SSD disk
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(intentional
in the title)My current SSD is dying, or at least I assume so: it's 7 years old and constantly shows disk errors in Linux (for some reason Windows is still fine, I guess it does a better job to work around dead sectors or something like that). So I'm considering replacing it.
When I bought it (7 years ago!), a friend told me there were huge quality differences and I went for an OCZ Vertex (256 GB). It wasn't the cheapest, but apparently the price difference was worth it. I have absolutely no idea whether that is still true. Should I worry now about the brand, or can I just pick the cheapest that I can get on Amazon or wherever I buy?
I'm not looking at anything fancy, it's been years since I've played a recent game on my PC, most of my use is boring-at-home-stuff-by-a-responsible-adult (i.e. email, some browsing, office work, light gaming now and again...). I expect that the technology is now more than mature enough, and that even entry-level models should be Good Enough
for that, am I wrong?
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@remi Downvoted for not specifying that it was a solid state SSD disk
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Should I worry now about the brand, or can I just pick the cheapest that I can get on Amazon or wherever I buy?
Yep, to an extent. The cheap ones can be total garbage.
Sandisk, Intel and Samsung seem universally solid on all their product lines. Personally I like the Samsung Evos for non-critical use and the Samsung Pros for business stuff, very good performance/reliability/price points.
Edit: failures we've had have been ADATA branded. Everything else still humming along.
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@remi Downvoted
Liar.
for not specifying that it was a solid state SSD disk
But that would have been too obvious. Trolling is a art, you know.
EDIT: I just went to amazon.fr and while browsing the categories I can pick:
("RAM memory", in case the translation isn't obvious)
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I just went with WD for the 1TB/£125 I bought back in Feb.
It's still working...
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@remi Downvoted for not specifying that it was a solid state SSD disk
It shows read errors. It might very well be in liquid state inside.
As of your question. In 2014, I bought the cheapest 120GB SSD I could find (Goodram C50). It still works just fine. And yes, the technology progressed a lot, both in performance and durability. So go with cheapest shit is my advice.
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I really like my Samsung 960 (NVMe, 500G) and Samsung 850 EVO (1T). (Built the system 12/2016)
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@Cursorkeys said in SSD disk:
The cheap ones can be total garbage.
OK, good to know. I'll filter out the cheapest ones, keeping the brands mentioned here. They're so cheap anyway nowadays, that picking the 2nd or 3rd cheapest won't make a significant price difference anyway (I mean, it's like 70 bucks vs. 50...).
Another thing is the interface. I think the current one is SATA, do I need to buy a SATA disk or would a SATA 2, 3 work as well? If it's like USB (1, 2, 3) then it means I can just ignore that criterion when searching (I won't benefit from a faster one but it will still work), but if they are fully different standards, maybe a SATA 3 won't work with a SATA board?
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Another thing is the interface. I think the current one is SATA, do I need to buy a SATA disk or would a SATA 2, 3 work as well? If it's like USB (1, 2, 3) then it means I can just ignore that criterion when searching (I won't benefit from a faster one but it will still work), but if they are fully different standards, maybe a SATA 3 won't work with a SATA board?
SATA is backwards-compatible like USB; you can plug a SATA 3 drive into a SATA 1/2 port, but it will only run at the SATA 1/2 speed.
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Another thing is the interface. I think the current one is SATA, do I need to buy a SATA disk or would a SATA 2, 3 work as well? If it's like USB (1, 2, 3) then it means I can just ignore that criterion when searching (I won't benefit from a faster one but it will still work), but if they are fully different standards, maybe a SATA 3 won't work with a SATA board?
It's fully backwards compatible. It'll just negotiate the fastest rate that both ends support. The other SATAs (mSATA, M.2) are totally different, but the form-factor is different too for them.
Edit:
'd
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Perfect. Thanks everyone for your help!
