SSD

How to buy and choose the best SSD hard drive?

 

What do you have to know to buy a good SSD hard drive for your computer? What hard drive do I have in my computer? What is the failure rate of SSD hard drives? Until recently, buying an SSD hard drive was quite prohibitive considering its high prices, but lately things are changing, and their prices are becoming more and more interesting.

But choosing a good SSD drive is not easy, you have to take into account a few things before deciding on a good model of SSD hard drive.

What is an SSD hard drive? A solid state device or SSD is a data storage device that uses non-volatile memory (flash) to store the data, instead of the magnetic disks of hard disk drives (HDD) usual until now. Advantage? They are less sensitive to shocks, they do not sound and their access time and latency is much lower.

If you want to know which are the best models of internal SSD drives, we recommend you read the following entry:

And if you want an external SSD hard drive, you have to read this other entry:

How do I know what hard drive I have on my computer? HDD or SSD disk?

Mac hard drive

It depends on the operating system you have installed on your computer.

Windows

In the case of Windows, the simplest thing is to go to the Ā Windows device manager from the start button and go to the Disk Drives section . There we will be able to see all the disks that we have connected to the computer.

Do you want to know if you have an HDD or SSD? You just have to go to Optimize Units . There you should appear Solid State Drive (SSD) or Hard Disk Drive (HDD).

You can also use the CrystalDiskInfo program that will tell us a lot of things about our hard disk, not just the type it is (errors, disk status).

MacOS

We go to the apple menu at the top and we click About this Mac . and then Storage . All the disks connected to the Mac appear there. Very simple.

You can also go to the System Report in About This Mac (Overview) to get more detailed data on your drives. You have everything in Storage .

Linux

We can use the smartmontools tool . You just have to install it on your system (it depends on the Linux you have installed, you will have to use one of these two commands):

  • apt-get install smartmontools
  • yum installĀ smartmontools

Then you just have to execute the following command on the command line: smartctl -a / dev / sda

You can also use the graphical program gSMARTcontrol if you prefer to use the GUI.

The best tips for choosing the best SSD hard drive for your computer

1.-Price

The prices of this type of hard drives have dropped enormously since 2010. That does not mean that they are not a little more expensive than HDD hard drives, but at least now you can consider buying them in certain situations.

If you decide to buy an SSD hard drive, the higher its storage capacity, the more profitable the purchase will be. For instance:

Samsung SSD hard drive

The Samsung 860 EVO, the best Sata 3 SSD for value for money, a 500 GB internal solid hard drive usually has a price of about 80 euros and the Samsung 860 EVO, a 1TB internal solid hard disk usually costs about 135 euros.

  • These prices tend to vary a lot over time and tend to go down as new models come out.

80 x 2? 160 euros should cost the 1 TB model that has twice the storage space of the 500 GB, but it costs only 135 euros. You are saving money by purchasing more capacity.

2.-Specifications

SSD hard drives are fairly standardized so it’s less of a hassle to go wrong with a little attention.

Form factor: Most SSDs are 2.5 inches. This drive is not suitable in desktop computers, which typically require a 3.5-inch form factor, but can be remedied with an adapter (Icy Dock MB290SP-B – SDD Adapter, HDD -2.5 ā€³ at 3.5 ā€³ -) which costs less than 10 euros.

There is also a more recent form factor that is gaining popularity: the M.2 standard for ultrathin laptops. The length of M.2 drives can vary so you will need to check what type of drive your laptop uses first. NVMe SSD drives are going to provide you with tremendous speeds.

Also keep in mind that you may need some kind of M.2 / mSATA to SATA / USB adapter to copy files from one drive to another.

Z-Height: You have to make sure that the z-height or thickness is correct. Typical heights are 9.5mm and 7mm. Check your laptop’s user guide or manual to see what thicknesses are compatible.

Interface: Ā Almost everyone has a Serial ATA (SATA).

Noise: A great benefit of an SSD over HDDs is that SSDs operate quietly because they have no mechanical parts.

3.-Performance

Another of the great benefits of SSDs compared to HDDs is that their performance is much higher. They are much faster which means that the computer will start up much faster, the programs will launch immediately and the file transfer times will be faster.

samsung 970 evo ssd

But not all SSDs are the same:

The speed changes and so does the price. Evaluate if you compensate for the price difference based on speed, and if the format is compatible with your laptop.

4.-Storage capacity

There is an important difference between the way SSD and HDD work. While HDD hard drives often have to deal with disk fragmentation, SDDs don’t suffer from it or at least deal with it more efficiently.

When data is written to an SSD, it is written in chunks called pages. A group of pages is called a block. At any given time, the pages in a block could all be empty, full, or a jumble. Due to the way SSDs are designed, it is not possible to overwrite existing data: the entire block has to be erased first.Ā 

This process, called “garbage collection,” requires empty space to function properly. If you don’t have enough space available, then the garbage collection process loses efficiency and slows down the system. This is one reason an SSD degrades over time – it gets too crowded. We would need 20-30% of the empty SSD hard drive to make it really efficient.Ā 

  • The GB of an HDD is cheaper than the GB of an SSD.

5.-Duration

Unlike HDDs, SSDs have no moving parts, so mechanical failure is less likely.

But on the other hand, SSDs are more prone to damage from a power failure. We can have a great loss of data and even not be able to use the SSD hard drive again. They are also limited to a specific number of writes.

