[SOLVED] M.2 SSd, Sata 3 SSD, longevity.

[HaizRail007]

Hello, it's been awhile since I've posted on here, but I would like the community's opinion on M.2 SSd, Sata 3 SSD, longevity. I know that will very depending on read and writes, but I'm more interested in the components themselves that make up the chips on the the pcb's. Such as, resisters, diodes, capacitors etc. Also, what is the percentage of the flash storage wiping it's self with prolonged non use, meaning you store something on them and put the chip up in a case for storage.In addition, if the chips were wrote to once, and only read from how long do you think it wold last, and when using one for a game drive will that drive be read and wrote to with the game is active, or will it just be read off of, if you have the saved game files on another drive. I posted a poll to get a better understanding of the community's opinion, however, more detailed responses are welcomed.

 

[kanewolf]

Hello, it's been awhile since I've posted on here, but I would like the community's opinion on M.2 SSd, Sata 3 SSD, longevity. I know that will very depending on read and writes, but I'm more interested in the components themselves that make up the chips on the the pcb's. Such as, resisters, diodes, capacitors etc. Also, what is the percentage of the flash storage wiping it's self with prolonged non use, meaning you store something on them and put the chip up in a case for storage.In addition, if the chips were wrote to once, and only read from how long do you think it wold last, and when using one for a game drive will that drive be read and wrote to with the game is active, or will it just be read off of, if you have the saved game files on another drive. I posted a poll to get a better understanding of the community's opinion, however, more detailed responses are welcomed.

Here is an article on data retention -- https://www.anandtech.com/show/9248/the-truth-about-ssd-data-retention
It also says "new drives the data retention is considerably higher, typically over ten years for MLC NAND based SSDs"
It is all about how safe you want your data. For anything that is irreplaceable, there should be THREE copies and one should be off-site to protect against fire, theft, etc.

 

[HaizRail007]

Here is an article on data retention -- https://www.anandtech.com/show/9248/the-truth-about-ssd-data-retention
It also says "new drives the data retention is considerably higher, typically over ten years for MLC NAND based SSDs"
It is all about how safe you want your data. For anything that is irreplaceable, there should be THREE copies and one should be off-site to protect against fire, theft, etc.

thanks for the article I'll go I'm going to go read it now, and every 6 months would be a good rule of thumb.

 

[Eximo]

SLC has decades of longevity, but they pretty much don't make this anymore, too expensive. Maybe specialty hardened drives.
MLC hasn't been standard for a while. (Article is from 2015) - two bit per cell flash was what really kicked off the adoption of small boot SSDs. Not sure any consumer SATA drive still has MLC. A few generations back, MLC was still found in the "Pro" drives. Even they now use TLC.
TLC is the most common NAND flash found in M.2 SSDs and SATA drives. - three bit per cell kicked off the main boot drive being an SSD in most laptops.
QLC is what is in the cheaper large capacity drives and is the least reliable over time.

Capacitors are the most likely to fail. In most enterprise drives and SSDs with powerloss protection this is going to be a relatively large electrolytic capacitor.

The typical surface mount capacitors and resistors are pretty stable over time. Excessive heat cycles will slowly kill them.

Electron migration is probably the most common death for integrated circuits and PCBs. No one has really found a solution to the solder and PCB traces and semiconductors slowly eating each other. The result is the growth of little metal crystals that will eventually cause a short.

Drives can fail at any time, the key is to be prepared.

 

[USAFRet]

thanks for the article I'll go I'm going to go read it now, and every 6 months would be a good rule of thumb.

"Every 6 months", for what?

In any case, fails like this can only be seen and collated in fleetwide numbers.
The singular drive or 10 in your house may or may not fail in any of the conditions you mention.
And fail at any time, often instantly.

Out of the couple dozen SSD's I've had here in the house, 1 actual fail.
A SanDisk 960GB SATA III.
Died instantly, and for unknown reasons.
Warranty replacement, and data recovery from the nightly backup.

 

[Eximo]

Shockingly still a lot of new old stock at Newegg. Intel, Samsung, Kingston etc MLC SATA drives. 40GB, 80GB, even an Intel 400GB.

All of my MLC drives are still working. Two old OCZ Vertex 4, a Kingston Hyper X, and a Samsung 840 all 256GB.

Only SSD I have had fail was a Samsung 960 Evo TLC 1TB. Died at 5 years, came with a 3 year warranty.

