Question Longevity of an SSD independent of writes

[soccerharms]

I have been trying to figure out how long flash memory can last if it's only written to a few times basically being using for long term storage of a static memory. What I am looking to do is convert all my old family video tapes to digital and store them just on an SSD so they can easily be accessed from a computer, smart tv etc.

I know SSDs are measure in write cycles but for my situation that doesn't really matter. If I got to 50 write cycles on these, that would be high probably.

So how long can data last on an SSD? What options do you think would be a good 1TB option? I have already created one external drive from an WD Blue M.2 drive with an enclosure. It makes it just look like a really big flash drive which is great. I was looking at the intel 660p and some options by crucial as well.

 

[Insert_Nickname]

The short answer is that nobody knows yet.

SSDs have not been around long enough to actually test, and the cell size on newer process technologies combined with 3-4bit per cell is not really... hrm... confidence inspiring... for long term storage.

Speaking of which, how long term are we talking...? For really long term backup (25+ years) options are (non-organic) optical discs and tape. For shorter terms, that'd be about 10 years, HDDs are your best bet.

 

[coercitiv]

I was looking at the intel 660p and some options by crucial as well.

Whatever your choice is don't go for QLC drives. (we really don't know how well they got this tech under control, and judging from the TLC beginings it can get quite rough for the first generation drives). The best option would be a MLC drive, but to keep costs down a TLC drive should do too. You should also consider a HDD to go with it, a small notebook drive with the same capacity should help keep redundancy in check for a very small price to pay in terms of space.

Most importantly - plan to refresh data on the SSD every few years, or better yet just make a copy of the data on a new drive in the next 5 years. That's what I do personally, every few years I increase storage capacity in my home systems and old storage media gets backup duty for the next cycle. Storage prices go down faster than my backup size needs, so in terms of cost this is negligible for the long run.

 

[hojnikb]

Don't use flash storage, if you plan on storing the drives for longer periods of time. Flash, especially newer one, is susceptible to data degradation (ie electrons leak from the flash cells and as such value is invalid) so unless you refresh the data, it's bound to go currupted at some point.

 

[thor23]

A spinning HD would better suite this situation.

 

[Igo69]

Get 1 SSD for your family media and get another large HDD for back up.