SSD as Archive Drive

[Jingtian Wang]

Hi all,

So I'm approach a point where I'm running low on storage on my laptop, I'm looking into getting an external SSD to offload some older, lesser used files. My logic being that as I mostly generate a bunch of text documents and other small files, cost per gig are less of a concern. Instead, the lack of  moving part, thus increased durability of SSD would create more security. Furthermore, considering modern SDD's write limits are practically unreachable, it looks to me and SSD for my use would be more durable than and external hard drive, and cheaper than a NAS, and the small one time cost over HDDs is more than fine to me.

Does my logic check out?

[WereCatf]

2 minutes ago, Jingtian Wang said:

Does my logic check out?

I don't see any particular problem with your logic. SSDs are fast, reasonably cheap and very reliable now. That said, if those files are important, you should always have them stored on two (or more) different drives rather than just one.

[Vishera]

10 minutes ago, Jingtian Wang said:

Instead, the lack of  moving part, thus increased durability of SSD would create more security. Furthermore, considering modern SDD's write limits are practically unreachable, it looks to me and SSD for my use would be more durable than and external hard drive, and cheaper than a NAS, and the small one time cost over HDDs is more than fine to me.

Does my logic check out?

With DRAM-less QLC SSDs it's easy to reach the write limit within the warranty period,

And there is a reason that data-centers use primarily hard drives.

Writes wear out SSDs.

As for hard drives it doesn't matter to them.

 

So the longevity depends on your use case.

The less you use the SSD the more it will last.

 

I have a tons of hard drives,one of them is 15 years old and still going-on strong,another is 13 years old,and there is a 8 years old one all are working fine.

Currently i use modern hard drives,the oldest drive in my rig is 5 years old.

[WereCatf]

6 minutes ago, Vishera said:

With DRAM-less QLC SSDs it's easy to reach the write limit within the warranty period

I have not seen any evidence backing that up. Do provide evidence for such a wild claim.

[Moonzy]

SSD data rots faster than HDD dont they?

 

not too sure about archiving with them

but they sure are durable, physically

[porina]

55 minutes ago, Vishera said:

With DRAM-less QLC SSDs it's easy to reach the write limit within the warranty period,

The OP said it is for light storage: "mostly generate a bunch of text documents and other small files". Endurance of even small/cheap SSDs is extremely unlikely to be a problem in this usage scenario.

 

46 minutes ago, Moonzy said:

SSD data rots faster than HDD dont they?

A reference I looked up in the past is: https://www.anandtech.com/show/9248/the-truth-about-ssd-data-retention

In short, nothing to worry about.

[Vishera]

6 hours ago, porina said:

The OP said it is for light storage: "mostly generate a bunch of text documents and other small files". Endurance of even small/cheap SSDs is extremely unlikely to be a problem in this usage scenario.

I agree,for that use case it will be fine.

6 hours ago, WereCatf said:

I have not seen any evidence backing that up. Do provide evidence for such a wild claim.

A lot of the cheap drives are around 75TBW,

So if you write 80GB on it everyday it will reach the limit before the warranty ends (2.568 years to be more accurate).

[porina]

16 minutes ago, Vishera said:

So if you write 80GB on it everyday it will reach the limit before the warranty ends (2.568 years to be more accurate).

80GB/day is very heavy usage. Even if you have busy days, it wont be every day.

 

For indication, the SSD on my main system I built in 2015, which has been in near daily use since then, has only reached 30TBW in just over 39k power-on-hours, or equivalently 18.6GB per power-on-day. As a system drive it would be subject to a lot more activity than a storage drive.

[Jingtian Wang]

I think there are few things I need to clear up, my usage will mostly be a case of "store and forget", such as putting old pictures or old school files on the drive, forget about it until I need it 3 years down the line.

10 hours ago, porina said:

The OP said it is for light storage

In fact, tbh my daily data write is usually in the kilobytes with word documents, with occasionally couple hundred megs of photos. 

 

11 hours ago, Vishera said:

And there is a reason that data-centers use primarily hard drives.

I fully agree with this statement, although it assumes the drives are properly cared for like running in a tower or NAS. My fear is accidently dropping the drive or it getting banged up in a drawer. 

 

Thank you all for your input, I was having doubts since using SSD as backups were not commonly talked about. But from what I've seen, I'm pretty confident I'll be fine.