How Long Will My SSD Last?

[@askleonotenboom]

There are some great tools to help estimate life expectancy.

[@osamabinladen824]

Thanks Sir. ❤️

[@nonaurbizniz7440]

My samsung 840 pro is still kicking after nearly a decade of steady use and is on its third pc with crystaldisk showing health as good/84% and 41 tb written. My newer samsung ssd are looking to last even longer.

[@TheMightsparrow]

Hi I was wondering if you would mind doing a quick one on playstation 5 ssd's. The technical jargon is quite frustrating & quite often expensive. I would love it if you could give some advice on these. As a new ps5 owner the data it copies from the game disc's is ridiculous (50+GB each). Advice from someone who knows what they are talking about other than a person in sales would be wonderful. Thank you for your videos.

[@GrayFoxGamingHD]

@@TheMightsparrow Put that NVME Disk on a PC or a NVME TO USB adaptor and fire up Crystal disk info.

[@jerryg50]

Very well presented! When I was working in support I was dealing with many computers. I found over the years I had about a 2% failure rate over 3 to 4 years with SSDs. I found with hard disks the failures were in the range of 5% to 7%. We were using different manufacture drives. From my experience all the decent quality name brand drives lasted about the same lifespan. The key thing is to keep current image backups of drives to be safe.

[@josephteller9715]

When possible keep 3 backups... one on SSD, one on conventional external hard drive and one on the cloud.

[@dune2024]

and preferrably with different file systems since NTFS with its journaling is much much more reliable than FAT systems 🙏

[@dragons_red]

I keep a fourth one on punch cards.

[@JamesSBaker-de6sd]

@@dragons_red From your experience, help me estimate number of and required storage volume for 26 TB of cards. Thx.

[@nikhilmwarrier7948]

@@dragons_red also keep them in a bunker in the Arctic

[@kolerick]

stone tablets with engraved 0 and 1...

[@bfpc8574]

I'm an old guy and I'm sure glad I stumbled upon your site. Thank you for your concise and wonderfully clear help.

[@3polygons]

Editing video in higher resolutions (4k, 6k, 8k) , specially if using also that or another SSD for cache memory does write an amazing quantity of gigabytes. So, video editing is one of the most fabulous SSD "terminators", in my opinion. :)

[@andrewdaley3081]

The government will happily save your information on their super computer hard drives for free yes for free ladys and gentlemen.

[@rdspam]

Yes “ladys” 😂

[@drwisdom1]

I have been in the computer business since before the IBM PC and all media from floppy disks onward had warranties. So when one failed you threw it in the trash because the cost in time in money makes the warranty worthless. Often you had to return the media which could contain proprietary information too important to let out.

[@justrosy2635]

Exactly. "Data recovery warrantee"s are useless because of that.

[@popko01]

Please bear in mind that the life expectancy is only valid when a SSD drive is powered. Without power the drive will shows data errors within 6 to 12 months time. The power is needed to recharge the cells on a regular basis to keep the stored data intact.

[@avg_joe117]

cool, didn't know

[@PhilipsLS1300]

Iv had a Kingston SSD 480GB for about 7 years now and its only on 98% life expectancy so plenty of years left. I know some HDD with moving parts etc can last up to 20yrs if looked after and not stressed too much

[@danteerskine7678]

Bullshiit. Stop the cap 🧢🧢🧢 Hard drives barely last that long today, SSD Keep all their promises

[@SAVIOUR1947]

@@danteerskine7678 brother I have a hard disk from 11 years ago and it is running till today.

[@SAVIOUR1947]

@@danteerskine7678 Hitachi 500gb

[@heilaw7002]

​@@danteerskine7678 It's all depends on what quality of your hard drive is. Next time, try a enterprise class hard drive. You will be surprised how it lasted decade and decade and decade

[@heilaw7002]

@@danteerskine7678 And one more thing. DON'T buy any hard drive online because no delivery guys care about your hard drive. They don't even know what's inside. That is the weak point of any hard drive. Once It's dropped. It's gone

[@gcharb2d]

I bought my fist SSD in 2012, and I still use it to run my OS drive!

[@acedhtfuninlife7643]

Nicely and simply explained. No unnecessary rants for like and subscribe. Liked and subscribed, keep up the good work sir !!

[@dimitrz2000]

Writing and reading is one thing but I believe equally important is the shelf life. For example if I write 20 gb of data on a SSD or HDD as a backup and don't touch it again (that is I store away the drive), how long will the data stay on drive before drive gets corrupted. 🤷 Anyways to get a guesstimation of that ?

[@davidhmartinho]

I would recomend using a hdd for shelf storage. Ssds store data that if not connected to power for a very long time those electrons will migrate and you will lose your data. Im not sure if its actual electrons that are stored i dont remember. But go on google and search hdd vs ssd for archival storage. Ans look at multiple sources

[@kevinkirkby1484]

I have a couple of old 250gb ide drives from back when I had my own business back in 2000, (21 years old and counting) the data on them seems fine, only take em out of the cupboard once in a blue moon. Trouble is modern drives with higher capacity aren't built like these old beasts. As long as you spin a dive up once a year for a data check and run spinning rust could theoretically last 40 plus years.

