Are SSD any good for long term storage?

Are SSD any good for long term storage?
Professor Simon investigates.

Join my science club.

[ElijahPerrin]

Funny how tape, the first real storage medium is still the best for archiving.

[Aranimda]

I booted up two old PCs One with two HDDs that was last on in 2016 and one with a SSD (mlc) that was last on in 2018. All drives were still fine.

[nxesr]

How ironic with all this tech we're still in f*cking limbo. Nothing will ever beat the old school method print, tape and archive unbeatable‼️

[sirguroz]

This was reality back in a day. Modern SSDs can retain data for 10 years or more, without being connected to a computer. They can not be kept in a hot environment. The environment temperature is important.

[CitrasFlava]

I have heard of a new breakthrough in using quartz for long term digital storage. They said they could freeze data into the crystal in very high amounts. Great vid proffesor, you keep with multiple topics and I really like that.

[ZXv]

If you own a SATA drive that don't spin up, don't bin it! Chances are it's blown a diode near the power socket on the HDD (Small black component with connection at both ends). These are replicable or even bypass them totally by removing the dead diodes. You can confirms the diodes with a Multi Meter (All PC shops have one somewhere)
However, if you bypass them, you will not have ANY surge protection, like why it stopped working... But it will be safe enough for you to get files back off of.
If your not sure ask a PC tech to check the Diodes around the power socket on HDD.
This is not guaranteed, but worth a shot before binning

[jerseyjim]

Didn't expect to hear that. Im assuming USB drives have the same issue. Guess ill be storing my archives on 2 separate hdd backups.

[kevinm]

The way I describe it to my clients is that it is just like RAM, just not as volatile but still volatile!

[DistracticusPrime]

My stone tablets already have missing bits. But that one tweet will never ever go away.

[museonfilm]

How about a video that looks at available (practical!) storage mediums available from the last 50 years, and do a shootout comparison.
even include

[janswildlife]

Nothing lasts forever, but I believe by leaving 10-20% free it extends the life of a SSD. So I'm told.

[annother]

SSD also has a limited number of read/writes so is not suitable for video or audio editing.

[ethimself]

Any chance you could do a 20 - 30 minute vid of SSD's as this was the best description I have ever heard on the subject. Perhaps the first ones in standard use to the latest.
This is the only vid that has ever captured my attention 110%.👍Rock on Prof.

[steve-o]

Great words wisdom and the fight against corruption, thanks Professor...

[gordonlawrence]

Firstly it partly depends on the type of flash memory. IE how many bits per transistor. There are SSD's these days with 4 bits per cell which requires 16 discrete voltage levels. This makes them cheaper but completely stuffs the lifespan. Single bit per cell lasts way longer and is more heat tolerant. That said no hard drive will be useable in 20 years. 20 years ago we were still using IDE interfaces and SCSI etc. Try getting one of those on anything now (the current version of SCSI is not compatible with old variants). So even if the data is intact you cant get at it. The only long term program storage media that still works today are those used by Lady Ada Lovelace to turn a Jaquard loom into an adding machine. Those are either from the late 1830's or early 1840's.

[CherokezPittman]

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[Michael-itgb]

I recently ran isobuster on a old flashdrive ive been using that been on the shelf mostly, and I was able to recover some mp3 song files on it from 12 years ago. The flash usb itself is 15 years old.

[esphilee]

That mean it is like a photo. The good news is, if you keep transferring the data to new media after a period of time, the data will not be lost.

[PrivateSi]

Good to see the issue raised.... I've warned quite a lot of small business peeps about this in the last decade or so... People think SSDs are just like H/Ds... While magnetic H/Ds are less reliable mechanically I've read data off 20 year old ones OK and had cheap Chinese fake flash devices that last a week and have nowhere near the capacity, so we know there's massive quality variation DVDs are the best cheap long term storage now, tape still for high capacity (though the tape doesn't age too well)...
--
Compact Flash storage will hopefully soon be interleaved at a fine-grained resolution with DRAM (main memory) on a DIMM... In the event of a power failure RAM is instantly backed up to flash in a flash, using just the power left in the capacitors.. Should be just around the corner.... Hopefully by then they will have sorted out their non-volatile, long-term, fast access storage.... or 1 peta-byte tapes the size of a dictaphone tape already exist.... SSDs do mitigate data loss when in use, but they can't when switched off, and the error correction and faulty part detection is not 100%.

[kennethmoreau]

Professor Simon. I learned something again from you. Thank you. Kenneth.