Industry report finds that SSDs begin losing data after just 7 days of no power

Recent findings from an independent semiconductor standards body has determined that solid state drives begin to lose data if left unpowered for as little as seven days. Solid State Drives, which are faster and smaller than mechanical hard drives, have become the predominant form of data storage in contemporary mobile devices like smart phones and tablets, while also on route to do the same for personal computers.

SSDs, unlike mechanical hard drives, do not have any moving parts; instead, the drives are completely electronic, allowing them to transfer data at a much faster rate. The tradeoff, however, is that SSDs are prone to degradation and are not an ideal long-term storage solution. 

New research presented by Seagate’s Alvin Cox, who is also the chairman of the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council, warns that the time period that data is retained on some SSDs is much worse than was previously thought: It’s cut in half for every 9°F (or 5°C) rise in temperature in where it’s stored. Meaning, that an SSD stored in a warm 77°F (25°C) room will last for approximately two years, whereas raising the temperature to 86°F (30°C) cuts the retention period down to one year.

Consumer products aside, the SSDs employed by enterprise are far riskier, with an expected lifespan of only three months. Subject them to a moderate temperature increase and this figure now drops drops to roughly six weeks.

Cox also outlined that the unrecoverable bit error ratio (UBER), a metric “for the rate of occurrence of data errors, equal to the number of data errors per bits read,” or simply put, ratio of corrupted data, begins to increase after just 7 days of no power.

Ultimately, the big takeaway is that one should seriously consider what type of platform to use for long-term data storage. Clunky as slow as hard drives may be, they’re the superior storage platform. But for running the actual operating systems and the software, the SSD’s performance outshines its short shelf-life. One advisable tweak to enhance the longevity of your SSD is to disable TRIM and any other setting on the operating system that hard disc drives depend on. My own SSD has been rapidly booting Windows for the last three years with no issues.

Source: International Business Times and ZDNET