[@dimitrz2000]

@@kevinkirkby1484 better to have a backup of them just incase

[@kevinkirkby1484]

@@dimitrz2000 I have, but it seems criminal to just bin old drives even with what is classed today as small capacity. I have a feeling they may even outlast me..

[@dimitrz2000]

@@kevinkirkby1484 Offcourse dont bin them, even I am using an old 1 TB HDD as a backup of backup :-) - You are right we never know which will last and which wont. An old 256 GB Western Digital HDD has gone caput , a 4-5 year old 1 TB Transcend HDD is showing signs of impending failure , Yet my oldest 1 TB seagate HDD which looks like a CPU cabinet needing dedicated power from Power switch seems to be going strong hahaha

[@Feuerspray31]

Interestingly, I just had an Apple Fusion Drive die on me. What's interesting is that the HDD part is what died. The SSD is still going strong. Granted, being a Fusion Drive, I was not in control of what data was written to which portion of the drive, so I can't speak to which one was written to more.

[@Kara_Kay_Eschel]

I learned fast on my first windows (97 era tower with 97) machine is to save early, and save often and to have at least two saved (back up) copies. the copies was on the hard drive and n floppy.

[@BobDiaz123]

Here's a different look at this issue, if a write critical files to the SSD and I put it on the shelf for long term storage, how long will the data stay on the drive before its lost?

[@meyers0781]

You better stay on discs or flash drives for that.

[@youtubiers]

Can you do a video on SSD power off data retention time (shelf life of data on drive when it is not powered on)? I understand this is reduced significantly with newer TLC and QLC drives and is also dependent on the temperature when write occurs (higher = better) and storage temperature (lower =better). If you could establish or disprove these notions I would be delighted as it is one of the reasons I am afraid of using ssds for offline backups

[@esecallum]

put it in ice

[@Milesco]

That's an interesting question. I didn't know that that was an issue with SSDs. But here's a thought from a layperson: Don't use an SSD for offline backup. They're more expensive anyway. Use a hard disk drive. Leo says HDDs are very long-lasting and good for archiving data. SSDs are known for their speed, which is great for an active drive on a computer, but a waste of money for a backup medium. For a backup or archival storage device, speed isn't the issue. Longevity is. So just use a hard disk drive for that. They're cheaper and more reliable.

[@danteerskine7678]

@@Milesco complete bullshiit. Let me describe you my experience with external storage. First off the SSD, I've been using SSD for 4 years and I have yet to see one die on me. USB drives, the ancestors of SSD, also I have a plethora of USB drives from 10 years including micro SD card class 4, which was common for micro SD card a decade ago, all of them worked, the files on them are still there, no sign of corruption when it comes to flash memory. I have to mention that I use my SSD for reckless read cycles and SSD can withstand heat as well Second, the dreadful HDD, barely lasted 6 months before they died on me . Speaking of reliability, I would never trust HDD for my downloaded files. Based on JEDEC specifications, a SSD has a shelf live of more than a year when they're unplugged and has data on it, when it comes to blank SSD, their shelf life is much much longer as there are no data on it.

[@johnhpalmer6098]

@@danteerskine7678 I call BS on your claim, they ALL die, Period. I've had old fashioned hard drives fail, yes, but not after at least several years of in some cases, a hard life in IT, in another case a DECADE of heavy read use (OS and programs), only to loose sectors and corrupting the OS badly. The computer was getting long legged anyway, and had plenty of other parts like the motherboard replaced over its lifespan, the original WD blue finally died 10 years in. One or 2 of the not quite as old, but from IT drives failed to be recognized by the OS. I have had a thumb drive die from mostly a lack of use over time, an SD card fail eventually (it was an Adata class 4 drive for my Nikon D90 DSLR. I have 2 and the second one still works). The point that Leo is saying here is, no matter the drive, most will last between 3-3 years on average but many will last at least a decade, often with many reads and writes and that you are best to backup everything.

[@charleshines1553]

That is a thing that would really concern me with any QLC drives. The more layers they have the worse the endurance typically.

[@isharadhanushan2002]

Don't buy QLC drives as bootable drive. Unless doing video editing or storing files use it because the cost per gigabyte is low on QLC.

[@danteerskine7678]

@@isharadhanushan2002 QLC drives are better for read only operation, as mentioned, SSD can withstand a lot of reading cycles which will never affect the drive

[@isharadhanushan2002]

@@danteerskine7678 QLC drives have less write cycles. Windows 11 writes an average of 10-15 GB/day with my usage pattern. So QLC drives are not good for the use with an OS.

[@computernerdtechman]

What about SSD's in database servers where small bytes of data (say updating constantly changing data) are updated to the drive all day long (10,000 times per hour). When you write to an SSD, it doesn't just write out that one 32bit number, it writes out the WHOLE PAGE of that storage location. So updating one 32bit number actually writes a whole page (Common page sizes are 2K, 4K, 8K, or 16K, with 128 to 256 pages per block. Block size therefore typically varies between 256KB and 4MB). When an SSD erases, it generally erases an entire block at a time. So updating a 32 bit (4 byte) number in 10,000 records in one hour will not have used 40,000 bytes of wear on your total write count. It could have used a significantly LARGER amount since it writes out whole pages for EACH 32bit write.

