Solid state hard drive life

alphagemini · 27 October 2018, 17:48

If a solid state hard drive is in constant daily use, how long would it last before
it gave up the ghost?

Does constant data filing and retrieval eventually wear it out?

thanks for any help

Daedalus · 27 October 2018, 17:58

There's plenty of information out there on it, and the answer is "it depends". Yes, they will wear out, but depending on the technology used, that could be after a few thousand writes, or a few million. Retrieval doesn't really wear it out, it's the writing that wears out flash storage, and even then, you need to write to the same area repeatedly to cause problems. Flash is arranged into cells which are usually several KB in size, and if you modify any file that takes up any part of a cell, the entire cell has to be erased and rewritten.

To get around this, most modern flash storage uses "wear levelling", which rearranges the cell layout at a firmware level (transparently to the host computer) in order to prevent certain cells being worn out before the rest of them. As a result of this, you would really have to be going to town on the file writes to cause an issue before such a time as the drive would be replaced for capacity reasons anyway.

DH · 27 October 2018, 18:04

It all depends on chip type, write and delete procedures, amongst other factors like component expense etc. So it can be very varied depending on what you pay. The below link should help but in all honesty there's no accurate lifespan as some of it is dependant on its usage.

https://www.compuram.de/blog/en/the-...-to-take-care/

alphagemini · 27 October 2018, 19:19

My HD has 1600k data points entered and erased multiple times every day. It seems that the Amiga wasn't really designed for this. The hard drive looks so thin and flimsy. I have been using mine for a year and I think its going.

Daedalus · 27 October 2018, 22:01

The Amiga itself does very little reading and writing - there's nothing in the background that writes to the drive unless you put it there. So unless you are using software that gives it that sort of use, an SSD is likely to last for a very long time indeed. It doesn't support some more modern OS features that help with SSD life, but at the same time a modern OS will write gigabytes to the drive every day.

If your HD is an SSD and has decent wear levelling, 1.6 million data points probably isn't that big a deal. It's likely written in chunks via a write cache (though not really if you're talking about in an Amiga), and will be spread around the different cells of the drive such that the same cells are only used every few days at most.

alphagemini · 27 October 2018, 22:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daedalus

The Amiga itself does very little reading and writing - there's nothing in the background that writes to the drive unless you put it there. So unless you are using software that gives it that sort of use, an SSD is likely to last for a very long time indeed. It doesn't support some more modern OS features that help with SSD life, but at the same time a modern OS will write gigabytes to the drive every day.

If your HD is an SSD and has decent wear levelling, 1.6 million data points probably isn't that big a deal. It's likely written in chunks via a write cache (though not really if you're talking about in an Amiga), and will be spread around the different cells of the drive such that the same cells are only used every few days at most.

Thanks for the detailed info. I use the 1200 for number crunching. I wrote software decades ago which runs perfectly well on the A1200 with a math coprocessor. I should repeat it all on a modern machine and language, but I guess I'm very lazy!

thanks again

project23 · 28 October 2018, 02:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by alphagemini

Thanks for the detailed info. I use the 1200 for number crunching. I wrote software decades ago which runs perfectly well on the A1200 with a math coprocessor. I should repeat it all on a modern machine and language, but I guess I'm very lazy!

thanks again

What kind of number crunching, if i might ask?

Not relevant to your OP but just curious?

alphagemini · 28 October 2018, 09:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by project23

What kind of number crunching, if i might ask?

Not relevant to your OP but just curious?

The answer would be too complex for a public forum, and quite boring probably.

My 1200 no longer puts out video via SCART, so it has to go to the vet.

Thanks for your help

project23 · 28 October 2018, 15:16

No bother! My BSc is mathematics which is why I asked.

But you're right about it being inappropriate for this forum.

Regards,

John

27 October 2018, 17:48	#1
alphagemini Registered User Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Folkestone, Kent Posts: 119	Solid state hard drive life If a solid state hard drive is in constant daily use, how long would it last before it gave up the ghost? Does constant data filing and retrieval eventually wear it out? thanks for any help

27 October 2018, 18:04	#3
DH Global Moderator Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Might as well be WORK :( Age: 56 Posts: 4,110	It all depends on chip type, write and delete procedures, amongst other factors like component expense etc. So it can be very varied depending on what you pay. The below link should help but in all honesty there's no accurate lifespan as some of it is dependant on its usage. https://www.compuram.de/blog/en/the-...-to-take-care/ Last edited by DH; 27 October 2018 at 20:39.

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27 October 2018, 17:58	#2
Daedalus Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Dublin, then Glasgow Posts: 6,334	There's plenty of information out there on it, and the answer is "it depends". Yes, they will wear out, but depending on the technology used, that could be after a few thousand writes, or a few million. Retrieval doesn't really wear it out, it's the writing that wears out flash storage, and even then, you need to write to the same area repeatedly to cause problems. Flash is arranged into cells which are usually several KB in size, and if you modify any file that takes up any part of a cell, the entire cell has to be erased and rewritten. To get around this, most modern flash storage uses "wear levelling", which rearranges the cell layout at a firmware level (transparently to the host computer) in order to prevent certain cells being worn out before the rest of them. As a result of this, you would really have to be going to town on the file writes to cause an issue before such a time as the drive would be replaced for capacity reasons anyway.

27 October 2018, 19:19	#4
alphagemini Registered User Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Folkestone, Kent Posts: 119	My HD has 1600k data points entered and erased multiple times every day. It seems that the Amiga wasn't really designed for this. The hard drive looks so thin and flimsy. I have been using mine for a year and I think its going.

27 October 2018, 22:01	#5
Daedalus Registered User Join Date: Jun 2009 Location: Dublin, then Glasgow Posts: 6,334	The Amiga itself does very little reading and writing - there's nothing in the background that writes to the drive unless you put it there. So unless you are using software that gives it that sort of use, an SSD is likely to last for a very long time indeed. It doesn't support some more modern OS features that help with SSD life, but at the same time a modern OS will write gigabytes to the drive every day. If your HD is an SSD and has decent wear levelling, 1.6 million data points probably isn't that big a deal. It's likely written in chunks via a write cache (though not really if you're talking about in an Amiga), and will be spread around the different cells of the drive such that the same cells are only used every few days at most.

28 October 2018, 15:16	#9
project23 Used Register Join Date: Jul 2018 Location: Liverpool Age: 41 Posts: 437	No bother! My BSc is mathematics which is why I asked. But you're right about it being inappropriate for this forum. Regards, John

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