Question How often should I replace a SSD

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Foamhead

Junior Member
Sep 10, 2019
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I've had mine for a few years and it's still going fine but I have been told they work until they don't, with little warning before they crap out.

Are there any signs an SSD is "wearing out", or is it best to replace them within a given time?
 
Jul 27, 2020
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I bought a simple water pump that goes on top of a jug to pump water. You press a button on top and it turns on. I had two fail due to water going in. I tried conformal coating, which made it last longer. That failed too, then I siliconed the inside and taped the rest. That failed.

So I said "screw it" ripped up the electronics and connected the motor directly to the battery using a very small value resistor. Then took another pair of wires from the battery so I can charge it manually. And then I took a small plastic bag and covered the whole thing.

Simpler is sometimes better.
Is MacGyver your grandfather?
 
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biostud

Lifer
Feb 27, 2003
19,931
7,039
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Good for her but in general OneDrive is not something I would want to depend on.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...e-so-bad/7c633eb2-ef1d-419c-8d81-f7557e6b8eea

It has its problems. I'v been using it for several years, and it has improved. And finally they made chromecast work again. I use it both at work and at home, and I also do physical backup of my photos a couple of times per year.

I work at a school, so the work is seldom "mission critical" or corporate level of security, so for the teachers to have a fairly secure way of automatically storing their work in the sky and share it with their colleagues, it is fine.
 
Jul 27, 2020
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My clueless "IT innovation manager" got two relatively cheap TwinMOS HyperSSD H2 128GB Ultra. One is working more than one year now. The other one I tried to use to make an office colleague's PC faster. It kept freezing so I put in an MX100 128GB in his PC and that is working great. Used the "Hyper"SSD as a scratch drive. Didn't last one month and failed completely. Went to the shop where it was bought and got it replaced as it was still under warranty. Second unit was also crap and didn't last long after a single Windows installation on it. Now it's a useless paperweight.

The only SSD I had that suddenly stopped working was a Sandforce based Corsair F60. It would show the folders but if I tried to access them, it would lock up. Kept it connected to my PC one day for a few hours and its controller managed to recover the SSD to full working condition. By then, I had switched to an Intel SSD already so it's still in my collection, with the original data, unused.

These are the only SSD failures I've experienced. I prefer WD and Crucial is also a good brand. Haven't used Samsung that much. Crucial MX500 is supposed to have power loss protection so that would be a good option for desktops. NVMe, I would prefer to stay with P31, SN850 or Crucial P5. Any other brands, no matter how cheap, I don't want to use them for anything critical.

Another thing: if you have a QLC SSD, keep a backup! It's bound to fail much sooner than later.
 

biostud

Lifer
Feb 27, 2003
19,931
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I would NEVER trust my data to the cloud.

Why?

All the juicy stuff the government knows about me is already in the cloud.

For me it depends on the data. I use Onedrive because it works well with windows, ios and android and I can easily share my family photos with my family, and do so in a closed environment. At the same time it works as a duplicate of my data should my SSD die.

I also do backup on a external HDD sometimes, just to keep an extra copy that is not connected to the computer.
 

IntelUser2000

Elite Member
Oct 14, 2003
8,686
3,787
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Is MacGyver your grandfather?

I do GPU repair(still learning) which makes all other electronics relatively trivial lol.

Persistence, willingness to learn will allow you to do things you didn't think you could do.

id rather outlive my PC components if you know what i mean.. lol...

And i really don't want to wear gloves each time i handle a part in risk of getting lead poisoning.
I don't touch the pcb other than the bracket and maybe a corner of the pcb. I also don't lick my hands clean right after I handle things.

You can't really get poisoned with lead by handling electronics. Actually what's killer is the flux, and that's the smoke you see when soldering. Lead melts at much higher temperatures(nevermind boiling required to turn into vapor).

Lead also contaminates the environment after disposal.

But, I question how much eliminating lead really helps in the big picture. Lead-free makes solder brittle and causes other issues like solder whiskers(You also need higher temperatures to melt lead-free solder). Now you are throwing away much more than before.

If you care about the environment not "care about the environment" this is what should be done:
-Leaded solder
-No planned obsolescence
-High quality components over specced in design
-Pro-repair and right to repair
-Design for simplicity
-Design and market for longevity

Of course most points are not so conducive to maximum profits, and/or consumers generally go for the cheapest anyway.
 
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