[@drescherjm]

My answer (as an IT admin and software engineer with 50+ SSDs) for the title question is the expectation is longer than you will want to use it if you purchase a reputable name brand 5XXGB or larger SSD and you are using it for normal desktop usage / not deliberately trying to kill it. I have Intel SSDs that I purchased around 2009 that are still working fine although they are small 40GB / 80GB and have been demoted to other usage because a modern name brand usb-c stick is faster.

[@gunnarsandstrom8031]

temps on the nvme is little to high for my taste.

[@chrisshelley3027]

A well presented and clear explanation of the subject matter, certainly the best and clearest (simple and straightforward to understand including none computer literate persons), very clear information, a very good description of the difference between warranty and guarantee, so many people don't realise the difference between many words, this left nothing to chance, a highly recommend video and channel to subscribe to.

[@sthegamer1]

your videos are always great and professional, keep it up :)

[@KeinNiemand]

How high is the TBW for things like micro sd cards

[@siddharth.246]

The second drive i.e. the one from crucial has TBW expanding to Total Bytes Written.

[@TheRealMasud]

Nice video, was helpful and on to the point.

[@ericcarr8634]

Remember to fire up hard drive(hhd) every so often to keep from loosing info. I can be wrong but was told to fire up because it need to get power or it will lose information. Correct me if wrong. Thanks

[@ebx100]

Possibly. A phenomena known as "stiction" could cause the drive heads to stick to the disk platter and prevent the disk from spinning up when power is applied. So, it is a good idea to power the hdd maybe every few weeks at least.

[@WickedMuis]

@@ebx100 Depends on the age od the HDD. Modern HDDs will park the head away from the disk when it's in stand-by. I notice it that when I need data on it and hadn't been using it for a while, I hear it starting back up and have to wait a little while.

[@dune2024]

@@WickedMuis yes. i've had such problems with HDDs head sticking since i rarely use it since the advent of smartphones one trick the computer guy taught me is by placing the stuck HDD's upside down and it works most of the time ! not sure why but ptobly it has sth to do with the lubrication inside the roller bearing 🤔

[@artistryartistry7239]

The fact that this channel doesn't have more views/subs, and crap like Jayztwo cents has hundreds of thousands is a crime. It's so rare to get good solid information that doesn't waste your time with goofy annoying pseudo-comedy nonsense.

[@ABCodeX]

If you don’t like him (that KZbinr), you don’t like him, no need to drag him down because you’re mad the guy you like is less popular, that’s just childish and pathetic.

[@artistryartistry7239]

@@ABCodeX I'll drag him down if I want to. Tell you what, if you like that tub of lard so much, go watch his channel, kiss his ass in the comments sections -- do whatever feels right for you. Literally every person on the planet has talked shit about someone they don't like. I guess that makes humanity as a whole childish and pathetic.

[@BURTBROWN]

Man, I' glad I stumbled on your videos!!!! You are concise, very straightforward and keep everything simple and direct without over complicating things. IT MADE ME SUBSCRIBE AND LOOK FOR YOUR OTHER VIDEOS!!!!! MANY THANKS, LEO!!!!!

[@avg_joe117]

good explanation about guarantee versus warranty

[@julionavas5626]

Another detail is that the SSD do not warn much were it is in the edge of the end of life. One day like any other it stop working at all. With HDD, the degradation of operativity is graduales and some chance of data recovery.

[@mikakorhonen5715]

I had one failing Samsung SSD. Windows started to have problems with mouse cursor movement. I backupped all important data with another machine and when I started to install fresh Windows drive broke down.

[@dune2024]

@@mikakorhonen5715 yeah it's the BIG QUESTION that haunts me with these solid state memories is that they probably don't withstand POWER FAILURES as good as a Seagate HDD's as with USB microSD's once it has power failure it might get destroyed completely not to mention the heat damage which could be another BIG ISSUE with these SSD's 🤔🥶🥶🥶🥵

[@verdrehteseele8525]

@@dune2024 no it is not correct. SSD and USB do not have problems with power outage. There is no difference in normal shutdown and power cut hardware wise.

[@meyers0781]

Yeah got Vgen (local brand) SSD withstand multiple times power problems Yet it's still 100 percent

[@joamills]

Very useful and informative! Thank you!

[@sk22ng]

Great video! This answered a lot of my questions regarding durability. Seems like early problems have been ironed out.

[@vba77]

After all the doom and gloom I read on reddit about TBWs, this is exactly what I wanted to hear. Great video!

[@psoon04286]

Answers lot of my questions. Been switching over to SSDs for a couple of years after laboring with DVDRs. Prices of multi TB drives are getting more and more affordable👍👍😄

[@CesareVesdani]

Can you compare the worlds longest and shortest living SSDs?

[@rewanji]

Any suggestion for a Mac OS diagnose tool?…

[@CCobraProductions]

Thanks Leo, I appreciate your video very much. I was hoping that you would have dived into "heat" and how it can affect the life of your SSD or even your electronics as well. Excellent video.

[@frequentlycynical642]

I've read that even when the write capability of an SSD fails, the read will/often will work just fine. All conventional hard drive failures I've had have been on the controller board, nothing mechanical. Guess what? SSD's have some kind of controller board. Not to control a motor or arm, but knowing where to access the bits and bytes stored within. I can definitely see a seldom used SSD as a great archival backup. Versus a daily driver C drive. Probably would be readable on some kind of hardware decades into the future.

