What is the actual lifespan of an SSD?

The lifespan of SSDs is often misunderstood, not because users don't understand how they work, but because of claims made by manufacturers.

Many people believe that most SSDs only last a few years, usually no more than ten years. However, the reality is that SSD lifespan is much more complex.

SSDs have several 'limit' ratings, but these numbers are usually much lower than their actual capacity.

PHOTO: TOM'S HARDWARE

Each SSD is shipped with a TBW rating, which is the total data capacity an SSD is designed to write throughout its warranty period. For example, an SSD with a TBW of 300 TB means a user can write approximately 300 terabytes (TB) of data during the warranty period.

However, that doesn't mean SSDs will stop working immediately when they reach their TBW limit. Manufacturers often provide lower-than-actual TBW figures to mitigate risk and encourage users to purchase replacements.

In reality, many SSDs far exceed their labeled TBW rating and still perform well. For example, the Samsung 990 Pro SSD can write over 22 PB of data, nearly 36 times higher than its 600 TB TBW rating. This demonstrates that the lifespan of an SSD cannot be determined solely by its TBW rating.

What are the signs that an SSD is about to fail?

When it comes to SSD lifespan, users need to pay attention to the drive's health indicators. An SSD might show an overall health of 67%, but that doesn't mean 33% of its health has been lost. Instead, it's still functioning well if there are no warning signs from the SMART indicators, such as a high number of faulty or irreparable partitions. According to experts from Kingston, when the SSD's health percentage is around 30-40%, users don't need to worry too much.

The key point users need to know is that SSD vendors display SMART attributes differently or scale them in different ways. Some tools display SMART based on the vendor's own interpretation, while others use general guesswork algorithms. Furthermore, not all tools correctly understand the new NVMe attributes.

However, if the SSD starts showing sudden slowdowns or displays worrying SMART indicators, users should check their backups and plan for replacement. The most important principle is to always maintain working backups, not only because SSDs can fail, but because all storage media can experience problems.

In general, the lifespan of an SSD depends not only on its TBW rating but also on how it's used and how well it's monitored. Understanding SSDs will help users use them more efficiently and safely.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/tuoi-tho-thuc-su-cua-o-ssd-ra-sao-185260402222350369.htm