SSDs lose data if left without power for just 7 days

by Hilbert Hagedoorn on: 05/11/2015 07:49 AM | source: | 55 comment(s)

The standards body for the microelectronics industry has found that Solid State Drives (SSD) can start to lose their data and become corrupted if they are left without power for as little as a week. According to a recent presentation by Seagate's Alvin Cox, who is also chairman of the Joint Electron Device Engineering Council (JEDEC).

The period of time that data will be retained on an SSD is halved for every 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) rise in temperature in the area where the SSD is stored.

Consumer class SSDs can store data for up to two years before the standard drops, but when it comes to SSDs used by enterprises, the drives are only expected to retain data for a period of three months – a fact confirmed by Samsung, Seagate and Intel's own ratings on their products.

Security firm KoreLogic is concerned that far too many people are now using SSDs in both consumer and enterprise applications, which is clearly not a great idea if the data is important and might be needed for a longer period that three months. The firm advises that users make sure to regularly back up their data and create drive images, or they will risk losing their data, which can have disastrous consequences, for example if the data was part of evidence gather by a law firm for a deposition.

presentation by Seagate's Alvin Cox

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sverek

Posts: 6070
Joined: 2011-01-02

#5068200 Posted on: 05/12/2015 03:06 AM

Been owning SSD for 3 years now, had PC powered down for long as 2 months, no problems at all.

edit : as mentioned above, if you have important data, you should back it up. Never put all your eggs in single bucket.

In other panicking news, "PSU reduces humans lifespan!?" :banana:

tsunami231
Senior Member

Posts: 13379
Joined: 2003-05-24

#5068208 Posted on: 05/12/2015 03:26 AM

so does having your sell phone in your pants and on your person them microwaves are cooking us

IcarusLSC
Member

Posts: 61
Joined: 2015-03-30

#5070603 Posted on: 05/15/2015 12:48 AM

Hmm, weird, the three ssd's in my old computer haven't been plugged in for 6 months+ and they worked fine a few weeks ago. Same with my brothers system after almost 2 months of being unplugged while he was away this last winter. These are Crucial ssds in both, but I've left my system with the Intels unplugged for couple weeks without issue. What brand of drives are having these issues?

And yes, I still agree on the backups being important though!

Twiddles
Senior Member

Posts: 1155
Joined: 2013-11-15

#5070613 Posted on: 05/15/2015 12:57 AM

This reminds me of a news article posted about a year, ago it may have been longer. Watch out! It's possible for "criminals" to spy on you via H4x0rzzz and take over your webcam!!!111! We've been receiving laptops with tape, stickers and bandage aid on them since that :bang:

But hey, that's journalism for you. Just make sure you have backups, not the drag and drop type of course :')

Humanoid_1
Senior Member

Posts: 959
Joined: 2009-10-14

#5079698 Posted on: 05/24/2015 08:45 PM

Seems all too easy to just pipe up and say click bait...

I would be far more curious to know what Actually differentiates the warm off lifespan from Consumer to Enterprise. Because it's surely not just that it is SLC over MLC etc right?
+ with so many different SSDs to choose from maybe some Consumer SSDs for the prupose of this survavability thing are in fact effectively "Enterprise" short (off) life drives... right?

TBH it has me wondering a tiny bit as just recently I popped up to see my father who had fallen ill and took my PC with me. It was left in my car for maybe just under two days, obviously powered down effectively for the 1st time in a few years for any period of time.
On setup booted to desktop and froze, SSD lost partition info and reverted to RAW state.

Though really I think it was coincidence. (my father made a remarkable recovery at least ^^)

When I queried tech support over my OCZ Vertex 4 256GB, they essentially said, update firmware, run Secure Eraze to reset the NAND cells, then reformat. If that succeeds then you are good to go...

Time for an upgrade methinks - a good excuse anyways

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