[@iZacq]

Time 1:20 How do we get on this screen ?

[@lcarliner]

A major booby trap is a system configured with minimal ram and an SSD! What will happen is that excessive paging will quickly wear out any SSD! A system with any SSD especially laptops for physical ruggedness, needs to be configured with the maximum ram capacity possible. For any system, two separate SSDs should also configured and the operating system setup so that one of the SSDs will have all the paging space and temp files directed to it. That SSD should be considered as a disposal device that will wear out and be periodically replaced like that of your AA and AAA power cells!

[@lcarliner]

RAM is simply the physical program and data memory for the computer. When memory is insufficient to service all the current tasks, a form of swapping tasks or portions thereof onto or off of disk or SSD. The less available physical ram there is, more swapping is done and the quicker the SSD storage capability is consumed. Before any SSD is considered, it is obvious that addition of ram needs to be provisioned up to the limit supported by your computer’s motherboard! In any case, if going for SSD to replace all disk drives for performance boost, a separate SSD reserved for swapping space and temporary files be used so that your long term data storage space will last, with the swap/temp storage drive be considered as consumable like ink cartridges.

[@lcarliner]

Problem with the partition idea is that once the partition for the swapping and temp files is worn out or consumed, the operating system would have to be reconfigured to redirect the paging and temp files to the long term storage area, if there is enough remaining storage available for the operating system to function. Then you would have to copy the long term data to the replacement SSD. Then the partition that was holding the long term files could then become the replacement volatile data area. In any case once the drive is worn out, trying to regain system functionality could be quite difficult and messy! Having maximum configurable computer memory so that paging and swapping activity minimized will do much to make primary SSD last. Having a separate drive for volatile swapping and temp files that would less costly would be a better move. Your Windows operating system would still have to be stored on your long term data drive. You will need to keep track of remaking storage functionality on the volatile drive so that it can be replaced n time before operating function ability is lost!

[@ldwhitley]

Why do you use WinZip as a means to carry Crystal Disk Info? I have Window 11, and have winzip on my system and it seems needless to add it.

[@InDreamsYourMine]

Interesting, just checked my SSD stats, and both the total host read and writes are blank.

[@isharadhanushan2002]

OMG The C drive has a power on count of 30. And 10,124 power on hours. I have 620 power on counts on a 8 months usage.

[@liquidwawan7114]

how long ssd dan retain data without power?? please explain too. thanks sir

[@missyd0g2]

We recently moved and I found my old home built 386 PC with Seagate 20 MEG drive. Full of dust. Plan to clean it up and boot. Should have DOS, Quicken for Dos, GEM and Leisure Suit Larry original version.

[@chiefchubbychaser7021]

Thanks for the vid Leo. Helpful. Thumbs up.

[@mitchrodee]

Is there a recommended alternative to Crystal Disk Info for us Mac users?

[@Betonoszlop]

My HDD shows signs of wear lately, and until today i didn't expected to think about SSDs. Now its kinda of a fair option, knowing how much this kind of tech improved

[@jeffharmed1616]

Useful thanks. As an aside, if you use only a cloud drive for your files, your local disk still caches the files locally and your local drive will eventually fail despite the default being in the cloud. So this may effect your computer lifespan

[@stephenjacks8196]

Manufacturers of Flash memory chips themselves only insure data integrity for 10 years. Drive manufacturers (historically have lied about drive life) give data integrity of 150 years. Flash drives always have errors. Error correction circuitry on the drive corrects the read data then writes back the correct data. Most flash drives continually read and test memory when not busy. So if drive is contiuously powerded on, the error correction should last for that 150 years. Threoretically.

[@dune2024]

meaning HDD is still the best option ? 🤔🤔

[@GP-qb9hi]

I'm over 1200TBW with the exact same drive and had zero issues so far.

[@aditya_saha]

video editing? or games?

[@GP-qb9hi]

@@aditya_saha Chia farming

[@MMaheshThakur]

Sir, At 4:08 how can it be only 2 time on count and power on hours 6569 hours. How is your write count so less than total read. Mine ssds' total writes always greater than total reads. How to minimise it

[@donalddodson7365]

Thanks!

[@askleonotenboom]

Thank you!

[@whatismyname5151]

I am very sad you did not use Crystal Disk Info Shizuku Edition!!!

[@TinyLittleMuffinofLove]

how can i find the tbw total of my ssd hard drive i saw whats written on the crystal disk but i cant find the manufacturers tbw total pls help

[@danielweston9188]

I have files from 1990's - every 4 years I copy them up to the latest storage devices ( Still have some RLL's and CD's). As they are bigger and faster it takes little effort. I backup to a working external daily (now from SSD to SSD) and copy that to two large storage HDD devices Monthly (alternating). In april (Tax time) I copy the large device to the two 4 year archive drives. Leapfrogging like this will keep your data available for as long as you.

[@Walkercolt1]

"EXPECTED" lifespan. Magic engineer buzz words. A lady friend of mine from church BUILDS these things (former Telex 2" tape drive maker). 99.99999999% work flawlessly, but a few are DOA and a few work 5 seconds after the customer gets them. Don't matter the color of the label or the price or how long they are tested at the factory before they are sold (determines the price!). The ones that go to Worst Sell or Lion Indirect Sales or the ones that go to the Dept. of Defense have the exact same base failure rate! But I ain't supposed to tell that!

