cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/5332699
I have an SSD that’s around 5 years old now. It used to be in my laptop. But then I upgraded my laptop and put it in a homeserver. It still works perfectly well but from what I’ve read, SSDs fail suddenly without much prior indications.
Do you think I should replace it already? It’s not running any super important stuff. If it dies, it’ll just mean that my media servers will be down for a day, not a super big deal since I have regular backups. I feel bad creating unnecessary e-waste, so I’ll love to know your experience with SSDs and how frequently do you usually replace them.
Also, if you know a tool which can help me detect remaining lifespan of an SSD, that’ll be very helpful. Thanks.
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No, no need to replace it unless the wearout in SMART is tripped.
Sudden failure happens in all hardware, keep backups that are tested so you don’t need to worry about it.
If you have regular backups I wouldn’t worry. If you don’t, I worry…. and you should!
Check the output of smartctl and have it run some self-tests.
And as others have said. Backup!
Check the life remaining on the drive with crystaldiskinfo it should give you a nice percentage of life but I go off how much data it has seen.
An SSD from 5 years ago is probably rated for around 200TB written, but I would check your model. As long as you are below the TBW with no corrupted sectors, the SSD is fine to keep using. I would probably back it up more frequently, and keep checking crystaldisk for any changes.
As others have said, keep using it.
But I what I haven’t seen mentioned yet is that you could buy your replacement now. I had an SSD die suddenly (no SMART error) and the most annoying thing was the server being down until a new hard drive could arrive.
Not a huge deal, but if the SSD goes on to last for X more years, buying an SSD today to save a bit of time will seem pretty poorly thought-out in retrospect
Make use of it then! Or even better, ZFS mirror or RAID 1 so that if one dies the other holds a perfect copy and can continue running unaffected.
Sounds like you’ve already answered your own question.
It might die. If it does, it’s not a super big deal. You have backups. You don’t like creating unnecessary e-waste.
As gets have said, crystal disk info can help detect any existing problems, but it can’t predict the future if something happens suddenly. So it can be a good indicator, but don’t assume it’s 100%.
Keed using it, set up
smartdto check up on it regularly and send you an email if something goes wrong.
