The spec is for the worst performance possible at end-of-life time. So a new drive will retain the data far longer than 3 months or 1 year of the spec (enterpri

The spec is for the worst performance possible at end-of-life time. So a new drive will retain the data far longer than 3 months or 1 year of the spec (enterprise vs consumer spec) but a drive after five years of full writes will retain for near-spec or it will be considered a failure and you can ask for a refund. The failure mode is that there are only about 50 electrons in that charge trap of NAND flash these days and they can disappear on their own and they will disappear after enough time and when they do you don't have the voltage you should have and so can't read the bit value you stored in it. After enough such bits become incorrect you can no longer fix the block with the ECC and then you no longer have the ability to read the original data. It should be noted that the more worn out the drive is the easier it is for the electrons to disappear from the cell. Which is why a new drive retains data perfectly well but an old drive can barely hold itself.