Question SSD Storage longevity for archival (not write endurance)

[enorl76]

Just curious what the storage longevity of these SSD drives in terms of archival storage.

If one isn't consistently writing to the drive (and effectively refreshing every nand cell periodically), then whats the true longevity of an SSD that gets put into storage?

 

[jojesa]

Just curious what the storage longevity of these SSD drives in terms of archival storage.

If one isn't consistently writing to the drive (and effectively refreshing every nand cell periodically), then whats the true longevity of an SSD that gets put into storage?

There are many types of SSDs (Single Level Cell [SLC], Multi Level Cell [MLC] and Triple Level Cell [TLC]), so it will depend on the SSD model.
Unlike HDDs, SSDs won't wear out just by reading data.
Let us know the model you are referring to and we will let you know.
To give you an idea how long it could last.
I have a SSD, which I write to it almost every day on a (3 years & 10 months old) PC at work.
In that time, I have written 29.5TB to it, 123 times its capacity.
The SSD has an estimated 8 years, 3 months & 4 days left.

 

[popatim]

I'm assuming by 'Archival' you mean unpowered and in a safe or something like that.

SSD's are Flash based so yes they have a limited shelf life before the data should be rewritten to the drive. For many SSD's this is one year at room temperature as defined by JEDEC standards. Length of time decreases rapidly with temperatures though and can be as short as a week at 50c

So if you are looking for long term archival storage then look elsewhere. Even cheap blurays will outlast an SSD.
M-disks are probably the best but they are about $4 each

 

[enorl76]

@jojesa unfortunately I don't think you read my subject well.

I realize that an SSD drive in use will end up refreshing the NAND cell contents due to wear leveling and effectively rewriting the NAND cells periodically over time.

I did specifically ask in terms of archival, as in reliability of data integrity in cold storage.

Thanks for posting though.

 

[enorl76]

@popatim thanks for that. (BTW, whats an M-disk?)

I suspected as such, because of the way that the SSDs store data... via electrons, and I know that electrons have a tendency to migrate over time, versus HDDs using (at this point) microscopic bits of iron arranged on a solid substrate.

Granted even the HDDs can suffer from "bit rot", where even hot storage of data can degrade over time due to various reasons, and that NTFS and FAT (even extfs) are poorly equipped to handle.

Luckily newer filesystems like btrfs and zfs are much better at addressing an actual file level error correction feature that can save some data from bit rot.

So yeah my goto for long term cold storage is still CDROM (700MB), DVDROM (4~GB) and BluRay (27~GB) at this point, with HDDs second.

I wonder how well the "Archive" drives from WD/Seagate/et al with "shingling tech" wear over time?

 

[popatim]

What an M-Disk is made of is a secret but the manufacturer claims them to be a type of "glassy carbon" and you need an M-Disk capable burner to record to them.

The Archive harddrives are not unpowered storage drives, they are 'cold data' storage which means they are still live, just a resting place for seldomly accessed data. These don't make sense to me, they have a worse MTBF then an Enterprise drive. 500k hrs vs 1M hrs. Seems more like a rebadged green drive to me. LoL

 

[KCC_703]

Good information. I'm also looking for a good long-term archival strategy for photographs and documents on my NAS. The photographs are about 600-700GB all together.

SSD prices are reasonable. This past weekend, I started archiving the data to a SSD with the intent to store offline in a fire-proof safe. But after reading the posts, it sounds like the data on the SSD will "expire" while un-powered.

It sounds like I'm back to my previous strategy with M-Disc... its just so painfully slow to write. I guess, I'd only have to suffer once.

What about a powered NAS w/SSDs physically disconnected from the network? I've had a D-Link NAS up for ~8 years which I access sparingly (the HDDs spin up 2-3 times a month, but the NAS is online). Would SSDs be more reliable than HDDs?

 

[popatim]

I feel for you... I have nearly 2TB of photo's and home videos now. I use plain DVD's and make two new backups yearly. One in my basement and one in my sisters. Since they last for years; that's good enough for me. I shouldn't need to go back beyond the 5th backup set. LoL

In the mean time I try to plan for the worst & keep a complete local copy on my PC, a 2nd copy on my small server, a 3rd and 4th copy to external drives, and the originals stays on the SD card for the remainder of the year.
These get updated with every new event (birthdays, holidays...)

But I am beginning to wonder how my completely un-techy Wife will manage when I am gone... I may have to get some M-disks myself.

 

[KCC_703]

I thought about keeping the the originals on SD cards... even use 32GB cards so they could be backed up "easily" onto 50GB BDs. SD cards are so cheap that this is still a viable and good idea. Just a bit unruly especially with microSDs.

M-Disc will have to be added to my SSD archival. I'll have to find a smaller disc reader and store with the discs... The SSDs will simply need to be updated for technology (keeping an eye out for M.2 RAID enclosures at a descent price). I think all in all its better than HDD susceptible to magnetism and mechanical failure.

 

[jojesa]

At work, I use archival grade 50GB dual-layer Blu-ray discs.
SD cards and USB flash drives are not suitable for long-term storage because they decay over long periods.
The issues you might encounter with HDD is vulnerability to malware and human error.
Anyways, It will require a very powerful magnet to delete data from a HDD. There is a very strong magnet inside each HDD and it doesn't delete any data.
I have transferred data from 30-year old HDDs and data was intact and the drives were just fine...just needed to use a PATA to SATA adapter.
You should keep archives in a cool fireproof enclosure.