How long can data be retained on an SSD without power (SSD lifespan)?

Not long ago, many information technology executives and administrators worried about the possibility of data loss from unforeseen system failures. Manufacturers therefore had their work cut out convincing the public that solid-state drives (SSDs) were safe for storing even sensitive information. Based on NAND flash chips, SSDs represent a new kind of storage medium, as opposed to traditional hard disk drives, which record content on spinning disks.

It contains an embedded controller and several memory chips for data storage. A hybrid drive, sometimes referred to as an SSHD (Solid State Hybrid Drive), is a storage device that combines two storage systems: a traditional magnetic hard disk drive and memory chips. People often ask us, "How long does an SSD retain data without power?" This question arises because SSDs are still relatively “new” to most, hence the ambiguity. Learn more about SSDs here!

Everything You Need to Know About SSDs (Pros and Cons)

Before we get to the answer, let's first understand what an SSD (Solid State Drive) is. What are its pros and cons? How does it store data? And why do people opt for SSDs as their storage devices?

"SSD Benefits" can be translated to "Social Security Disability Benefits." In Chinese, it commonly refers to the disability benefits provided by the US Social Security Administration. This is a welfare program offered by the US government to provide financial assistance to individuals who are unable to work due to physical or mental health conditions.

Read on for a breakdown of the pros and cons to get a better idea of what SSDs are and how they've fared over the years.

Solid-state drives use less power than hard disks.

HDDs also consume about 50% more power than SSDs, an important consideration for battery life and energy costs. And SSDs offer better durability, which may be critical in devices where heat is a factor.

Speed Up File Opening with an SSD

And an SSD opens files 30% faster than a traditional hard drive. More computing means the whole system is more responsive.

Solid-state drives boot up faster.

With their moving parts, HDDs require time to warm up before they can function properly. The average boot time for an SSD-based system is 10-13 seconds. An HDD storage system takes a similar amount of time – 30-40 seconds – to start up, three times as long.

Solid-state drives last longer

With all these moving parts, HDDs last about 25% less time than SSDs. The average time before an HDD fails is 1.5 million hours, compared to 2 million for an SSD.

Disadvantages of SSD (Solid State Drive)

While SSDs have many advantages, they also come with a few drawbacks. Read on to learn more.

Storage Capacity

One major drawback of solid-state drives (SSDs) is that they do not leave behind any trace of previous data. The drives are wiped clean. While this is good for data security, permanent deletion without a backup can have catastrophic consequences in certain cases.

Recover Lost Data

By contrast, solid-state drives (SSDs) remain expensive, with prices quoted per unit of storage. As a result, they tend to have capacities of only 32 GB or less. In general, no SSD has a capacity greater than 160 GB.

SSD Lifespan - How Long Do SSDs Actually Last (Answered)

Since SSDs are relatively new, there isn't a lot of information on how long they last. While some SSDs are expected to survive for 10 years or more under normal use, this isn't a widely agreed upon figure. This is up from the previous estimate of five to six years.

Make sure your system is also set up to defragment data on solid-state drives (SSDs). SSDs can only store data on empty sectors. The drive cannot write to sectors that are half-full or contain fragments of previously deleted files.

In terms of disk performance, for SSDs, TRIM is more important than lifespan. TRIM is a tool that clears data from cells that are no longer in use. In some cases, it also tries to free up resources by consolidating data in underutilized areas. Interestingly, once an SSD is full, its performance drops significantly. For this reason, some companies enforce SSD storage limits between 75% and 80% of available storage capacity.

As a result, the cost per GB of storage increases because of these additional measures. Last but not least, you can extend an SSD's lifespan by regularly updating its firmware, which is designed to improve performance and durability.

SSD Data Recovery – How to Recover Data from SSD

Despite your best efforts, data loss can still occur from time to time. Fortunately, there are third-party SSD disk recovery tools that can come to your rescue. It is highly recommended that you use the Data Recovery Wizard tool for this purpose. With its advanced data recovery capabilities, this SSD recovery app can retrieve lost information from SSD devices in various complex data loss situations, including logical data loss.

It also allows you to recover data from SSD drive, unformat SSD device, and retrieve files from RAW formatted SSD disk. Plus, its user-friendly features enable all computer users to accomplish SSD data recovery through a few simple steps to get their information back. No professional skills or technical expertise is required.

Major Benefits of SSD Recovery Software Notable advantages of SSD recovery software

Recover Formatted SSD Drive: The Data Recovery Wizard tool can recover data from a formatted or re-formatted SSD drive.

Recover Deleted Data from SSD: Accidentally deleting crucial data from a Solid State Drive (SSD) is quite common. With this SSD recovery app, you can easily retrieve deleted data files.

Recover files from a damaged SSD: The program can still read data from the drive even if it's damaged. It takes just a few easy clicks to scan and restore all corrupted files and folders to their original state in seconds.

Supports GPT and MBR partition recovery: You can use this program to recover deleted multimedia files, and more, from GPT and MBR partitions on your SSD. It also has the ability to scan unallocated volumes.

Follow the below steps to perform SSD data recovery using the SSD recovery software:

Step 1: Scan the SSD

Open Disk Drill, select your SSD, and click the “Scan” button.

Step 2: Check the results

Once the scan is over, check the 'Deleted Files' and 'Other Lost Files' folders and use the 'Filter' and 'Search' options to recover lost SSD data.

Step 3: Recover Files from SSD

Select the data you need and click on the “Recover” button to get back your lost SSD files.

Important: This method only works for recovering lost data from an SSD that you've previously wiped, and requires that the SSD's TRIM function be disabled. If you've already had TRIM enabled on your SSD and experienced data loss, your chances of success are slim. If you feel it's necessary, you could try disabling TRIM to attempt SSD data recovery and see if that helps.

Conclusions

Well, that's it – we hope this detailed guide on how long an "SSD can hold data without power" provided you with enough SSD knowledge and insight into its potential lifespan.

The pros and cons above should help you decide whether or not you really need one. And if you already have one and lost data, we highly recommend using the Data Recovery Wizard tool to get your lost data back!

Frequently Asked Questions - More Help

If you have more questions, you can find help in this FAQ.

1. How can I prolong the lifespan of my SSD?

Extending the life of an SSD can also be achieved by disabling it or moving its system page file to another device. However, some organizations use inexpensive consumer-grade SSDs as dedicated page-file stores, because moving the system page file to a spinning disk can degrade performance.

You should also enable TRIM and SSD garbage collection in your system. For SSDs, TRIM is more important for disk performance than durability.

2. Does a solid-state drive require power?

One question that often comes up is, does an SSD need power? Simply put, the answer is no. Neither an SSD nor an HDD requires a power cable.

Typically, the motherboard will come with cables, including SATA. As for the SSD, much like an HDD, it needs to be plugged into your laptop or computer unit to work. As long as your computer is powered on, the SSD will function.

< b > 3. Are solid-state drives good for long-term storage?

No, not used to. The same applies now. All storage devices, including SSDs, HDDs, tapes, CDs/DVDs, and the like, will eventually fail. To ensure the safety of your valuable data or the operating system stored on these devices, you should create multiple backups and store them in different locations.

4. Should I get an SSD or an HDD for storage?

With faster data access and less time spent idle, SSDs typically consume less power and have better battery life. HDDs require more power when starting up because of their spinning drives.

Though SSDs continue to cost more per gigabyte or terabyte than HDDs, the gap is narrowing, as SSD prices fall more quickly each year. And because PCIe has more channels, PCIe SSDs are typically faster than HDDs with SATA interfaces.