[@fredsmith5473]

In the HDD industry it was called the bathtub curve. There was a high failure rate in the first few weeks of use, (infant mortality) and then a very low rate (the bottom of the bathtub) for years, and then a there was assumed to be high rate as wearout overtook the drive. However, the second side of the bathtub wasn't seen in practice, as after a few years, the drive was replaced because there were faster, higher capacity and cheaper drives on the market. Most of the drives returned in the infant mortality stage were examined in the factory, and no fault was found. Another significant percentage had been abused; dropped, static zapped, etc.

[@wisnualfatih1072]

Thank you for this informative and educational vid

[@dune2024]

what about SSD's durability in case of power failure? my experience with Seagate hardisks mostly they can pretty much withstand several times of power failure without noticeable damage as for USB flashdisks mostly a power failure means instant total damage which is non-recoverable THIS is really the thing that haunted us most when considering SSD's as a hardisks' replacement for long-term storage

[@verdrehteseele8525]

No, power cut does not adversely affect USB and SSD. Normal shutdown and shutdown due to power cut are no different hardware wise.

[@SevenSixTwo2012]

Another point to mention is that the TBW warranty is directly proportional to the size of the drive, due to how flash memory is written & wears out. The more memory (size), the longer it will theoretically "last". As such, a 500GB will be 300 TBW, a 1TB will be 600 TBW, a 2TB will be 1200 TBW, etc.

[@QueueTeePies]

That's just because there's more physical NAND chips right? I've heard that older 256GB/500GB has more endurance than modern equivalent size simply due to more physical chips to spread the wear across.

[@SevenSixTwo2012]

@@QueueTeePies Memory type also plays a big role : SLC, MLC, TLC, QLC. The more "levels" in a cell, the faster it will wear out. Single level are the most reliable, then multi, then triple, then quad. The price is proportional to longevity. Thus, the best longevity consumer-grade drive would be an MLC drive with as much capacity as possible. And yes, MLC is older technology and was more expensive to manufacture.

[@QueueTeePies]

@@SevenSixTwo2012 Yeah, that could be the primary factor.

[@loucipher7782]

my corsair mp510 480gb nvme claim to have 800TBW, but now im only at 90TB writes the sensors shows drive life remaining 45% wth

[@heilaw7002]

@@loucipher7782 If it is under normal use. You need to trim it more often

[@SpocksLogical]

I own a Laptop 💻 with an SSD Drive. This Video 📹 is an excellent way for me to be able to find out how to find out how long my PC will last. Thanks To Ask Leo! Hope you have a chance to watch it.

[@soulentertainment6199]

Do i Back Up on HDD then?

[@robertarnobit5357]

Thanks for the info Leo 👍

[@sohaibrazzaq2004]

Is it really showing 65 C? I thought most drives have a threshold around 50 C or was that for only HDD's and not SSD's?

[@robertogzm]

Leo my SSD series is: RPFTJ128PDD2EWX, i dont know how to see TBW,. Could you help me?

[@marcse7en]

If I were you, I'd be more worried about TEMPERATURE than TBW! Your Samsung SSD is on FIRE! 🔥 In 25 years of building computers, I've never seen such a high temperature on any kind of drive! 65 degrees Celsius? Really? I'm shocked, and I don't shock easily! Didn't you notice that Crystal Disk has put the temperature in the red!

[@askleonotenboom]

Things get hot when they're in use. The system is well ventilated. Honestly, I'm not concerned. It's been chugging away nicely for a year and a half. (And checking as I type this, it's running cool again. As I said, it was probably being used at the time the screenshot was taken. Had I known how many people would be distracted by that, I'd have waited. :-) )

[@marcse7en]

@@askleonotenboom You could alway fry an egg on your SSD? 😂

[@setecastronomy_hc]

NVMe SSDs actually don't care as much about temperature, 65c is normal if it's under load. Reason why it's in red is because 65c is way too hot for HDD. Anything over 40c can be bad for it.

[@Thros1]

Nvme drives can get hot, shouldn't be concerned unless your workload requires 100% drive use 24/7

[@syarifairlangga4608]

In laptop ssd will run at 50-70 celcius.

[@almedogjurgji]

Hi Leo, thanks for the video. I have two questions: 1) can this calculation be done even to predict the lifespan of a hdd or it does work only for SSDs? 2) How can you prove to the ssd manufacturer that its product failed before reaching the TBW limit according to the warranty? Can CrystalDiskInfo show detailed data of a failed ssd?

[@askleonotenboom]

1) This is SSD-specific 2) PROVE? Heh ... that depends on the willingness of the manufacturer to believe you. In an ideal world the TBW will still be recorded on the drive, so it's obvious by looking, but we don't live in an idea world. I could also see the SSD failing in such a way that the TBW was simply not accessible any more. So in the later case the program wouldn't be able to show any info at all. Not a great answer, but ... it depends.

[@almedogjurgji]

@@askleonotenboom so regarding to the second answer, remains to the manufacturer if believing you when the ssd failes in a hard way not offering you any technical data to prove your point, i get it. Thank you very much

[@asd67lkj]

Thank you for another factual, informative video.

