Do you want to replace your old SSD with a new SSD? Don't be so quick to throw away a disc that has reached the end of its life – it can still be useful. Howtogeek.com portal speakHow to understand when it's time to replace your SSD and what you can use the old drive for.
SSDs don't have an expiration date, but they do have a finite number of read/write cycles — so-called. TBW rating, measured in terabytes. It tells the user how much data (approximately) can be written to the drive before it is exhausted.
But in fact, even this assessment can be considered relative. First, most users do not achieve the final value. And second, even if someone really exhausts the disk's resources, it can still continue to operate without any problems. Even small SSDs today have TBW ratings in the hundreds of terabytes; The actual error rate is low, although of course any disk can fail suddenly for one reason or another.
Therefore, the Backblaze cloud platform has shared statistics on the status of SSDs used on storage servers. The annualized failure rate in Q1 2023 was 0.96% for 3,144 drives. The percentage increased to 1.05% in the second quarter (8 drives in three months), but it's important to remember that all drives were under heavy load during the quarter.
Usually, replacing an old SSD with a new SSD only makes sense if the old SSD has some problems. If it still works and doesn't cause any complaints, there's absolutely no need to throw it away – there are many ways to give new life to an old disc.
For example, both NVMe and SATA SSDs can be converted into external drives by plugging them into a USB enclosure. SATA conversions typically reach speeds of 400-550 MB/s in USB 3.2 enclosures, which is quite good. NVMe – up to 1,000 MB/s in a good USB 3.2 Gen 2 enclosure. If you're careful and find a high-end Thunderbolt or USB 4 case, speeds can exceed 3,000 MB/s.
Another option is to create backup storage from a non-essential SSD for backups and system images or for any other important files. Just check the drive's status first via CrtystalDiskInfo or any other utility.
The last point is generally very important. Before trusting your old SSD with a new important task, you need to make sure it won't let you down. Check the health of the drive using SMART, try not to overfill the drive (leave 20% of capacity free). If there are any problems, don't store important information on the drive – leave it better served for less important purposes.
But if you still need to throw away the SSD, format it first. Some manufacturers offer this functionality in proprietary applications; If not, you can use the format in BIOS. Just be careful and choose the right drive.
