[SOLVED] How do SSDs fail?

[jhsachs]

I know that they typically degrade, rather than crash. The amount of available storage decreases as the number of bad storage locations increases. But just what does that mean?

Is capacity loss linear over time, for example, or does it decline gradually over some amount of use, then slide down a cliff?

What determines when an SSD is done for? Is it just a question of when you decide it's time to get a new (bigger, cheaper) one? Or is there an objective reason to replace it at a certain point if you know what's good for you?

 

[USAFRet]

Some eventually go into a read only state.
Some just slow down (my old Kingston).
Some, like all other electronics, simply DIE suddenly. ( A recent SanDisk of mine)

If you're thinking of this as regarding too many write cycles...that is a long solved problem. Typical consumer use won't consume that level of writes for many years.


For the vast majority of people, they simply become too small over time.
A 120GB drive was great back in 2012. Today, not so much. Even a 250GB today is a mediocre choice when you look at the $$ per GB.