[@EBWillie]

Mr. Leo, I have one OCZ Trion 100 - 960 GB, it can be read but the write to the SSD is either too slow or can't complete the "write". if it is worth to repair it? no critical data in there. Thank you.

[@askleonotenboom]

I've actually not heard of SSDs being reapaired. Does sound like it's failing, and in your shoes I'd replace it.

[@EBWillie]

Thank you, Leo.

[@qjlet9256]

I do agree with the backup part But I can tell you that your SSDs will not reach the TBW limit As mater of fact it will fail far away from the TBW limit

[@tanujrana8490]

Ive heard they function far past the tbw rating. You are the first person I've heard stating the opposite

[@fredsmith5473]

I'm sure you get a small percentage of duds that die long before they reach the TBW limit, maybe for some fault other than flash wear out. However there are several controlled tests which set out to wear out SSDs with writes, and even cheap SSDs go well beyond their stated TBW figure.

[@ehombane]

@@fredsmith5473 looking at reviews on amazon, I see about the same percentage of bad reviews as on hdds. Though, my hdds never died in first months as many complain, but half on them died after few years. And my first ssd died after six months, and then absolutely no problem with any of them.

[@Greenberet.]

Is there any consumer SLC ssd on the market to buy like TLC ones?

[@krollpeter]

Ask Leo: SSD lasts surprisingly long! Vendor: That's a problem

[@the_confused_genius]

Can I use crystaldiskinfo for hdd?

[@askleonotenboom]

You can, but the TBW rating doesn't apply to HDDs. But it'll show lots of other interesting information.

[@the_confused_genius]

@@askleonotenboom Ya sure, I would check it out. Can u please upload a video on increasing the efficiency of my pc in both performance and battery life

[@askleonotenboom]

@@the_confused_genius I already have lots of articles on various aspects of performance. Search the channel here, or visit askleo.com and search for what you're looking for there. :-) I'd start you here: askleo.com/best-articles-collection/, specifically the section labeled "Performance".

[@fernandolobos2329]

Question, does moving files in the same ssd "wears them out"?

[@askleonotenboom]

Not really. A move doesn't actually copy the file data, just makes changes in the file listing.

[@qjlet9256]

It depends if you have only 1 partition or more If there is only 1 partition then no (a tiny bit) But if you have more than 1 partition and move data from 1 partition to another then the answer is yes

[@DaveMcTKD]

SSD - power on hours 47984!! My WD20EARS - Power on hours 75,483!!!

[@rogerm1111]

I greatly prefer Hard Disk Sentinel to CrystalDiskMark, because rather than just showing data, it gives a description on the condition of the drive.

[@dimitrz2000]

But can we trust it, what I mean by that is one of my less frequently used HDD storage failed few months ago , with drive unable to read from certain sectors . Luckily I had backup of backup so I was not impacted too much though I did lose couple of movies , but surprisingly after doing multiple full format , these kinds of diagnostic software show it as an healthy HDD but I have a gut feeling it may fail again .

[@rogerm1111]

@@dimitrz2000 Just like CrystalDiskMark and other similar tools it reads from the drive's SMART data. When a drive gets a bad sector, it should keep a record of it and the errors will show in the SMART data. If the drive's SMART data is incaurate then tools like these will not be able to report the true state of drive, unless you run a full surface scan. But in my experience, I've never had an issue with a drive's SMART data being inaccurate. Maybe you could install the trial version of HD Sentinel and see what it reports. It gives a clear explanation of the state of the drive.

[@dimitrz2000]

@@rogerm1111 thanks maybe it's because of my lack of technical skills. As a layman I can only interpret surface data/ info

[@askleonotenboom]

Remember that it's also ALWAYS possible for a drive to fail without warning - no indications in behavior, no smart info, no nothing. This is why it's so important to always be backed up.

[@brianhoward9217]

@@askleonotenboom Leo, my understanding is that a HDD will give a reasonable amount of warning/signs it may be up for failure soon (not always) but with an SSD/NvMe it will not. Am I correct?

[@aaroninclub]

Thx for your great video. My laptop’s SSD has 600TBW as the expectancy too, but unfortunately I didn’t make the best choice with my desktop SSD. It’s a Crucial P1 with only 100TBW. It only cost $85, though, I hope even 100TBW translates to a fairly long time.. You said Crucial is good, so I hope that sense of quality is applicable to the more budget-oriented options .. I love their Executive tools, far better than what’s included with some other branded SSDs.

[@ehombane]

100 is plenty, mine has 35 and used a third in over ten years, about 4000 hours.

[@isharadhanushan2002]

I have 3.6TBW in 8 months of usage out of the 800TBW rating. I can probably use this drive for at least 20 years or more. It's a addlink s68 512GB nvme drive.

[@Frank-Thoresen]

My 1TB Lexar NS100 has 400TBW and I have over the last two years used 85 TBW. As this laptop is a work station it is expected but a normal personal use laptop or desktop will never get to the limit in its life span.

[@meyers0781]

I "brutally" install and uninstall games and i wrote 1TB per month in average.

[@animejanai4657]

The TBW (terabytes written) number also includes all the infrastructure writes performed. The number is not limited solely to the filesizes of the files being written.

