Huh?

I have an Old Samsung PB22-J. No issues.

I have two crucial M4. No issues.

I have a Samsung 840 Pro. No issues.

Now let me guess, your drives are Sandforce / OCZ?

I've used OCZ SSDs for 5 years, had one failure (Core series). During the same period of time, I've had 2 hard disk failures. What gives?

When I started using SSDs, this was new technology. Much opposed to harddisks, which one should assume far beyond teething problems. Yet, in my observation frame, harddisks fail twice as often.

In the mean time, much has passed. SSDs are not only much faster, they also have TRIM and are more reliable and live longer.

I'm currently using an OCZ Vertex4-256 as development disk, and I'm about to replace the system disk (harddisk) with another one. That is, 2 SSD system with zero harddisk. Not worried in any way.

Never did a firmware upgrade, never had a problem with the Vertex 4.

I had a 128GB Corsair Force 3 GT for a year, it still works fine (its in another PC now). Got a new SSD now (not because anything was wrong with the previous one though).

I was so happy with SSD's that I just got a Intel 520 Series 480GB SSD, and now use it as my primary drive and is the only drive on my computer (I use a network drive to back things up though). Having a half a terrabyte SSD is so nice, you dont have to worry about total space remaning and EVERYTHING is extremely responsive (everything is installed on the SSD and not a half-half setup with a SSD/HDD combination).. Lets see how this drive plays out for the next 2 years :).

By this point I am repeating advice, but solid-state-drives are for one purpose and one purpose only: operating systems.

No matter how you slice it this is how it goes. You have one partition for Windows XP, one partition for Windows 7, one partition for raw data, and one partition for installers and programs.

The operating systems should be on solid-state drives if available, and partitions if not. Either way, keep these things separate. Never mix operating-system partitions with anything else or you are just asking for trouble.

L. Spiro

[quote name='L. Spiro' timestamp='1357730423' post='5019417']The operating systems should be on solid-state drives if available, and partitions if not. Either way, keep these things separate. Never mix operating-system partitions with anything else or you are just asking for trouble.[/quote]I did have the OS and data partitions separate, but that doesn't help when the entire drive dies

p.s. compiling on MSVC is often I/O bound, so keeping your code projects on your SSD can give a very nice performance boost to your C++ compilation times.

L. Spiro - their use is a bit wider than that. For instance I have 500 GB of audio samples on SSD-s and there would literally be no other way to stream them anywhere near efficiently enough for actual use. Similarly, any serious video editing setup either requires an array of HHD-s or an SSD solution.

What is the horror of having your data and os on the same disk and partition?

Diskfailure? So what?
You don't have any vital data on only your personal computer do you?

That, if anything, is madness.

backup-backup-backup.
Then version control, and then some backup on the version control.

If so I have to use my laptop as a shield protecting myself from a crazy hobo with a shotgun, I shouldn't lose more then a couple of hours of work...
If it happens at the office, I'll lose like 30minutes of work, including the restore-time.

BTW, I really love how much quicker the checkouts are now, with SSD.

Also, keeping the web cache there speeds up my browsing.

If it breaks, who cares, then I'll buy a new one.
It's not really like its a noticable cost in the big picture...

The real problem with a SSD breaking is not that it's breaking, though. Nor that your data is gone. Someone who doesn't do backups deserves to lose his data, there's really not much more to say to it than that.

The real problem is the exact same one as with a harddisk: You cannot get replacement.

While you can of course (and will) get a new disk from the manufacturer within your warranty term (5 years in the case of Vertex4 drives), you need to hand in your broken device in exchange. Which includes all data on it. Seeing how this may include data that you do not want give to any random person just that easily, it means that you effectively have no warranty.

I'm not even saying that some guy at Intel, Crucial, or OCZ might want to sniff on your data (though quite possibly, why not?). But chances are that the manufacturer will for example replace the broken controller and give your harddisk to the next customer as a replacement for another broken disk (assuming it is within some reasonable limit of write cycles). They'd probably format it (but can you be sure?), but what does that really mean on a device that reallocates sectors as a standard procedure.

SSDs usually have 128-bit AES encryption nowadays, but that is good for nothing security-wise, because they key is hardcoded. It's merely a method of randomizing data to make a wear-levelling more effective, and a deliberately misleading marketing beacon. Someone else plugging a cable to your (repaired) disk can read all your data just fine. Including your phone contacts, your emails, and your browser passwords.

The operating systems should be on solid-state drives if available, and partitions if not. Either way, keep these things separate. Never mix operating-system partitions with anything else or you are just asking for trouble.

I did have the OS and data partitions separate, but that doesn't help when the entire drive dies

I recently have had such failures as well (as mentioned on my site), but if my mantra is followed (keep only the operating system on the SSD) then when that happens you only need to replace the SSD that failed and reinstall whatever software you needed along the way (to fix the registry). Entire drive failure would mean the loss of an OS of which you should have a legitimate backup copy and nothing more.


L. Spiro