Amazon.fr currently has an Intel 512 GB SATA 3 for less than EUR 70, that seems a pretty good choice. I'll check a couple of other places, but I'll probably end up taking that.
I now declare this thread officially open to derailment.
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I now declare this thread officially open to derailment.
Every thread is like that from the start
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@TimeBandit said in SSD disk:
I now declare this thread officially open to derailment.
Every thread is like that from the start
General help ones are never open to derailment.
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for some reason Windows is still fine, I guess it does a better job to work around dead sectors or something like that
No it's not, it's just shoving said errors four levels deep into the Event Log.
Even when the drive goes Read Only, Windows will quietly do nothing to tell you about it.
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I've got a pair of SATA Samsung Evo SSDs that are 3/4 years old and still going strong. Also a WD M.2 SSD which is only a few months old but it's silly fast.
The alternative if you've only got SATA ports is to use a SATA3 PCIe card (I did this on my previous motherboard) or M.2 PCIe adapter.
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@Tsaukpaetra said in SSD disk:
for some reason Windows is still fine, I guess it does a better job to work around dead sectors or something like that
No it's not, it's just shoving said errors four levels deep into the Event Log.
Could be, although on Linux the errors are such that the disk is mounted in read-only, and repairing does not work (it says it does work, but the same errors on the same sectors pop up after a reboot).
Even when the drive goes Read Only, Windows will quietly do nothing to tell you about it.
Oh. So maybe the disk is mounted in read-only, and I simply did not notice it because most of my documents are actually on another disk (and some days I just browse stuff, so I just need a working browser)... If so, I'm somewhere between annoyed that Windows did not notify me, and impressed that it would still manage to work well enough for me not to notice it!
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Oh. So maybe the disk is mounted in read-only, and I simply did not notice it because most of my documents are actually on another disk (and some days I just browse stuff, so I just need a working browser)... If so, I'm somewhere between annoyed that Windows did not notify me, and impressed that it would still manage to work well enough for me not to notice it!
It's very possible, especially if you have a mostly healthy filesystem before the read-only happened. Oh, and enough RAM for the write cache to not complain for a while.
I had a lot of fun a few years back and a few months ago just recently...
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Oh. So maybe the disk is mounted in read-only, and I simply did not notice it because most of my documents are actually on another disk (and some days I just browse stuff, so I just need a working browser)... If so, I'm somewhere between annoyed that Windows did not notify me, and impressed that it would still manage to work well enough for me not to notice it!
It'll kind-of tell you, if you open EventLog there'll be a bazillion
disk/ntfsevents. HDDGuardian is great for keeping an eye on disk health under Windows. Sadly, the author ceased development over harassment.
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@Cursorkeys said in SSD disk:
if you open EventLog
Yeah, I never do that.
Mind you, the recurring unfixable errors on Linux are enough to tell me that the disk is very likely dying, and a new SSD isn't going to cost me much (especially if, like the previous one, it lasts more than 5 years!), so I'm not going to bother diagnosing in more details. Even if I'm wrong and it's not the disk, I'll put the new one to replace my data HDD, or in another computer, it won't be wasted money.
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the recurring unfixable errors on Linux are enough to tell me that the disk is very likely dying
Very very likely. Get a new one instead of worrying. It'd be an opportunity to get a bigger one too, which is nice…
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the recurring unfixable errors on Linux are enough to tell me that the disk is very likely dying
Very very likely. Get a new one instead of worrying.
Well that was the very point of this thread, getting relevant information about the one to get. I never doubted I was going to get one.
It'd be an opportunity to get a bigger one too, which is nice…
Yeah, the one I've mentioned up-thread is 512 GB instead of my current 256 GB. Current one isn't full, but more space won't harm.
I'm actually just waiting to get my new phone before I can order it.
Yes, there is a logic to it: my bank will send me a text message to validate the purchase. But my phone was stolen last week! By some luck my SIM card wasn't inside it when it happened. But all the other spare phones I have at home take regular-sized SIM cards, not nano-SIM. Of course there are adapters but I would have to buy one and there is no reason to believe it would be delivered before the replacement phone (plus, how would I validate the payment of that adapter?)...