[@munyamadzimure882]

the only drive i rely on is the Cloud DRIVE. i wonder if they are hdd or ssd

[@esecallum]

a 470 uf capacitor across the power supply will stop contoller corruption if power cuts out.

[@Perplexer1]

CrystalDiskInfo is weird. I have an 1TB 860 EVO SSD with 18616 Total Host Writes and 600 TBW warranty. So essentially exactly the same as the example at 1:34. But CrystalDiskInfo in my case says 96% good while the one in the video says 100% good. Even Power On Hours are almost the same (mine are 12902). The main difference seems to be SATA vs NVME.

[@kevinkirkby1484]

I've had one for an operating system for over 7 years now. The thing it doesn't have much written to it.

[@josephteller9715]

No, but every time there is a system patch or security update etc its being written to. Windows 10 constantly does this and does so with bloated data packages it then deletes after loading it up etc.

[@syarifairlangga4608]

What brand do you have?

[@kevinkirkby1484]

@@syarifairlangga4608 The oldest is a 120gb SanDisk installed originally with windows 8.1 into a AMD quad if memory serves back in 2012 ish. Since then it's had windows 10 on it for most of those years. Now it's got Linux Mint on it and has for just over a year, it'll never see windows again me thinks. It's been re-alocated to media conversation now. My main machines are 2 gigabyte brix i3 and an Asus i5. 2 have crucial drives and one has a Chinese Devco. Main storage is 125TB of standard drives, all external, shared between them. Messy you might say.. they've been put into special shelves along with the brix's in the living room. Very very quite, with enough space for more and invisible so to speak. It's costly when you have a media library that is actually bigger than Amazon's Prime. 👍

[@gian_accetta]

Hi can you post or link us to the correct Crystal Disk Info? I went and tried downloading it and got an RAR extractor instead? Confused, please help!

[@askleonotenboom]

crystalmark.info/en/software/crystaldiskinfo/ - beware, that page has MANY ads that look like the download, but are not. Here's a closer link: osdn.net/projects/crystaldiskinfo/downloads/78047/CrystalDiskInfo8_17_13.exe/

[@powerpc6037]

There is another issue at play using SSD's, other than the TBW supplied by the manufacturer. If you have a drive of 1TB and it has only 1 file of 1GB on it and you keep rewriting that 1GB file, the SSD will erase the file from the memory cells that it occupies and write it elsewhere to spread out the cell usage so it lives longer. If memory cells can be rewritten 1000 times each, you can rewrite that file 1 million times before any memory cell fails. With the same drive, if you have 991TB of data on it (990GB of all the data won't change as those might be movies or music files) and you keep rewriting the same file of 1GB on it, it has only 10GB of space (instead of the entire 1TB) to spread out that same file over the unoccupied memory cells and those cells won't last long so it will fail alot sooner. You can only rewrite that file 10.000 times now instead of 1 million times. So the more stuff you put on it, the sooner it will fail. So you write the 991GB of data to it to start with and you rewrite that 1GB file 10.000 times. Then you've written only 11TB (1TB original data and 10TB on rewrites) to it while the manufacturer says the drive lasts for 600TBW and it already fails, just due to the fact it's almost completely full. To reach that 500TBW, it's recommended to only fill your SSD up to 50% of it's capacity so it has enough space to move data around when rewriting files.

[@okaro6595]

No, the disk will move even files that are not changed around to level the wear. Do you really you thought this idea and those who design the disks did not think about it?

[@arpandey7043]

I am enlightened...thank you good sir

[@Laura-dolphinfan]

QUESTION , i used a external hard drive and copied my whole computer , i don't know how much space is left, if I try to use again , will it duplicate my last entry ?? My last transfer ? or will it just pick up the new photos ?? and after i do transfer , i can delete alot from my desk top correct ? ?( i keep getting messages how FULL and no space is left )_ .. silly questions but i had to ask , thanks you

[@KurushimiVrishraka]

What I am curious is, Hopefully you can notice this, any tips/helpful information about how long does SSD last without being powered, for example, my 2T SSD Crucial 3d NAND, I use them to back up and just come back to them 10-20 years after? Please make a video!

[@askleonotenboom]

I don't know. I know of no data to report on that. I would not trust them, myself. I would migrate the data to newer trusted technology every 5 to 10 years. I still use hard disks for this, and recommend same. And TWO COPIES at least. Anything can fail at any time.

[@1sonyzz]

EVIO < E-V-O... Evolution > Eviolution

[@justrosy2635]

Great video, but like the rest, it still doesn't answer my question. CrystalDiskInfo is showing 96% instead of 100%, and the SSD is only a few months old. What does this mean? What can I do to fix this? Their website doesn't seem to have a real FAQ. Have you (or has anyone here) figured this out?

[@asdbef3667]

The only cause of concern is that you used high capacity storage which surely has..higher TBW.. But most people dont buy 1 TB as they are still no cheap... They settle with 256 gb and a hdd combo.... And the lifespan of a 256 GB is concerning

[@yenjun0204]

Even now using 250 GB is not a big concern for most general users. Writing more than factory lifespan spec do not mean SSD's definitely fail. If just read SSD data, not write data to much, SSD can survive for years. People used small size SSD's, such as 120gb, 80gb in early times; they got bigger SSDs later, not because the old one was dead, just because they need more capacity of SSDs.

