Question Is it now time for SSDs to replace HDDs?

[UsandThem]

And SSDs are worthless holding data for several different reasons. Would not store my family photos on some SSDs even if I could score 4TB as cheap as spinners. I mirror 8 TB in refs and sync with a Nas, periodically I attach an external for real backup.. ssd only games and os for me. Maybe optane is better for lossless storage?

It doesn't really matter if it's a SSD or HDD. Either one can fail at any time, so the key is, and always has been, backups. I have all my files sync automatically to a cloud-based service, and then I also have a local HDD as the redundant 2nd copy.

That said, I now only use SSDs in my PCs, and I haven't one fail yet over the last 7 years or so. In that same time, I've had four HDDs suddenly die.

 

[kurosaki]

It doesn't really matter if it's a SSD or HDD. Either one can fail at any time, so the key is, and always has been, backups. I have all my files sync automatically to a cloud-based service, and then I also have a local HDD as the redundant 2nd copy.

That said, I now only use SSDs in my PCs, and I haven't one fail yet over the last 7 years or so. In that same time, I've had four HDDs suddenly die.

Of course, it's more prone to fail as it's a lot of mechanical parts, but the data does not degrade over time on a spinner, as in flash. As long it's backupped to several different parts of storage I'm quite cool. But still I have 2 TB SSD of game and os, 8+8 TB local storage. Would have been quite expensive...

 

[Ranulf]

I've had a sandisk ssd die on me last year, not even capable of turning on and doing a diagnostic. I wouldn't trust my old samsung 840evos either. I've had no HDD's die on me in the past 5 years even the dreaded seagate 3tb model or a 1.5TB external.

As you say, backups and redundancy are the key.

 

[IntelUser2000]

I've had a sandisk ssd die on me last year, not even capable of turning on and doing a diagnostic.

Let's be clear and not confuse random failures with power-off storage data degradation and write-endurance related failures.

I think the worries for SSD write endurance is overblown, and as long as we have SSDs, it'll continue to be overblown. And unless you are planning to keep data in storage SSDs powered off for 10+ years, I doubt you should worry about that either. You are far more likely to use data from mishandling, such as going to porn sites or downloading torrent and getting viruses that corrupt essential system files.

JEDEC rates client SSDs being able to store data for 1 year, but that's only when the drive is at the end of the write cycle, and its nearly exhausted. Generally NAND cells can store for 10 years.

 

[Markfw]

I have 2 Corsair "Force" SSD's that have been problematic, since the day I got them. Other than those 2 (I think it was a design failure) The last 2 devices that went bad were both HDD spinners, both WD.

Edit: I just looked up my order history. Those 2 were both refurb's from Oct 2016. I am sure they were bad from day one.

 

[cbn]

2TB Intel 660p is $204.99 FS at Newegg and Amazon:

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820167461

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-660p-2-0TB-80mm-978351/dp/B07GCLLKDC

VS.

2TB Intel 760p is $389.99 FS and $417.99 FS at Newegg and Amazon Respectively.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod...VGNVkCh3eywr3EAQYASABEgLKPvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

https://www.amazon.com/Intel-760P-2-048TB-80mm-PCIe/dp/B078QD7M6J

(That is pretty large difference in price and even if I throw a $79.99 FS 58GB 800p in front of that 660p the combo of Optane + QLC is still $105 cheaper than TLC)

 

[whm1974]

For a boot drive for sure, but we are still decades away from them replacing all HDD's. I just built a 72TB storage array, cost me right around 2k for the spinners, if i built that with SSD's it would have been over 10k.

for a storage array wouldn't HDDs be more suitable such usage then SSDs anyway?

 

[Rifter]

for a storage array wouldn't HDDs be more suitable such usage then SSDs anyway?

In a home setting or enterprise backups yeah for sure, but in enterprise SSD's have been taking over for a while in alot of applications where high performance is needed.

 

[IntelUser2000]

for a storage array wouldn't HDDs be more suitable such usage then SSDs anyway?

In enterprise, they've been either moving to HDDs cached by SSDs, or to SSDs entirely. NV memory with Optane PMMs will move the stack further up for some.

Business revenue and ROI is somewhat related to performance in servers so the extra cost can be mitigated and justified.

In homes, you aren't necessarily doing things that are time critical or work related so cheapest storage solutions make sense. HDDs are actually quite reliable for backup storage so there's that plus too.

 

[kurosaki]

Yeah, MS did not implement that feat for win pro either. Caching HDDs with faster SSDs of some kind. A shame when the feature is present in more, really more expensive versions.

 

[killster1]

Ya and? Did I say laptop cpu? Ok

This comment was about laptops. The most exspensive laptop I have is $500, the whole laptop. They don't even make $1500 cpus' for laptops.

