How long should an SSD last?

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DS248

1695 posts

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#2316643 12-Sep-2019 16:40

This thread prompted me to DL the Intel Drive Toolbox and check my Intel 750 Series 1.2 TB PCIE3 SSD C: drive (still only a quarter full!).

Estimated remaining life appears to be ~90% (89%?) which I guess is good given that the drive is now over 3.5 years old (remaining life ~30 years !!?? 😅). Assuming I am reading the bar graph correctly!

Some stats intriguing relative to those posted by K8Toledo. Possibly I am misunderstanding some reported values, though.

Power on hours for me is only half at 16281 but power on count is almost double at 17074. Latter figure looks odd as normally the PC is turned on and off only once a day. The reported figure suggests about once an hour, which does not make sense?

Also puzzled by my 'Data Units Read' figure which at 331.67 GB seems very low for a C: drive? 'Data Units Written' is higher at 1888.34 GB but still low compared to K8Toledo's values. Ratio of Host Write Commands / Host Read Commands is even higher, more like 12. Yet higher up in the SMART details 'Timed Workload - Host Read/Write Ratio' is showing as 17 (seems to contradict the preceding data???). At least all but one of my error/fail counts are 0 (Number of Error Info Log Entries = 1).

DS248

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#2316653 12-Sep-2019 16:51

Just worked out why so many power on cycles - have certain rouge program (Suunto Moveslink) that repeatedly fires up my PC when it is hibernated overnight. A PITA but it is a program I use (semi!) regularly and I (& from posts on various sites, others) have yet to work out how to stop the errant behaviour. Anyway, Moveslink is near superseded (being replaced by a more limited 'App', which itself is a PITA for me!).

Paul1977

5044 posts

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#2317069 13-Sep-2019 11:04

I'm pretty sure it was stuck Windows 10 updates. I generally just trust it's doing it's updates, but on a few occasions when I've manually checked it has been stuck on one, which is resolved by manually downloading and installing the update.

But I hadn't realised until this time that when this happens it's writing to the system drive 24/7, and it can be months before I notice the stuck update.

I'll monitor how much the write count increases over a few weeks to make sure that was definitely the cause. Might have to look at a clean install since this has happened more than once.

System drive does a monthly full backup and nightly incrementals, so only a minor inconvenience if it dies before being replaced.

K8Toledo

1014 posts

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#2317136 13-Sep-2019 13:34

@paul1977

Intel FW updates are available which address a couple issues one of them incorrect SMART reporting of TLB read/writes in SSD Toolbox.

Another for 760p you can read details below

https://downloadmirror.intel.com/28749/eng/Intel_SSD_Firmware_Update_Tool_3_0_7_Release_Notes-328292-030US.pdf

https://downloadmirror.intel.com/28808/eng/Intel%20SSD%20Toolbox%20--%20v3.5.11.zip

K8Toledo

1014 posts

Uber Geek

#2317144 13-Sep-2019 13:42

DS248:

This thread prompted me to DL the Intel Drive Toolbox and check my Intel 750 Series 1.2 TB PCIE3 SSD C: drive (still only a quarter full!).

Estimated remaining life appears to be ~90% (89%?) which I guess is good given that the drive is now over 3.5 years old (remaining life ~30 years !!?? 😅). Assuming I am reading the bar graph correctly!

Some stats intriguing relative to those posted by K8Toledo. Possibly I am misunderstanding some reported values, though.

Power on hours for me is only half at 16281 but power on count is almost double at 17074. Latter figure looks odd as normally the PC is turned on and off only once a day. The reported figure suggests about once an hour, which does not make sense?

Also puzzled by my 'Data Units Read' figure which at 331.67 GB seems very low for a C: drive? 'Data Units Written' is higher at 1888.34 GB but still low compared to K8Toledo's values. Ratio of Host Write Commands / Host Read Commands is even higher, more like 12. Yet higher up in the SMART details 'Timed Workload - Host Read/Write Ratio' is showing as 17 (seems to contradict the preceding data???). At least all but one of my error/fail counts are 0 (Number of Error Info Log Entries = 1).

Haha I just noticed the big fat 0 next to SMART Power On Count!

DS248

1695 posts

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#2317146 13-Sep-2019 13:42

re: firmware update. Yes, toolbox was prompting me to update mine (750 series) and I started down that track but chickened out. Thought of something going wrong in a firmware update of a c:\ drive disk was a bit disconcerting.

I would be interested in any comments on the likelihood or otherwise of a SSD firmware update going wrong. Am I being too cautious (probably not as well backed up as I should be!)?

Paul1977

5044 posts

Uber Geek

#2317147 13-Sep-2019 13:43

K8Toledo:

@paul1977

Intel FW updates are available which address a couple issues one of them incorrect SMART reporting of TLB read/writes in SSD Toolbox.

Another for 760p you can read details below

https://downloadmirror.intel.com/28749/eng/Intel_SSD_Firmware_Update_Tool_3_0_7_Release_Notes-328292-030US.pdf

https://downloadmirror.intel.com/28808/eng/Intel%20SSD%20Toolbox%20--%20v3.5.11.zip

Thanks, but am already running Toolbox 3.5.11 and firmware 004C.

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K8Toledo

1014 posts

Uber Geek

#2317162 13-Sep-2019 14:02

DS248:

This thread prompted me to DL the Intel Drive Toolbox and check my Intel 750 Series 1.2 TB PCIE3 SSD C: drive (still only a quarter full!).

Estimated remaining life appears to be ~90% (89%?) which I guess is good given that the drive is now over 3.5 years old (remaining life ~30 years !!?? 😅). Assuming I am reading the bar graph correctly!

Some stats intriguing relative to those posted by K8Toledo. Possibly I am misunderstanding some reported values, though.

Power on hours for me is only half at 16281 but power on count is almost double at 17074. Latter figure looks odd as normally the PC is turned on and off only once a day. The reported figure suggests about once an hour, which does not make sense?

Could it possibly be the PC going into S3 (sleep state)? S3 shuts down all hardware except RAM.

P.S. @paul1977 if you haven't read these article/s yet it may cheer you up a bit. Most of the test drives went above and beyond the call of duty :)

https://www.google.com/search?q=ssd+endurance+test&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-e

DS248

1695 posts

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Lifetime subscriber

#2317166 13-Sep-2019 14:06

K8Toledo: Could it possibly be the PC going into S3 (sleep state)? S3 shuts down all hardware except RAM.

Yes, guess that may be some of the explanation? Does go into sleep state several times a day.

Suppose I really should update the drive firmware? Toolbox is up to date.

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