 14y ago
they typically eat your data by corrupting their internal state. I hear about this kind of ssd crashes way more often than conventional HDD crashes. flash wear is a red herring and is dwarfed by these FTL corruptions.

rolleiflex 14y ago

Also, most of the time, when SSD's fail, they become read-only, which is a far better outcome than a spinner starting to scratch its plates. So even if SSD's had short lifespans it wouldn't be as destructive.

cake 14y ago
most of the time All the crashes I've read about on the web were fatal failures with total data loss. I hope it'll get better.
- w1ntermute 14y ago
  Well, here's one story on the web for you about SSD failure without total data loss: I've had an SSD that just refused to write anymore, but all the data was still readable. All I had to do was buy another SSD, dd the old SSD's data over to it, and go on my merry way.
  - pessimizer 14y ago
    Same thing happened to me, and at the time I had no idea that that was how SSDs failed - it was my OS disk, and suddenly I couldn't sudo. Popped in a bootable USB, and had the data copied off and a replacement SSD in within a couple of hours. I wouldn't depend on that failure mode, but it's a nice feature.
- hosay123 14y ago
  My first, only, and last-until-hell-freezes-over SSD went crazy last week, after a series of bizarre kernel panics that now appear to relate entirely to the SSD (machine is fine after a reinstall). Following a final reboot the Macbook's firmware displayed a "missing startup folder" icon. On flying home I discover that several GB from the start of the drive has gone missing entirely (check out http://i.imgur.com/riK4CBt.gif http://i.imgur.com/riK4CBt.gif -- grey is good, black is zero blocks). Never again relying on a disk technology that doesn't respond to a hammer when it's dying.
  - aaronblohowiak 14y ago
    One data point is a poor basis for decision making.
    - hosay123 14y ago
      Right. So I could drop $2-3k on gaining experience from a meaningful sample size, all the while risking more lost business days, or I could just believe all those anecdotes it took me close to half a decade to convince myself to ignore. I've got bigger problems than seek latency, will retry in a couple more years.
      - Devilboy 14y ago
        Maybe you could try making backups next time?
        dasil003 14y ago
        Would certainly be smarter than banking on the reliability of a single HDD.
        hosay123 14y ago
        Unfortunately you can't back up billable hours, and carrying an entirely separate laptop or disk on the expectation that your main one will fail seems a bit too weird, especially when robust alternatives exist
- pc86 14y ago
  Isn't total data loss the default for a mechanical drive failure as well? I don't think this should be counted as a major weakness of SSDs.
  - devcpp 14y ago
    First, no. HDD recovery is expensive but possible in many cases. Secondly, no one say it should be counted as a weakness, the guy above was just pointing out that it's probably not a strength, as someone above claimed.
    - Retric 14y ago
      Expensive SSD recovery is also an option.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
chollida1 14y ago
Really? I've had 4 SSD drives fail across 20 desktops and in all cases the data loss has been total. I've never seen, heck or even heard of, an SSD drive go int read only mode. Is there some special tinkering you need to do to get one to go into read only mode?

fulafel 14y ago

they typically eat your data by corrupting their internal state. I hear about this kind of ssd crashes way more often than conventional HDD crashes. flash wear is a red herring and is dwarfed by these FTL corruptions.