[@yenjun0204]

The recent news for SSDs’ failure is people use them for Cryoto Mining. Even using 1TB SSDs does not help a lot to extend lifespan of drives in this application. It causes manufacturers changed warranty policy.

[@ehombane]

not concerning at all. I used my 64 gb for over 10 years now, and only a third of its life is gone.

[@jirehla-ab1671]

How about if my western digital external hard drive gets damage before the warranty expires?

[@askleonotenboom]

I don't understand your question. If it gets damaged, replace it.

[@jirehla-ab1671]

@@askleonotenboom is it ok to use ssds as another backup as long as its not oftenly written?

[@jirehla-ab1671]

@@askleonotenboom and do u edit video on yur 970 evo?

[@askleonotenboom]

@@jirehla-ab1671 Sure. As "another" backup.

[@askleonotenboom]

@@jirehla-ab1671Not often, but yes.

[@c.s.herman860]

If you never come close to total TBW and you keep within safe temperatures - How long would you expect an SSD could last? As long as a CPU or RAM module? 20 years?

[@meyers0781]

Depend on the brand and luck

[@mingkee27]

Is it true larger capacity drive lasts longer as chance of same block is written again smaller?

[@askleonotenboom]

It all depends on usage. But yes, if your usage of a 1TB and 2TB is exactly the same then in theory the 2TB will last longer as your writes will have been spread out over a greater area.

[@ronaldgarrison8478]

SSDs having come as far as they have, what are some circumstances where someone would still want to use a rotating hard drive?

[@askleonotenboom]

HDDs remain cheaper per terabyte, so they're prefect for large storage where speed is not as much of an issue.

[@ronaldgarrison8478]

@@askleonotenboom What I'm really wondering is who uses such larger amounts of storage. I suppose it would be anywhere there are large data archives. I would think that would mostly be governments and large corporations.

[@askleonotenboom]

@@ronaldgarrison8478 I have over a terabyte of photos. SSD would be even more expensive and unnecessary. Anyone's personal backups, done properly, can take up a lot of space and don't need SSDs. Even small organizations, hobbyists, and others can accumulate a LOT of data.

[@ronaldgarrison8478]

​@@askleonotenboom Sorry for the delayed reply-it turned out it made me think a little…1 TB of hard drive is now something like $50, flash memory $100, just as a very rough figure. I'm thinking that, at this level, a lot of this is down to personal preference. I like the idea of having my personal collection of 500 GB or so on one little stick, and I'm OK with an extra $50 for that. Multiply that by 4 for my usual four copies of everything. But there's something else… When all your data is almost small enough to accidentally !SWALLOW! por dios, that's actually a good metaphor for something REALLY bad. You could lose it, or misplace it. Once, about eight years ago, I had a REALLY scary experience. I had a flash drive fall out on the ground, while bringing stuff into a motel room. I saw it as it happened, so had no real terror, but it was still jarring. It's not so much about loss of data-as I said, I have multiple copies of everything. The scary part: Someone else could get access to it. That stick had many pieces of VERY personal stuff. Not just financially sensitive, but sometimes on a very personal level. The very personal stuff is actually a very tiny portion of the whole, so I've started thinking about how to keep those portions separate. But as you might imagine, that's not necessarily a simple matter. So EVERYONE, PLEASE TAKE NOTE, and take care with those precious little nuggets. One more thing: I strongly believe all such tiny devices should have lanyard holes, or an equivalent. That could help a LOT.

[@daxart4427]

Why in my cristal disk info don't appear total host writes and total host reads of my SSD?

[@askleonotenboom]

No way to know. Perhaps your SSD simply doesn't support that?

[@daxart4427]

@@askleonotenboom there's other method to know the host writes of my SSD? I only know the limit is 450gb 200 tbw and 3 years of warranty

[@Iamnone-y3t]

Thanks you for very essential information.

[@renefrijhoff2484]

I have Crystal disk info for that. That being said, it's only an indication. You never really know how long it will last since it can break down during a reboot. I had it once myself.

[@PatrickBijvoet]

Interesting channel, discovered it today. So I subscribed. Gtz from the Netherlands. BTW Your last name is Dutch. Are you Dutch, where you Dutch of is it several generations? Do you speak Dutch! Groetjes uit Nederland!

[@askleonotenboom]

My parents came from the Netherlands. I can understand it if it's not spoken too quickly, but on my last visit it was clear my spoken Dutch is very, VERY, rusty. :-)

[@PatrickBijvoet]

@@askleonotenboom Thank you for this off topic answer. I found your channel because recently I bought a Windowscomputer for Flightsimulator purposes. I only work with Mac's for the last 15 and continue to do so, so Windows is quite new for me and much is changed since my last Windows (Windows 98 i think). So I will be watching more video's of yours. Thank you for your reply.

[@Botanifiles]

What brand of ssd and regular hard drives would you recommend?

[@askleonotenboom]

I not longer make specific recommendations for hard drives, as who's best changes too often. Ive been happy with SSDs from Crucial.com.

[@David-uq2uk]

I go for Samsung Evo 860 pro if you got the cash if not crucial are just fine .cheap reliable and last year's .

[@darkphotographer]

still got the first ssd that i buy abaut 10 years a go a OCZ 60gb , and still have all the ssd i have buy since , 8

[@jamc666]

great info 👍