Do SSDs have an inherent or "built-in" failure date?

[stockhausen]

Four years or so ago I bought a pair of Vertex OCZ 120GB SATA II SSDs. One was installed in a laptop. The other was also meant to be installed in a laptop but for various reasons, never was.

After a couple of years, in order to clear clutter, I was asked to reload Windows 7 on the laptop with the SSD in it. For simple reasons of convenience, I loaded Windows onto the previously unused SSD and put the removed and still working SSD to one side.

Just before Christmas, the laptop failed to boot and I was asked to have a look at it and if possible to download the data. Despite buying a SSD caddy and trying to mount it on other systems using Windows and Linux I was not able to read the thing. I took the previously working SSD, put it into the laptop and that no longer worked. The symptom with both drives is that the laptop continuously restarts without ever actually getting anywhere near Windows - or Linux.

I put a traditional 2½" SATA II disk into the laptop and that works absolutely fine.

What puzzles me is why two Vertex OCZ 120GB SATA II SSDs should appear to fail at exactly the same time?

Is there some sort of inbuilt life limitation on these devices and does it apply to other SSDs?

ps - an afterthought on this is that SSDs may include a battery which will inevitably fail after a number of years?

 

[mattyfez]

I know some m.2 drives have a read/write max, which once hit, the drive will essentially lock up in terms of writes, but should still be readable for recovery purposes.

Regular SATA SSD will generally shrink in size over time as sectors go bad.

I'm sure someone can give better info but that's the jist I gather.

 

[Holst1981]

Did you damage them somehow?
Caddy faulty?

Ive never heard of any time limitation on ssd life, just max read write.

There is no battery, that's the point of solid state.

I still backup to mechanical hdd.
Although there should be less to go wrong with an ssd, hdd seem to last longer.
I've had a few different ssd fail over the years.

I would say you were unlucky that both went at the same time.

 

[edscdk]

Have installed about 250 ssds over the past 3 years, always the cheapest available.. So far 1 crucial 1 Kingston have failed that's all.. Much more reliable than hdd

 

[borley]

If it was battery i doubt they would fail that close together also 1 was used in your laptop over a long period so you would think that battery will have deteriorated quicker.

 

[mattyfez]

Have installed about 250 ssds over the past 3 years, always the cheapest available.. So far 1 crucial 1 Kingston have failed that's all.. Much more reliable than hdd

Equally I have 2 mirrored mechanical drives, 250gb seagates over ten years old to store my music collection. I keep them mirrored due to age so when one fails, I have a backup.

They've both been system drives at some point, and are not dead yet. I suppose they have an easy life now as I only really read from them. So define reliable

 

[Rroff]

Didn't the older OCZ Vertex have a not great reputation for reliability?

 

[Leg]

If they are 4 years old you are likely to have "old" firmware on them. Older SSDs, like yours, did have issues and it was recommend to update the firmware (mainly to improve performance).

The old OCZ Vertex wasn't very reliable from what I recall.

I've had one Crucial SSD fail about 5 years ago and it was replaced under warranty within a week.

 

[HoneyBadger]

They have a maximum read/write life but it's so high, you would not reach th limit with normal usage.

 

[Rroff]

They have a maximum read/write life but it's so high, you would not reach th limit with normal usage.

Hah - its a bit easier with stuff like early beta of shadowplay putting around 1-2TB of writes in per month and the recent spotify bug that was causing spotify to do around the same 1TB of writes a month for about 6 months or so.

Even with all that though I've still only used around 1/10th of the expected write count of my SSD in 3 years.

 

[Quartz]

I took the previously working SSD, put it into the laptop and that no longer worked.

I wouldn't expect it to work without a rebuild due to the natural accumulation of errors over the years.

 

[stockhausen]

To respond to comments / questions from various posters:

I don't believe that either of the ocz Vertex SSDs have suffered any sort of mechanical damage.

I believe that the OCZ Vertex 2 (which is what I am discussing here) was somewhat tempremental. I know that it uses a 1st generation SandForce controller which seems to be a wee bit "fussy". It definitely doesn't work with the Gigabyte Z97-SLI motherboard and Intel i7 4790K CPU. I was told (by OCZ support) that it is incompatible with one or more of the Intel LGA1150 or the Haswell chipset, or the Intel Z97 Southbridge.

I am always reluctant to update firmware on anything unless there is an obvious compelling reason to do so; I certainly haven't done so on either of these SSDs.

I wouldn't expect it to work without a rebuild due to the natural accumulation of errors over the years.

I'm not sure what to make of this comment but I don't think that it is in any way relevant in my case.

 

[Ricimer]

So one has failed with use, which is expected. The other is unreadable? If it's not had any power to it in a long time, then the old data on it will have degraded, power is required to keep the charge on the memory cells. Does it work after a format/reinstall to the previously working, but not recently used drive?

 

[stockhausen]

So one has failed with use, which is expected. The other is unreadable? If it's not had any power to it in a long time, then the old data on it will have degraded, power is required to keep the charge on the memory cells. Does it work after a format/reinstall to the previously working, but not recently used drive?

The symptom with BOTH drives is that the laptop continuously restarts without ever actually getting anywhere near Windows - or Linux. Formatting / reinstallation is not an option.

 

[keyser]

Could be a firmware problem. SSDs have a limited number of writes and 'unlimited' number of reads. Once the writes stop you can still read the data off it. Provided the firmware is still sound.. I have an old Crucial 64GB SSD that used to be my C drive, its too small to bother with now, still works. I have 2 Samsung 840 256GB SSDs, one in gfs laptop and one as my download drive for fast PAR/RAR. I just checked and that drive is only 3TB writes, around 98% life remaining. Current 850 SSD C drive is 6TB total written, 98% writes remaining. Eg you shouldn't have worn your SSD out through normal use.

Boot from another HD, have the SSD plugged in, load CrystalDiskInfo should tell you the current 'writes remaining' of the SSD. If its 'dead' see if there is a newer firmware available.

You have backups, right?

 

[stockhausen]

Thanks for replying. However, as I have said in the post immediately above yours:

The symptom with BOTH SSDs is that the laptop continuously restarts without ever actually getting anywhere near any OS.

If the SSD is plugged in, I can't even boot Linux off a DVD.
For whatever reason, both SSDs have failed - apparently terminally.

 

[David Bisset]

The crucial m4 had a bug where after 5200 hours or something powered on it broke. Was patched though. That's the only behaviour of this kind that I'm aware of (and as it was a controller bug it could have happened to a traditional HDD, nothing SSD specific about it)

 

[edscdk]

Equally I have 2 mirrored mechanical drives, 250gb seagates over ten years old to store my music collection. I keep them mirrored due to age so when one fails, I have a backup.

They've both been system drives at some point, and are not dead yet. I suppose they have an easy life now as I only really read from them. So define reliable

my sample size is bigger than yours!