Storage Media Life Expectancy: SSDs, HDDs & More!

Lifespan of hard drives, SSDs, and other magnetic, solid state and optical media.

My 2023 video “Explaining SSDs” is here:

And my previous video on M-Disc is here:

SELECTED REFERENCES

More videos on computing and related topics can be found at:

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
00:37 Data Survival (overview)
02:25 Hard Drive Life Expectancy
07:07 Other Magnetic Storage
08:15 SSD Life Expectancy
13:30 Flash Drives & Memory Cards
14:17 CDs, DVDs & Blu-Ray
17:04 Data Immortality

#SSD #Lifespan #HDD #DVD #Blu-Ray #ExplainingComputers

[qkrotor]

You are one of the real gems of Youtube. No annoying background music or distracting jump cuts, just solid information backed with sources. Thank you.

[CCoburn]

Moral of the story? Back up your data in more than one format and in more than one place. And choose your storage medium based on the criticality of the data. Great video!

[TheSaabClinicUK]

Re HDD life. Im a DC engineer for a US bank and we have a couple of Compaq ML370 servers running on their original 9.1GB 15, 000rpm drives. Now 22 years old !.

[polkadot]

RAR archive format supports a special type of redundant data called the recovery record. Presence of recovery record makes an archive larger, but allows to repair it even in case of physical data damage due to disk failure or data loss of other kind, provided that the damage is not too severe. Such damage recovery can be done with Repair archive command. ZIP archive format does not support the recovery record.
I have been using 2.5-inch external hard disks made by Toshiba since 2009. I bought two 250GB disks in 2009, then two 500GB disks in 2010, then two 1.5TB disks, then two 3TB disks, and, finally one 4TB disk two years ago. Yesterday I checked all data - it was perfect!

[ATRX]

around 16 years, and my old hdd is still working, pure magic, 60000 hours

[morganjohannisson]

Suddenly, I feel the urgency to print out my pictures of happy gatherings, to be stored in good old-fashioned photo albums.

[Maui-]

Thanks Chris. I didn't realise SSD's were so 'leaky' in a depowered state. One year isn't long (appreciate they're a bit better now, but still...). As many others have stated, it underlines the need for a well thought out data back-up routine. More ££ here for the vital tea and biscuits fund. All the best.

[YourSkyliner]

This channel never fails to bring me back to the early 2000s

[jackthatmonkey]

This video feels like a 2000's documentary. Loved it!

[benstaniford]

This is a subject I've needed to take more seriously for a long time. I'd be devastated if I lost all my family photographs. You've helped me come up with a new strategy about what I should be doing with them. Thank you for taking the time to make such a helpful video.

[UKSCIENCEORG]

I worked at the Met Office in the late 90s, They were storing archived meteorological data on magnetic tape which could be retrieved by a robotic system called COSMOS. There is a salt mine in Cheshire where government departments and banks etc store their computer backups underground given the stable geology and high security available.

[GreenHamGaming]

Absolutely fantastic video Christopher. Thank you for these informative, easy to understand videos. I'm fascinated by Data Archival, particularly for family video tapes from childhood days etc. I've been wondering what is the best way to store this media to last over time and have been getting so many different answers. Your video was an excellent summary. I'll have to look into M-DISC and Archival Optical Media. Your method you suggested about preventing bit-rot by removing then re-writing data to Hard Disk Drives was invaluable. I've long been a believer in Hard Drives over SSD's for archival purposes after owning so many hard drives over the years and seeing their reliability even after sitting cold for years, the idea putting it all on an SSD and finding data is lost because it wasn't powered on terrifies me. Until I can get myself a system together to burn the important media onto archival discs, your method of re-writing data to HDD's on a reasonably regular basis to prevent bit-rot will be a fantastic short-term solution to ensure redundancy. I've found WD's RED NAS drives are fantastic for this purpose in my past experience. Their lower speeds and low heat-output has ensured a very low-failure rate for me. I can't recommend WD RED drives enough for those wanting simple archival drives, but as Christopher said - one must still be mindful of magnetic decay and have systems in place to be re-writing data regularly to ensure no bit-rot. Thank you for your videos, they are so so appreciated.

[ninline]

I recently pulled out a batch of old 5.25" floppies from the eighties. I was shocked to find most of them still work.

[SteelWolf]

SSD can loose data if unpowered for more then a year. - Hope they explain in detail about this. I use one for back up that sits in a drawer.

[petermainwaringsx]

Very useful info on a subject which I've not seen all in on place before. I have about twenty HDD's some over twenty years old that have been dormant for many years. I am going to have to spin up, check and backup any thing of interest. Also a growing collection of SSD's, seven at the moment, which I do power up every six months, but I was unaware of the fact it's best to leave them powered up for an hour or so to do some house keeping. Thanks for another really slick video.

[Supermunch]

I happened on ExplainingComputers while researching this very topic and I became an instant fan. The information is clearly transmitted and the sharp sense of humor was like watching a great video that not only informs but entertains too.

Thanks for the updated video!

[patdbean]

Good video. As far as data backup goes, I always subscribe to the 3-2-1 aproch :-

Keep 3 copies
On atleast 2 different types of media.
1. Of them stored off site.

I guess you could count something like Google drive as the off site.

As far as lifespan goes, i have VHS tapes that still viewable after 40+ years.
the analogue nature of the data probably help. In that it dose not need to be bit perfect to still play.

[RoboNuggie]

That was a great run down of info, ... Thank you Chris.
I think a future storage medium should be EggNog, as that always seems to last forever when given it at take care, 'till next time!

[TheStevenWhiting]

My CD from Uni back in 2000 luckily lasted for over 20 years. Its still readable but now backed up.

[fernandovalenzuelamontanez]

You taught me alot my man. I learned everything from you, and still learn. When i sobered up 3 years ago, i jumped into computer building. Never in my life I thought id know, all thnx to you im 3 years experience in Computer Science. I dont need an expensive college for that, i have you.