 

[USAFRet]

Only SSD I have had fail was a Samsung 960 Evo TLC 1TB. Died at 5 years, came with a 3 year warranty.

My SanDisk fail was 33 days past the 3 year warranty.

I knew it was past, SanDisk knew it was past.

They gave me a new one anyway. 4 years later, the replacement is still going strong.

 

[kanewolf]

"Every 6 months", for what?

He is looking for a "How long can you leave an SSD powered off without data loss" ...
Not specifically a failure scenario but a data loss due to disuse scenario.

 

[USAFRet]

He is looking for a "How long can you leave an SSD powered off without data loss" ...
Not specifically a failure scenario but a data loss due to disuse scenario.

Right.
Every 6 months to.....check? Rewrite, Refresh, update?

 

[HaizRail007]

I agree there's been a lot of changes since 2015, and kanewolf edited his post, he said originally ( I would say you should power up after 1/2 the guaranteed time. So every 6 months.) which does seem like a good rule of thumb to go by.

 

[USAFRet]

I agree there's been a lot of changes since 2015, and kanewolf edited his post, he said originally ( I would say you should power up after 1/2 the guaranteed time. So every 6 months.) which does seem like a good rule of thumb to go by.

Have multiple copies.

In my fail case noted above, 'power on' is exactly when it failed...

 

[HaizRail007]

I hear you, I've been running a evo 850 I think thats the model, bought it from a friend about 6 months after they were released, it's old, it's not a nmve or a m slot, and it's got corrupted more times than I can count, I have my os backed up to a seagate 160 gb hhd that I've had since 2008 i want to say, so that back up as saved me multiple times now. but I understand more about m.2's now, and why it has tended to fail, it was due to heat. on a side note about a year or so ago after the evo wipe my os drive I took it out and looked at it to find corrosion, I then took electronic cleaner and sprayed it and it's been working ever since, however I've also left my side panel off as well.

the m.2's are expensive but hhd's are less reliable than what they use to be, and with games becoming more demanding I think it's time to update the system to m.2's using a pci x16 card. This is why I'm asking the questions, because in the long run I want a reliable system, because the lord knows I've had way to manny hhd's to fail on me in the past 8 years. and no I'm not brand bais either, seagate, western digital, toshiba, they have all failed at some point, in different ways. worst was western digital were the arms shattered the platters.

 

[USAFRet]

I hear you, I've been running a evo 850 I think thats the model, bought it from a friend about 6 months after they were released, it's old, it's not a nmve or a m slot, and it's got corrupted more times than I can count, I have my os backed up to a seagate 160 gb hhd that I've had since 2008 i want to say, so that back up as saved me multiple times now. but I understand more about m.2's now, and why it has tended to fail, it was due to heat. on a side note about a year or so ago after the evo wipe my os drive I took it out and looked at it to find corrosion, I then took electronic cleaner and sprayed it and it's been working ever since, however I've also left my side panel off as well.

the m.2's are expensive but hhd's are less reliable than what they use to be, and with games becoming more demanding I think it's time to update the system to m.2's using a pci x16 card.

As long as you do some sort of backup routine, and know how to recover, you are in FAR better shape than most people.

 

[HaizRail007]

As long as you do some sort of backup routine, and know how to recover, you are in FAR better shape than most people.

yeah I do, I just graduated from collage getting my I.T degree, I'm just waiting on them to send it to me in the mail. Moreover, I'm very methodical about things and I'm the type of person who wants to know and understand everything about something before I go head first into it.

 

[HaizRail007]

I'm actually not sure on how to give a best answer considering the complicated subject matter, so if one of you could some it up for future readers that would be helpful considering I can't answer my own post. Now I'm left with, what would be the better m.2's, speed and pricing aside, but solely on the tech such as, pcb, resisters, diodes, capacitors, firmware, slc,mlc,tlc,qlc etc. and I want to thank you all for your responses.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm actually not sure on how to give a best answer considering the complicated subject matter, so if one of you could some it up for future readers that would be helpful considering I can't answer my own post. Now I'm left with, what would be the better m.2's, speed and pricing aside, but solely on the tech such as, pcb, resisters, diodes, capacitors, firmware, slc,mlc,tlc,qlc etc. and I want to thank you all for your responses.

1. Any drive can die at any time.
2. There are ways of data loss other than a simple drive fail.
3. Stats on physical drive fail only count in fleetwide numbers.
4. Keep good backups, and know how to recover.