  • We can expect them to last us around 5-7 years.

conclusion

Is an SSD disk the most suitable for you? Ā If you are on a tight budget, don’t care about speed, or prefer data reliability over all things, then you should stick with a traditional HDD hard drive. For everyone else, it’s about time to buy an SSD.

Sata, M.2 SATA and NVMe M.2 SSD Recommendations?

1.-Samsung 860 Pro – The best solid hard drive SSD Sata 3

Samsung_850_Pro_Solid_Hard_Disk_SSD

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  • Excellent performance
  • Very good capacity
  • Good guarantee and resistance

Obviously it is a more expensive model, but that shows in the performance and in the useful life. The 860 Pro’s 5-year warranty is also one of the best, and its 7mm body is very well designed. It uses the 3D V-NAND system, which displays transistors in an arrangement that reduces the rate of wear (it will last you more years). If you want to continue to have a 10-year warranty, buy last year’s Samsung 850 Pro. The performance differences are not very large.

Samsung’s V-NAND technology has been created to handle a minimum of 150TB of writing over the life of the product. Which is equivalent to a work of 40 GB per day of writing / reading during a period of 10 years. This was the case for the 850 model, and this is 8 times better … Spectacular.

It has Self-Encrypting Drive (SED) technology to secure your data and has a 530 MB / s write speed and 560 MB / s read speed. Spectacular.

Very good option if you want speed on your computer. It is a bit more expensive, but it is worth it.Ā 

  • This SSD hard drive model can be purchased in other capacities: 1 TB, 256 GB, 2 TB.

2.- Samsung 970 Evo Plus: best SSD driveĀ  with NVMe M.2 interface

Samsung 970 Evo Plus: best SSDP disk with NVMe interface

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  • Interfaz PCIe Gen 3 x4 M.2
  • 5 year warranty
  • Tremendous performance and cheap

One of the fastest SSDs on the market, and also one of the cheapest. V-NAND technology, Phoenix controller and Intelligent TurboWrite technology will make you enjoy high-end games and 3D and 4K graphics editing to the fullest.

Speed? It will give you read / write speeds of 3,500 / 2,500 MB / s, up to 32% faster than the previous model. You can’t ask for anything better for this price. There are 1TB, 2TB, 250GB, and 500GB versions.

3.-Western Digital WDS500G2B0B WD Blue 500GB 3D NAND Internal SSD M.2 SATA

Western Digital WDS500G2B0B WD Blue 500GB 3D NAND Internal SSD M.2 SATA

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  • 3D NAND SATA SSD with capacities up to 2TB
  • Active power consumption up to 25% lower
  • Sequential read speeds of up to 560MB / s and sequential write speeds of up to 530MB / s
  • Mean Time Before Failure (MTTF) of 1.75 million hours and endurance of up to 500 terabytes written (TBW)

One of the best 3D NAND SATA SSDs that you can buy for quality price. Perfect for expanding the capabilities of your NAS if you have the right card or if the NAS itself supports it as standard. Of course, perfect to breathe new life into your laptop.

An SSD that equals in quality and performance to the mid-range of Samsung disks. Be very careful to check the compatibility of your computer or NAS. Deliver on promised speed.

What is the failure rate of SSD hard drives?

What is the failure rate of SSD hard drives?

What is the failure rate of SSD hard drives? Whenever technology provides us with a new advance, the first years we can always find news like this that we are going to tell you about. A recent study has just shown that SSD failures are on the rise considerably.

Are more people using them and the number of bugs increasing? Is the technology not yet mature? Everyone is currently rushing to buy SSD hard drives due to the large increase in performance they provide, but this can bring some risks.

Data recovery firmĀ  Kroll Ontrack has found that SSDs suffer from a high failure rate.

The investigation, which covered some 1,850 customers located in North America, Europe and Asia, found that 92% were using SSD hard drives at the moment, and that the number of crash reports had grown.

Almost 4 in 10 (38% of respondents) said they had encountered a failure in their SSD hard drives. And as a result of these failures, 23% were unlucky enough to lose their data.

Robin England, R&D Engineer at Kroll Ontrack, commented: ā€œWhile SSD adoption is well under way and failure rates between SSDs and HDDs are consistent, the types of failure are generally different.

In HDD drives, a bad motor or a scratch on the platter can cause the failure. Because there are no moving parts in the SSDs, a general electrical failure or a Wear leveling malfunction is more common. “

SSD errors

In early 2016, Google research found that compared to hard drives, SSDs had a significantly lower replacement rate. In contrast, they also experienced a considerably higher rate of uncorrectable errors. More than 20% of SSDs developed uncorrectable errors in a four-year period according to Google.

The Kroll Ontrack study also found that there is an increase in demand for hybrid SSDs (SSHD – traditional hard drives with an SSD disk cache), along with helium drives (their adoption increased by 2% in both cases). The adoption of SSHD is now at 23%, and in the case of helium units we find 3%.

Moral: how to buy a good SSD hard drive

Crucial BX200 - Solid Hard Drive (240 GB, serial ATA III, 540 MB / s, 2.5

Do you have a backup of your most important data? Have you bought an external hard drive to keep your photos safe? Have you made a backup in the cloud? If the answer to the three questions is no, it is possible that in the future you will have a very big problem.

Solution? First of all, you have to buy an SSD hard drive that is from a reliable brand:

Second, you have to buy an external hard drive to back up your most important data:

Pay attention to us and then not regret having lost all your data in an unexpected failure. Lately in Spain there are quite a few power outages (at least in Madrid), and if you don’t have a UPS installed at home, this may affect your computer’s SSD hard drive.

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