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@remi For some reason, I feel very thankful now, of the fact that I can just drive to a well-stocked computer supplies store and slap some cash on the table. It's still twice as expensive as any place in central Europe, and the drive is 30min each way, but it's so nice to have the option anyway.
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@remi I bought the cheapest SanDisk I could find for my parents about 3 years ago and it's worked perfectly.
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By some luck my SIM card wasn't inside it when it happened.
I'm pretty sure this is TRWTF.
But all the other spare phones I have at home take regular-sized SIM cards, not nano-SIM. Of course there are adapters but I would have to buy one and there is no reason to believe it would be delivered before the replacement phone (plus, how would I validate the payment of that adapter?)...
Just how far from your home is the nearest mobile carrier shop? They often have dozens of unused adapters lying around. Or get a mobile starter pack at local supermarket.
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We bought 25 Intel 535s a few years ago to put in machines at work - so far 4 have died; according to the service guy at our supplier, they see quite a few Intels returned for RMA.
Other than that, I have a bunch of Crucial SATA SSDs in computers, a lot of WD Black NVMe, and Green and Blue SATA and some Samsung 960 Evo NVMe, and the only one of these that died was a Crucial BX500 (which admittedly is by far the cheapest SSD available). Also some Kingston SATA and NVMe drives, but not enough to draw any conclusions.
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By some luck my SIM card wasn't inside it when it happened.
I'm pretty sure this is TRWTF.
Not that much, in fact. I was on holidays abroad and we bought a local pre-paid SIM to get around the eye-watering roaming cost of my operator (7 EUR/min when calling!!! OK, this is probably TRWTF). My phone only had one slot, so I had to remove my usual SIM to put the pre-paid one instead. For various non-technological reasons, it was more convenient to have it in my phone than in someone's else (dual SIM).
In retrospect, I'm glad I did, since it means I haven't lost my SIM (OK, getting a replacement is easy) and more importantly the thief hasn't got any possible access to anything linked to my phone number (e.g. confirmation codes sent by banks or such!). That would have been quickly blocked but still, not losing it is even better.
Just how far from your home is the nearest mobile carrier shop? They often have dozens of unused adapters lying around. Or get a mobile starter pack at local supermarket.
I could. If I really was in a hurry, I would have done any of those things. If it were to last much longer, I would do it. Call me
if you want, I am still able to function without a phone. I'm going to have to delay a purchase by a couple of days, what a huge loss.I could also, like @acrow said, walk to a physical store and buy a disk there, if I wanted to. In fact I happened to do that yesterday to buy unrelated stuff and it didn't even occur to me to look at what disks they might have.
(unrelated
from myself: I wanted a special extension cord and was so sure of the type of plug that I did not bother checking again before leaving home, and of course I picked the wrong one...).
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Oh. So maybe the disk is mounted in read-only, and I simply did not notice it because most of my documents are actually on another disk (and some days I just browse stuff, so I just need a working browser)... If so, I'm somewhere between annoyed that Windows did not notify me, and impressed that it would still manage to work well enough for me not to notice it!
Hmm...you may have just figured out how to fix Windows Updates.
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@boomzilla said in SSD disk:
Oh. So maybe the disk is mounted in read-only, and I simply did not notice it because most of my documents are actually on another disk (and some days I just browse stuff, so I just need a working browser)... If so, I'm somewhere between annoyed that Windows did not notify me, and impressed that it would still manage to work well enough for me not to notice it!
Hmm...you may have just figured out how to fix Windows Updates.
Except it will probably download them again. And again. And again...
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@boomzilla What, via the explicitly documented registry key?
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@pie_flavor said in SSD disk:
@boomzilla What, via the explicitly documented registry key?
Signs point to no.
