Question Advice: should I get rid of this old SSD or reutilize in my notebook?

[Perene]

I bought new SSD, and was planning to sell an old WD BLUE 1 TB. But I also need a new SSD for my notebook, so I was thinking on putting that WD BLUE in it.

But, this is how much the WD BLUE has been used so far:

I handled lots of big files over the years (the drive is probably 4-5 years old), such as lossless Blu-ray rips. So I was wondering if this current drive has a 90% chance of failing at any time and I need to get rid of it ASAP, or not? If it's best to sell quickly, I can get a new one with the same capacity, for this notebook.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Seems pretty worn, I agree. Is the notebook that this used SSD going into, going to have to handle any "big" data-storage tasks? Or just basic web browsing (hopefully, with ad-blocker)?

Because while new SSDs ARE dirt-cheap, that one might still have enough life in it to live out in a primarily-browser laptop.

One thing to consider, though, too, is online streaming video often buffers to a temp file.

I would just keep an eye on it, if you re-use it, and see at what rate CDM reports the health declining every month.

Maybe buy a fresh SSD anyways, and still it on the shelf, for when this one is done? I dunno, I'm kind of a hoarder and a computer shop for F&F. Maybe that's not the best idea for everyone.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

As always, comes down to use cases for your laptop. Will you be doing the same I/O heavy workloads there or primarily surfing / using hosted apps / monkeying with small office files?

SSDs are dirt cheap nowadays, so it's never too painful to buy a new one, but I understand getting rid of something that still works hurts.

If your workload on the laptop is light and generally unimportant (you won't really miss anything if the drive goes belly up) then yeah resue it.

 

[Torn Mind]

If the SSD is known good stable and hasn't cause any issues yet, you might as well milk it for its worth. The newer gens are also going to be a gamble, either with immediate failure or delayed firmware destruction. And don't count on companies honoring warranties or making a warranty claim easy. The current environment is not conducive towards a liberal granting of claims.

 

[Shmee]

I would use it, just be sure to back up any important data. But then that is always true, for all media.

 

[igor_kavinski]

43% is a lot of health left. I would probably get concerned around 2% and only if the SSD contained important data. A good SSD should go into read-only mode upon reaching 0% so there shouldn't be any data loss. You just won't be able to do any more writing to it. Some SSDs (like the Samsung 830) would just keep going and going even after life remaining counter reaches zero coz they put in a very conservative estimate of remaining life. If your use case is something like browsing where you just use it and save any important data to external storage, you could keep using this SSD for the next 5 years or more.

 

[Torn Mind]

43% is a lot of health left. I would probably get concerned around 2% and only if the SSD contained important data. A good SSD should go into read-only mode upon reaching 0% so there shouldn't be any data loss. You just won't be able to do any more writing to it. Some SSDs (like the Samsung 830) would just keep going and going even after life remaining counter reaches zero coz they put in a very conservative estimate of remaining life. If your use case is something like browsing where you just use it and save any important data to external storage, you could keep using this SSD for the next 5 years or more.

SSDs can be "operational" yet failed. I have one used Ebay Toshiba that might have came out of a server. It couldn't function as a mere page file drive without causing crashes. That was like 8 years ago. Another potential operational yet failed SSD(although it could be too many application installs in Windows 10, I don't know everything my sister installed) would be due to heat from a combo of a laptop CPU and GPU. At the very least, the Nvidia driver would cause File Explorer to crash on right click, forcing me to disable the GPU and remove the driver.

But the reddit threads of people having their MX500s dying en masse due to bad firmware or Samsung doing their best to basically not have an easy-to-use warranty process means that if the SSD you do know is rock solid stable, you don't just toss it for the new thing.

 

[igor_kavinski]

But the reddit threads of people having their MX500s dying en masse due to bad firmware or Samsung doing their best to basically not have an easy-to-use warranty process means that if the SSD you do know is rock solid stable, you don't just toss it for the new thing.

Agree