It's not about SSD VS HDD for me. They aren't in direct competition for most people.
SSD are faster and good for OS / Games. HDD are reliable and good for data storage and backups.
I'm not going to replace one with the other, they both have their function. Maybe in a decade when SSD have proven their worth in terms of reliability, but currently, few people are going to want to put valuable data on an SSD.
It's possible SSD will never have the reliability of HDD.
It's a bit like asking when Sony Mirrorless will be accepted by news reporters. Maybe in a decade when they no longer overheat, get reasonable battery life, and all the kinks are worked out. Until then, most people will stay with Canon, because they want things they know will work under any condition. It's the same with HDD. For storage, SDD are much too new to rely on.
If someone is using an SSD for long-term storage, they are spending too much money... Capacitors and Batteries discharge over time, no voltage, no data. The idea of an SSD isn't even about storage, but performance. If both are required, hybrid is the way to go.
There hasn't been any verifiable evidence that SSDs lose data when left powered off for extended periods. There may have been an article semi-recently about SSDs losing data in high heat environments, but that was debunked.
I'm not going to replace one with the other, they both have their function. Maybe in a decade when SSD have proven their worth in terms of reliability, but currently, few people are going to want to put valuable data on an SSD.
What kind of reliability are you expecting out of a SSD? You expect them to last 10 or 20 years? If that's what you're looking for, then that is reasonable and it is what SSDs are achieving now with write endurance. As with any electronics, including hard drives, there is always a chance of early failure.
I was not able to find life-span testing of SSDs. The best I could find was testing which pushed SSDs to their write-endurance limit, then converted their constant-writes to a life-span based on writing a set amount per day. http://us.hardware.info/reviews/4178/10/hardwareinfo-tests-lifespan-of-samsung-ssd-840-250gb-tlc-ssd-updated-with-final-conclusion-final-update-20-6-2013 Writing 30GiB per day, the SSD would theoretically last 23 years before showing any signs of wear, and 29 years before failing due to wearing out the memory. If that's not reliable enough for you, then hard drives definitely aren't reliable enough for you.
When SSDs are cheaper per capacity than mechanical drives, there will be little reason to purchase a mechanical drive. You will be paying more for less capacity and much lower performance. The reliability of both can easily outlast the useful life of a computer, meaning your drives will likely still work by the time you're looking to upgrade your entire system.
What kind of reliability are you expecting out of a SSD? You expect them to last 10 or 20 years? If that's what you're looking for, then that is reasonable and it is what SSDs are achieving now with write endurance. As with any electronics, including hard drives, there is always a chance of early failure.
I was not able to find life-span testing of SSDs. The best I could find was testing which pushed SSDs to their write-endurance limit, then converted their constant-writes to a life-span based on writing a set amount per day. http://us.hardware.info/reviews/4178/10/hardwareinfo-tests-lifespan-of-samsung-ssd-840-250gb-tlc-ssd-updated-with-final-conclusion-final-update-20-6-2013 Writing 30GiB per day, the SSD would theoretically last 23 years before showing any signs of wear, and 29 years before failing due to wearing out the memory. If that's not reliable enough for you, then hard drives definitely aren't reliable enough for you.
This is all true, but there is one problem with your premise: write endurance isn't the only thing that will break an SSD. In fact, it's probably among the least likely causes of failure in an SSD.
The reason you can't find lfe-span testing of SSDs going out 5-10-20 years is because they haven't been out that long. The first generation of consumer SSDs are just now hitting about 5 years old. You won't know until 2037 if most Samsung 840's can really outlast it's predicted 23 year write endurance from the report you linked - and on many of the drives drives you'll know well before then that they cannot and fail for various other reasons.
I think expecting 10-20 years of life out of a storage device, be it HDD or SDD, is a bit optimistic. It's plausible, but I don't think it's typical enough to make it a realistic expectation.
This is all true, but there is one problem with your premise: write endurance isn't the only thing that will break an SSD. In fact, it's probably among the least likely causes of failure in an SSD.
That's why I mentioned the possibility of a "random" failure.
"As with any electronics, including hard drives, there is always a chance of early failure."
I don't expect a SSD to last 20 years, but it might. Write endurance is only mentioned because it used to be a problem which put off many consumers, but has changed dramatically since SSDs were released.
The two important questions for any computer part are: Does it out-last the useful life of the computer? Does it last long enough for the technology to develop significant upgrades?
Comments
SSD are faster and good for OS / Games.
HDD are reliable and good for data storage and backups.
I'm not going to replace one with the other, they both have their function. Maybe in a decade when SSD have proven their worth in terms of reliability, but currently, few people are going to want to put valuable data on an SSD.
It's possible SSD will never have the reliability of HDD.
It's a bit like asking when Sony Mirrorless will be accepted by news reporters. Maybe in a decade when they no longer overheat, get reasonable battery life, and all the kinks are worked out. Until then, most people will stay with Canon, because they want things they know will work under any condition. It's the same with HDD. For storage, SDD are much too new to rely on.
There hasn't been any verifiable evidence that SSDs lose data when left powered off for extended periods. There may have been an article semi-recently about SSDs losing data in high heat environments, but that was debunked.
Edit: Here's the article. It debunked the idea that consumers need to worry about the data retention on their SSDs.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2925173/debunked-your-ssd-wont-lose-data-if-left-unplugged-after-all.html
Also, SSDs don't use capacitors to store the data. They use a special kind of transistor.
What kind of reliability are you expecting out of a SSD? You expect them to last 10 or 20 years? If that's what you're looking for, then that is reasonable and it is what SSDs are achieving now with write endurance. As with any electronics, including hard drives, there is always a chance of early failure.
Here's an article which shows that hard drives have a median life-span of about 6 years:
https://www.backblaze.com/blog/how-long-do-disk-drives-last/
I was not able to find life-span testing of SSDs. The best I could find was testing which pushed SSDs to their write-endurance limit, then converted their constant-writes to a life-span based on writing a set amount per day.
http://us.hardware.info/reviews/4178/10/hardwareinfo-tests-lifespan-of-samsung-ssd-840-250gb-tlc-ssd-updated-with-final-conclusion-final-update-20-6-2013
Writing 30GiB per day, the SSD would theoretically last 23 years before showing any signs of wear, and 29 years before failing due to wearing out the memory. If that's not reliable enough for you, then hard drives definitely aren't reliable enough for you.
When SSDs are cheaper per capacity than mechanical drives, there will be little reason to purchase a mechanical drive. You will be paying more for less capacity and much lower performance. The reliability of both can easily outlast the useful life of a computer, meaning your drives will likely still work by the time you're looking to upgrade your entire system.
The reason you can't find lfe-span testing of SSDs going out 5-10-20 years is because they haven't been out that long. The first generation of consumer SSDs are just now hitting about 5 years old. You won't know until 2037 if most Samsung 840's can really outlast it's predicted 23 year write endurance from the report you linked - and on many of the drives drives you'll know well before then that they cannot and fail for various other reasons.
I think expecting 10-20 years of life out of a storage device, be it HDD or SDD, is a bit optimistic. It's plausible, but I don't think it's typical enough to make it a realistic expectation.
"As with any electronics, including hard drives, there is always a chance of early failure."
I don't expect a SSD to last 20 years, but it might. Write endurance is only mentioned because it used to be a problem which put off many consumers, but has changed dramatically since SSDs were released.
The two important questions for any computer part are: Does it out-last the useful life of the computer? Does it last long enough for the technology to develop significant upgrades?