Steve Jones - SSC Editor (9/29/2016)
djackson 22568 (9/29/2016)
Interesting comment about how SSDs might not be susceptible to this.SSDs have a limited number of writes. Hard drive life is measured differently, MTBF. I would be interested in hearing how others have found SSDs to perform as far as reliability, either in this thread or another one. I think enough organizations have been using them for sufficient time to make some assumptions about reliability.
I know there are cost issues, and that unusually loud sounds or vibration are not common, and there are a lot of other factors to consider, but long term I do see most, if not all, storage going that route.
Not sure SSDs are susceptible to this. I was trying to point out they likely will be susceptible to something.
Reliability is dramatically improved. I use almost all SSDs in 2 laptops and a desktop as well as externals. Have found them to be very reliable, lasting years. However, when they go, they usually just go without much warning.
People initially had issues in servers, as early SSDs wrote to the same spot. In the last 4-5 years, most use write leveling and have MTBFs in the years range now. I have no issue using them.
3D SSDs, newer tech, will change our world. Very low tatencies and high capacities. No idea on reliability, but coming with good warranties.
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Thanks, Steve. I didn't communicate properly - I didn't mean to sound like I thought SSDs are susceptible to this. I agree they are likely at risk for other things. To me the big one is the way they are written to, and how they fail.
I have had a couple fail in laptops, but manufacturers aren't buying the best quality SSDs for laptops and desktops. When I replaced them I went with a brand I trust and had no issues. In fact I had my current laptop purchased with a hard drive, and then bought a replacement before it was built. The only issue I have is with the crap our Windows team pushed out to me. Every patch Tuesday... but that isn't the drive.
Our servers are where I am concerned. I am not a SAN expert. From what I know about RAID 5, if I had a server with three disks, I think they would be likely to all fail within hours of each other, which scares me just a wee bit. I am hoping that as we all see failures, we see them happen more randomly. Failures that are predictably at the same time, but at an unknown time, are far worse than random unpredictable times. I have never seen a RAID array have all drives fail at once. In my own experience, never more than one at a time. Mathematically speaking, an array of SSDs should fail together, assuming I understand them correctly.
Dave