Why wouldn't u use at least 300$ cpu in laptop and 30$ hd heh I guess we all make our choices as silly as they sound..

 

[Markfw]

Ya and? Did I say laptop cpu? Ok

Why wouldn't u use at least 300$ cpu in laptop and 30$ hd heh I guess we all make our choices as silly as they sound..

I think all my laptop cpus are I5 or better, so I am sure they are at least $300. And the SSD's at $32-$67 (240 -250 gig and 500 gig). When I use a laptop, its just for email and pictures, as I only use one when traveling. At home, I have 500 gig to one tb for OS, and 2 tb for storage.

 

[Igo69]

SSDs are not good for long term storage? Any proof of that?

Beause I want to replace my 2 old 1tb HDDs with 1 2tb SSD NVME in the near future either Intel or WD black.

 

[corkyg]

What is long term? I have SSDs with stored data now for three years plus with no problems.

 

[Rifter]

What is long term? I have SSDs with stored data now for three years plus with no problems.

I think most SSD's are rated for around 10 years of data retention when not powered up.

 

[whm1974]

I think most SSD's are rated for around 10 years of data retention when not powered up.

Wouldn't heat reduce data retention span?

 

[Igo69]

What do you mean not powered on?

 

[killster1]

Wouldn't heat reduce data retention span?

Keep them next to your milk? Idk I feel alot more worried for a stored ssd then a 8tb red.. it's TRUE heat does kill batteries and my house is often 110f even inside if I'm away for a few days.. never really checked it out and hope inside the safe will be cooler. A hd can at least be easily repaired. I do bluray bkups too on the best 50gb disks but I'm ultra paranoid they will fail too

 

[Insert_Nickname]

Keep them next to your milk? Idk I feel alot more worried for a stored ssd then a 8tb red.. it's TRUE heat does kill batteries and my house is often 110f even inside if I'm away for a few days.. never really checked it out and hope inside the safe will be cooler.

You should never rely 100% on any single backup device. Keep at least 3 copies, on different devices for critical data.

A hd can at least be easily repaired.

Not what I'd call "easily", but it can be done. If nothing else by specialist companies, but that is expensive.

I do bluray bkups too on the best 50gb disks but I'm ultra paranoid they will fail too

Tape and (non-organic) optical should be best for really long term storage. I still have some CD and DVD-RAM (no that's not a typo) burned ~22 years ago that are perfectly readable.

 

[AMD64Blondie]

At the very least..make it so that PCs that are bought in bulk..
(example:work issued desktop or laptop PCs) come with even a 120 GB SATA SSD as the preset boot drive.

(Using a fairly new Core i5 Dell desktop at work,running Windows 10 Pro..and it has a 7200RPM hard drive in it,I'm guessing.)

It's annoyingly slow at times,
considering my main Windows 10 Pro custom-built desktop PC is running a NvMe Samsung 960 Evo 1 TB SSD..and feels far snappier in basic Windows use.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

At the very least..make it so that PCs that are bought in bulk..
(example:work issued desktop or laptop PCs) come with even a 120 GB SATA SSD as the preset boot drive.

That'll be hard to achieve. Unless we're talking SFF machines.

Because, to the traditionalists in many IT departments (YMMV, obviously) a traditional tower PC uses a HDD, not something exotic like an SSD... unfortunately only half /s

There are a lot of cases were workers specifically request a laptop, for the sole reason it comes with an SSD standard.

 

[Rifter]

What do you mean not powered on?

I mean not powered on, as in unplugged, or not receiving power from any power source. HDD's will generally retain data until the mechanical parts fail, powered on or not. this is not the case with SSD's, they have a limited amount of time that they will retain data without being powered.

 

[ultimatebob]

I don't think that I have any systems that I normally use that have hard drives in them anymore. I've been replacing them with 256 GB SSD's as they fail, and I'm at the point where laptops for home and work and my work desktop system all have SSD's in them.

 

[Ranulf]

The only desktop type system I can conceive of only having ssd's in it is some form of htpc or nuc type device. Anything that is micro-atx or atx is foolish to not have a hdd in for backups. Even with having a NAS, it is very very convenient to have an HDD in a gaming system for immediate backups of my OS SSD drive. But hey, I still put optical drives of some sort in all of my desktops, even an htpc, so it can play blu ray discs.

 

[whm1974]

The only desktop type system I can conceive of only having ssd's in it is some form of htpc or nuc type device. Anything that is micro-atx or atx is foolish to not have a hdd in for backups. Even with having a NAS, it is very very convenient to have an HDD in a gaming system for immediate backups of my OS SSD drive. But hey, I still put optical drives of some sort in all of my desktops, even an htpc, so it can play blu ray discs.

I have two SDDs in my system with ext HDDs for backup.