Solid-state drives lose data if left without power for just a few days

Discussion in 'hardware' started by Minimalist, May 10, 2015.

  1. Minimalist

    Minimalist Registered Member

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  2. quietman

    quietman Registered Member

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  3. Minimalist

    Minimalist Registered Member

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    I didn't experience anything similar, although I have only one SSD that is not connected to power and didn't use it for a long time.
     
  4. Carver

    Carver Registered Member

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    I have the same experience as quietman and I have 2 SSDs and I didn't experience a lose of any Data.
     
  5. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    This is not new news. The 2011 JEDEC Standard No. 218A requires the data on SSDs stored without power at 30°C (86°F) to be retained for 1 year. The "expected" retention at 25°C (77°C) is 105 weeks, just over 2 years.

    JEDEC sets industry standards for microelectronics.

    Note, to view the document, you must register - but it is free.

    SSDs were never intended for long term storage.

    (Edit add: Fixed typo - had 128a, corrected to 218a)


     
    Last edited: May 11, 2015
  6. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    Wow, this is yet another scary story about SSD's.
     
  7. Mr.X

    Mr.X Registered Member

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    Yet one more reason to use them for OS boot and programs solely.
     
  8. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    No, this is all about long term storage without power. A SSD in a computer that is regularly used will undergo regular TRIM and load leveling to "refresh" the data stored on it.

    So I would not worry about using the SSD for your data. I have my data on my SSDs. There are many more greater reasons to be concerned about lost data than this - all of which should be reminders to have a decent backup policy, and use it.
     
  9. Gullible Jones

    Gullible Jones Registered Member

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    This could be a problem for historians, sometime down the road.
     
  10. whitedragon551

    whitedragon551 Registered Member

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    This isnt scary if you use your PC more than once every 2 years.
     
  11. whitedragon551

    whitedragon551 Registered Member

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    What kind of legitimate archival practice uses SSD's? In a historians case I would be surprised if they didnt use magnetic tape drives for long term cold storage.
     
  12. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    Well, any historians worth their salt wouldn't use SSDs that are so volatile without regular, scheduled refreshing, nor would they store them, without power in 30°C (86°F) environments. They would probably keep them in something closer to 10°C (50°F) and ~50% relatively humidity (dry enough to inhibit bold growth, and humid enough to avoid electro-static issues).

    I note currently, in archives and libraries where digital preservation is used, they already routinely refresh the data. Since it is a bunch of 1s and 0s that can be conclusively verified and validated, it can be refreshed and copied over and over again without any worries of losing data integrity. This ensures indefinite preservation even as media and technologies change.
     
  13. Keatah

    Keatah Registered Member

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    The storage industry has complete and utter disregard for anything long-term. Anything more than about 5 years would seem to need specialty/archival products. Having said that, I have HDDs from the 1980's and 1990's which are totally functional. Some not powered up for years. And the ones I did the data was still there.
     
  14. Keatah

    Keatah Registered Member

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    That's absolutely right. I use SSD soley for that purpose. And any programs/OS on that SSD disk are backed up in operational and installable form. This means the standard imaging we all do every now and then +and+ the installable versions like the original discs or downloaded executable files for electronically delivered programs purchased online.

    This is a double whammy backup. An image can be restored immediately. Or if that fails, I can recreate & rebuild the system by doing new installs.

    User type archival data is best kept on mechanical disks which are backed up in some fashion.
     
  15. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    For normal consumers, that's true. But not historians and archivist who have the funding to pay for state-of-the-art technologies and facilities.
     
  16. Keatah

    Keatah Registered Member

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    Yes and that's a shame. My personal photographs are far more important to me than book#567 of the Gootenburg Project.
     
  17. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    All the more reason to have multiple backups.
     
  18. Gullible Jones

    Gullible Jones Registered Member

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    I was thinking more data recovery and "digital archeology", not archival. Public data that seems inconsequential now might be invaluable in the future.

    (See also: the Age of Data Loss, why proprietary formats and cryptographic DRM are a problem, etc.)
     
  19. NGRhodes

    NGRhodes Registered Member

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    I call BS
    The PDF is from 2010 !
     
  20. TheWindBringeth

    TheWindBringeth Registered Member

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    Picked due to the amusing "a special feature" language...

    http://globalsp.ts.fujitsu.com/dmsp/Publications/public/wp-solid-state-drives-faq-ww-en.pdf
    Numerous other hits were found with a logical search: Flash OR SSD "bit errors" temperature storage. Here is another one, chosen because they appear to have an embedded system focus (where temperature ranges are often taken seriously):

    Temperature Considerations for Industrial Embedded SSDs
    http://www.virtium.com/wp-content/u...sidersations-for-Industrial-Embedded-SSDs.pdf

    Might as well make it a triple play:

    Measuring Reliability in SSD Storage Systems - Uncorrectable Bit Errors Temperature Model
    http://www.flashmemorysummit.com/English/Collaterals/Proceedings/2014/20140806_T1_Hetzler.pdf
     
  21. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    I would not think they would use magnetic tape. Tape has a long established problem of bleed through to the adjacent layers on the reel. Drums or disks make more sense.
    But still the industry standard. I note the ATX Form Factor standard is several years older.
     
    Last edited: May 10, 2015
  22. oliverjia

    oliverjia Registered Member

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    I am a bit shocked to read this info. I thought SSDs are rock solid, but it appears that traditional HDD is still the way to go for long time data storage. The storage temperature (non-operating) is typically from -40 to 70 degree Celsius, and I read stories where people pull out more than a decade old HDDs and find them still working.
     
    Last edited: May 11, 2015
  23. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    I recent pulled out some 40Mb, 100Mb and 6Gb drives from 10 - 15 years ago and all but one worked fine. The one didn't would not even spin so I am assuming the bearing were seized.

    The problem with older drives is the interface. Many new motherboards don't come with IDE interfaces anymore.
     
  24. NGRhodes

    NGRhodes Registered Member

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    Yes exactly, not "new research" as the zdnet article claims !
     
  25. Bill_Bright

    Bill_Bright Registered Member

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    Yeah! That's why I said this is not new news then quoted the requirements from the "2011" (not 2010, but close enough to illustrate it is nothing new) JEDEC standard, JESD218. The exact same 2011 JEDEC document the totally unbiased :isay: cough cough Seagate chairman references.

    You know, I generally like ZDNet, but I always take what they (and their sister sites, TechRepublic and CNET) have to say with a grain of salt.

    I guess by "new research", this ZDNet "writer" means it is new to him. :rolleyes:
     
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