Random ssd question

[ultraman7k]

Just had a question about SSDs. Are they prone to data loss because of power outages? I heard someone make this claim,but I wasnt so sure so I couldn't refute it.

Thanks.

[gingerbee]

i have never lost data on one yet in over 5 years and i have an ssd in every machine

[AkG]

Sounds like your friend is misunderstanding a problem that is concern in servers. Basically IF a SSD accepts an IO and is in the process of writing it and the power goes out the data could potentially be corrupt. This is a concern with RAID arrays, and hdds as well in servers as there is massive IO loads. Servers get arround it by using batterys for the raid controller and super caps in the drives and battery backups for the computers. In the home envrio it can happen (think NCQ casuing a random prob) but it is very rare and can happen to hdds and not just ssd's. Its why everyone says to do a GRACEFUL shutdown and not just unplug as it can cause wonky corruptions. THAT is the root cuase of the "gremlin". Its not really a big issue with a home enviro but if you use a hdd OR a ssd and dont want it to happen...buy a cheap battery backUPS. Will save your bacon as it will condition the power (make it a pure 120 with no dirty harmonics) which will make your PSU last longer. As an added bonus you wont have to "worry" about data corruption from a 1 in a 10,000 chance freak power outage. ;)

YMMV

[Chilly]

While (partiality) true as AkG explained above, most modern SSD's nowadays have a supercap built in to flush the most recent writes to disk anyways. I know the first and second gen Intel SSD's didn't have a supercap, but the gen3's and beyond do for example.

Only a major concern typically in high IOPS situations on high-end raid arrays with write-back caches(hence why many of them provide a "BBU" solution, aka battery or supercap). Typically you'll only find those in servers, or SAN software.

[AkG]

Actually MOST "consumer" SSDs dont come with the supercap. They have ROOM on the pcb for it...but dont have it included. IMHO its not needed as its a non issue for 99.999 of home user scenarios. :)

[TedShackley]

Originally Posted by gingerbee

i have never lost data on one yet in over 5 years and i have an ssd in every machine

SSDs have been out for 5 years...wow

[a35599]

They have come along way, very stable and reliable. That being said, everyone should have a back-up.

[gingerbee]

Originally Posted by TedShackley

SSDs have been out for 5 years...wow

well in fact they have been around much longer but i didn't really start to buy them in mass until about 4 to 5 years ago

p.s ssd tech was developed by nasa i believe for space exploration

[JimboToronto]

Originally Posted by TedShackley

SSDs have been out for 5 years...wow

Over thirty years actually.

SSD (Solid State Disks) Market History - article on STORAGEsearch.com