Unpowered SSD endurance investigation finds severe data loss and performance issues
Unpowered SSD endurance investigation finds severe data loss and performance issues
YouTuber SSD tests reveals problems all round on two-year-old TLC drives.
Seeing these errors means "the SSD is on its way out," according to HTWingNut.
Since we're simply talking about being unpowered for a while, wouldn't a simple full format fix/reset all ECC errors? No need to scrap the drive.
Surely a cap/transistor temporarily losing charge shouldn't permanently destroy it!
Anyways, HDD for 6-24 months offline data storage, SSD for always-online data storage, and flash if you're a masochist like me.
I think tape storage has the best longevity in offline data storage, but it's been a while since I checked.
Depends on the threat model and how long do you need the data.
Worked on a place long ago, that anything they needed to save offline from more than a few decades where stored in microfilm, the expectancy there where they would last 80 to 100 years.
Anything else was pretty much tape.
You also take in account the technology avaiability. The more complex is to use, harder will it be to reproduce in the future. Even with tapes, you might want to copy the data to another tape/recorder every decade or two, to keep it on par with the technology.
Tape presents its own share of problems. If not strored in some very particular conditions, like temp, humidity, and others that I can't recall, they can stick to tbe adjacent layers, become brittle, curved, etc...
Technically does, but has a very high rate of failure on recovery, you need to recover the entire drive not just a section, and it can take days or weeks to read it back, vs mere hours.
M-Disc
I'm sure USB pen drives are even worse.
I actually just pulled some files off of one from 2004-ish. No issues. Found another one from 2008 about a year ago that had no issues as well. Not sure why… maybe because they were so much lower capacity? Like, one was 64MB and that was huge back then.
They were slc, so the charge ratio was much higher.
Mlc/tlc/qlc drives have to measure a current very precisely, up to 16 values of discrimination, any charge degredation doesn't change a 1 to a 0, but a 3 to a 2 to a 1 and given enough time, a zero.
Also smaller gate dielectric so more leakage.
Those old drives may be using SLC flash. It can have a 20+ year data retention.
I pulled some data off some old Samsung 1TB SSDs that werent powered for 3-4 years without an issue either. I guess they were SLC based on what others are saying.
I guess it's a your mileage may vary situation depending on the exact drive you purchase and probably other factors too.
Reject flash, return to tape
The tape is a lie.
I'm making a note here