How SSD degeneration occurs.

[DarklordKyo]

One of the reasons why SSDs haven't completely eclipsed HDDs is that SSDs have a relatively limited lifespan. How does the degeneration occur? Like, for example, how much space would be destroyed if I deleted my copy of Witcher 3 from my laptop's SSD?

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

No space would be destroyed from deleting your copy of witcher 3.

SSDs degrade over time when you're constantly rewriting over the same memory blocks but this was really only a problem with first gen SSDs. The technology has improved over time, and now you're very unlikely to have an SSD fail on you because you used it too much. More than likely if you buy an SSD now, the size of the SSD will be come obsolete before it ever fails, just due to program sizes getting bigger and people storing more and more digital media.

 

[DarklordKyo]

No space would be destroyed from deleting your copy of witcher 3.

SSDs degrade over time when you're constantly rewriting over the same memory blocks but this was really only a problem with first gen SSDs. The technology has improved over time, and now you're very unlikely to have an SSD fail on you because you used it too much. More than likely if you buy an SSD now, the size of the SSD will be come obsolete before it ever fails, just due to program sizes getting bigger and people storing more and more digital media.

gotcha, thanks

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Theoretically, newer SSD's have a much longer life expectancy than a typical HDD. An SSD could last anywhere between 10-20 years depending on how much your write to it. And they're only getting better and cheaper.

 

[Avnger]

No space would be destroyed from deleting your copy of witcher 3.

SSDs degrade over time when you're constantly rewriting over the same memory blocks but this was really only a problem with first gen SSDs. The technology has improved over time, and now you're very unlikely to have an SSD fail on you because you used it too much. More than likely if you buy an SSD now, the size of the SSD will be come obsolete before it ever fails, just due to program sizes getting bigger and people storing more and more digital media.

gotcha, thanks

As the others have said. Basically, you used to have minor corruption build-up from things not overwriting correctly. Eventually, it became bad enough that the SSD was unusable.

The only way that you can keep data "indefinitely" currently is to invest in a nice data tape writer and a climate-controlled air-proof vault. Current SSDs are the best alternative

 

[Schadrach]

The only way that you can keep data "indefinitely" currently is to invest in a nice data tape writer and a climate-controlled air-proof vault. Current SSDs are the best alternative

The best option for that use case is to make lots and lots of copies and keep them in different places that are unlikely to be subjected to the same natural disaster. If one gets damaged, make a new copy to replace it.

 

[CritialGaming]

Actually I have a question. How does having your OS boot from an SSD affect the SSD? Because I don't do a lot of writing of new information to my SSD as I have a 2 TB HDD for that, but I do shut down and boot my laptop a lot. My laptop has had a problem with going into sleep mode ever since I got it, where if I wake up the computer sometimes the display will never turn back on, so I've resorted to shutting down the computer every time I stop using it for a period of time.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Actually I have a question. How does having your OS boot from an SSD affect the SSD?

It doesn't harm it in any way. SSD's are primarily used as boot drives.

 

[CritialGaming]

Actually I have a question. How does having your OS boot from an SSD affect the SSD?

It doesn't harm it in any way. SSD's are primarily used as boot drives.

Awesome thanks for that Adam. I was worried that it would do something bad and then my cpu wouldn't boot no more

 

[J.McMillen]

Theoretically, newer SSD's have a much longer life expectancy than a typical HDD. An SSD could last anywhere between 10-20 years depending on how much your write to it. And they're only getting better and cheaper.

Actually they can last longer than that. SSD's have a controller inside that works to keep data from overwriting the same location too often. Even if that happens the SSD is supposed to recognize bad spots and stop using them. I read somewhere that if you overwrote every memory location on the SSD, 3 times a day, every day, for 40 years, then you'd wear the drive out. Odds are, most people would upgrade the drive within 5-10 years if they were even still using that same machine.

 

[DarklordKyo]

Actually they can last longer than that. SSD's have a controller inside that works to keep data from overwriting the same location too often. Even if that happens the SSD is supposed to recognize bad spots and stop using them. I read somewhere that if you overwrote every memory location on the SSD, 3 times a day, every day, for 40 years, then you'd wear the drive out. Odds are, most people would upgrade the drive within 5-10 years if they were even still using that same machine.

Holy crap, really shows how far SSDs have come. With that said, how long would you guess it'll take before SSDs become nearly as cost effective as HDDs?

 

[Schadrach]

Holy crap, really shows how far SSDs have come. With that said, how long would you guess it'll take before SSDs become nearly as cost effective as HDDs?

They won't, unless something happens to make hard drives much more expensive to manufacture. That's like asking when cartridges will get as cost effective as optical discs. Actually it's roughly the same tradeoff, even -- size/capacity vs speed/price.

 

[J.McMillen]

Holy crap, really shows how far SSDs have come. With that said, how long would you guess it'll take before SSDs become nearly as cost effective as HDDs?

They won't, unless something happens to make hard drives much more expensive to manufacture. That's like asking when cartridges will get as cost effective as optical discs. Actually it's roughly the same tradeoff, even -- size/capacity vs speed/price.

I don't think HDD will ever go away. They're cheap and generally last longer than people usually use a particular machine, before they upgrade to a newer machine. SSD's are great for certain types of systems, but for the average user with a home computer (desktop) they aren't cost effective for their storage capacity. At least not for the foreseeable future.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

I give it 5 years before SSD's become as mainstream as HDD's. Perhaps sooner. Technology is progressing ridiculously fast. It's actually progressing faster the more it progresses. It's becoming really hard to keep up. Just remember how computers and everything about them used to look only 10 years ago.

 

[DarklordKyo]

They won't, unless something happens to make hard drives much more expensive to manufacture. That's like asking when cartridges will get as cost effective as optical discs. Actually it's roughly the same tradeoff, even -- size/capacity vs speed/price.

To be fair, cartridges can come close if you count modern, SD-card based cartridges (and even exceed them in storage, especially when terabyte cards become a more common thing).

 

[J.McMillen]

They won't, unless something happens to make hard drives much more expensive to manufacture. That's like asking when cartridges will get as cost effective as optical discs. Actually it's roughly the same tradeoff, even -- size/capacity vs speed/price.

To be fair, cartridges can come close if you count modern, SD-card based cartridges (and even exceed them in storage, especially when terabyte cards become a more common thing).

Cartridges may not be as cost effective, but they can store a lot more data in a small and more sturdy package. Costs could be cut by making the cartridge read only so you can skip the normal write control mechanisms. Sure your saves would be stuck on the machine but that's pretty much the norm with games on optical media.