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Reliability of PC Flash SSDs?

An anonymous reader writes "SATA and IDE flash solid-state disks are all the rage these days — faster and, allegedly, more reliable than traditional spinning-rust disks. My organization dipped its toe in the flash-disk waters, buying a handful for some PC and Linux boxes. Out of 8 drives from various manufacturers, 3 have failed in the space of four months! Some are reporting bad blocks, others just crapped out and stopped responding entirely. (And no, this isn't a wear-leveling issue, nor were these machines in particularly harsh environmental conditions, nor were all failed drives from the same manufacturer.) So I ask you, the readers of Slashdot: what has your experience been like with basic, consumer-grade SATA or IDE flash drives? Are they failing for you too, or are we just unlucky? It's starting to remind me of the claims about long-lifetime compact fluorescent light bulbs that, in reality, have turned out to be BS!"

7 of 467 comments (clear)

  1. Same type of experience here by HermMunster · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I have avoided investing any money into those types of drives for that very reason. As a small business owner I see customer units come in that make use of those types of devices and I see a lot of failure. I'm still being patient.

    --
    You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
  2. eee ssd by selfabuse · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The junky 4gb ssd that came with my eee 900 died inside of a month. The 16gb OCZ SSD that I replaced it with has been going strong for a year now though /me crosses fingers

  3. chipset inside and utilization? by A+little+Frenchie · · Score: 4, Interesting

    your not saying what chipset and what kind of usage you did.

    if you are going to put a MLC drive for a gentoo distribution which is compiling 24/7, you will kill it in no time

    if you got first gen micron chipset... you will have bad experience too

    try again with indilinx or intel drive with SLC and come again

  4. Linus says... by Bill,+Shooter+of+Bul · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://torvalds-family.blogspot.com/2008/10/so-i-got-one-of-new-intel-ssds.html

    He sorta knows what he's talking about more often than a random average slashdotter.

    --
    Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
  5. One of 7 Transcends by lcreech · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I have 7 Transcend SATA SSD's, 3 32GB and 4 192GB, one of the 192GB drives is flakey, random bad blocks and file curruption issues of files that had been fine but gone bad and have not been written to since their creation some months ago. I've reloaded it several times but eventually had to remove it from service because of its poor reliability.

  6. just wait for LED bulbs by circletimessquare · · Score: 5, Interesting

    LED bulbs are going to render CFL bulbs a flash in the pan

    no toxic mercury, no 30 second wait to dim up completely after turn on, not nearly as fragile, lasts much longer, nicer white glow, similar very low energy usage...

    but currently, they are a little pricey and their lighting wattage is low

    http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/06/coming-soon-a-40-watt-led-light-bulb/

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  7. Windows 7 is SSH friendly by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    A moot point maybe since everyone agrees already..

    But I noticed that Windows 7 detects SSD (even in a RAID config with the on-board ICH controller) and automatically turns off defrag on them.

    Nice !