How has your m.2 experience been? How much is TBW necessary?

[ChungKingCanSuckIt]

I have Windows 10. I had a computer that I upgraded to a Samsung 970 EVO pretty early on.. I had the smaller 250GB drive.. which has 150TBW. I am not sure if that drive died or what.. it's about 4 years since I got it. My computer started to not boot sometimes and I was troubleshooting it. I could get it to boot if left off for an unspecified amount of time, and when on it would run forever. However, one day Windows had an update and that trick of leaving it off didn't work anymore.

I was able to pop it into an external USB adapter I bought on Amazon and copy my data off it. I was able to format it. I was able to install Windows on it, however I could not get it to boot. I could copy files to it, and view files, and open files, just would not boot Windows.

Anyway, that system is totally gone now. I'm building a new PC. Most of the parts have arrived and more coming tomorrow.

I decided to buy another for my new build because I wanted one of the fastest drives out there. I got a new 1TB drive that's got 7000MB/s and 800TBW.

Not sure if my system was going old and messed up the drive, or if the drive started going on it's own. I'm not the type of person to send a drive in under warranty.. it was 4 years. Had it been a few days or months, sure, but 4 years. No thanks. I'll just destroy the drive.

Since the new drive has a lot more TBW, I'm hoping it'll last longer than the old drive, but my experience is sort of tainted a bit. I have some external WD drives that are older than that m.2 was and still running. They're on 24 hours a day just like my computer with m.2 was.

 

[ChungKingCanSuckIt]

It's incredibly unlikely you've got anywhere near the max TBW for that drive. I have the 500GB version as my boot drive and after two years I've written 13TB and the max is 1200. Use CrystalDiskInfo to check your drive's status.

What I see from the symptoms you describe is possible overheating and a fault with the boot sector which should be easily correctable.

It was not overheating that I know of (when last checked in Magician), however that could have changed towards the end who knows. My computer had like 6 fans 120mm, but at one point I removed the side of the case and never put it back on, but those fans still brought some cool air across. The CPU had a Noctua NH-D15 on it so it was always cool. While I love the Noctua, I'm glad it's gone. It was so large and heavy. The new system I'm building is with a 360MM AIO.

 

[ChungKingCanSuckIt]

The one thing that worries me about all SSD drives, SATA, M.2 or otherwise, is the lack of warning you get before the drive fails. Having had a Samsung drive fail on me before, losing all the data on it, this makes me even more conscientious that SSD drives don't last much longer than hard drives. At least hard drives tend to give you a warning or a sign before they take their last breath.

That sucks. I don't mind the size of old drives/form factor. Just wish they were faster.

I've had old drives go bad, once even using the stick it in a Ziploc bag in the freezer trick to get data off it.