Most computers nowadays come with solid-state drives (SSD). They're faster, smaller, and more efficient than hard disk drives (HDDs).
However, SSDs are more expensive than HDDs, and it would probably be in your best interest to estimate the remaining lifespan of your SSD.
What Is the Average Lifespan of Your SSD?
Unlike an HDD, an SSD has a limited number of possible writes before the drive breaks down into read-only mode. This is due to the way SSD hardware is designed—the massive boost in speed comes at a price.
But the thing is, most users don't have to worry about this at all. As it turns out, even the most avid home user will need several years to run out of write cycles, so if you're worried about it, don't be.
That being said, if you're curious about how many years are left on your SSD, there are ways to estimate your SSDs remaining lifespan.
On average, a modern SSD will survive until you've written about 700TB of data over its lifetime. Some may survive longer, some shorter—this is just the average. So it figures that if you can see how much lifetime data you've written on your current SSD, you can estimate its remaining lifespan.
However, if you notice the following SSD warning signs, it could be time to back up your SSD and replace it:
- Files cannot be read or written.
- Errors involving bad blocks.
- The file system needs to be constantly repaired.
- Frequent crashes when you boot your computer.
- The SSD can only be used in read-only mode.
Use CrystalDiskInfo to Estimate SSD Lifespan
CrystalDiskInfo is a really handy little program you can use to estimate the remaining lifespan of your SSD. It features enough information that it's actually useful and not overwhelming, and best of all, it's completely free to use.
Download: CrystalDiskInfo for Windows (Free, open-source)
- Install and launch CrystalDiskInfo.
- Look under Health Status. It should have a health percentage like a battery to inform you of the SSD's remaining life—the higher the Health Status percentage, the longer your SSD will last.
- Under Health Status, it should also tell you the condition of your SSD:
- If it says Good, then you don't have anything to worry about yet.
- However, if it says Caution, it means the SSD is degrading, and you should back up your files and replace the drive before it's too late.
- If it says Bad, the SSD life is over, and you would be lucky if it works if it hasn't failed already. If it says anything else, you may want to investigate further—but that's beyond the scope of this post.
- Look at the top right for Total Host Writes (or it might just be Host Writes, depending on your version). This is how much total data has ever been written to this drive.
If you're around the 400TB mark, for example, you know you're more than halfway through the device's lifespan. As you near 700TB, you'll want to consider getting up a backup drive just in case. But truthfully speaking, it would take years of heavy use to even get close to that amount!
Estimate Remaining SSD Lifespan Using Warranty and MTBF Hours
Most SSD manufacturers have a warranty that you could use to predict how long your SSD will probably last at the bare minimum. Of course, it doesn't mean that the warranty will reveal your SSD remaining life, but it could help you to estimate the probability of its failure. For instance, an SSD with a five-year or 600TB TBW (Total Host Writes) will probably last longer than an SSD with a three-year or 200TB TBW warranty.
Another factor that you could use to estimate the lifespan of your SSD is the MTBF (Mean Time Between Failures) hours provided by the manufacturer in the spec sheet.
However, it doesn't predict how many hours your SSD will last, but it will tell you the probability of your SSD malfunctioning within the warranty period. For example, if the MTBF of your SSD is 1 million hours, it means its probability of failure is 0.03% within the warranty years, even if you use it at least eight hours every day—according to WePC. In other words, the higher the MTBF hours, the less likely your SSD will malfunction.
If you don't have the original spec sheet to check the warranty and MTBF hours, you can use CrystalDiskInfo to find the model number of your SSD. The model number of your SSD is usually written in bold just above the Firmware details. Alternatively, if you're using Windows, you can right-click on your local disk, select Properties, and locate the manufacturer model number of your SSD under Hardware.
Once you have the manufacturer model number of your SSD, you can Google it and find the spec sheet to know the warranty and MTBF hours. The longer the manufacturer warranty and MTBF hours on the spec sheet, the longer the predicted lifespan of your SSD.
Concerned about it dying soon? Heed these tips for extending SSD lifespan, and make sure you enable TRIM support as soon as you can.
How to Improve the Lifespan of Your SSD
Even though your SSD's lifespan largely depends on the data write cycles, there are ways to protect your SSD and extend its lifespan. For starters, you should protect your SSD from extreme temperatures. It's important to figure out the exact operating temperature of your SSD to prevent a breakdown when it's too cold or too hot.
Additionally, if you're using a PC, investing in an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) is important to avoid a power outage that can damage your SSD. However, you don't need a UPS to protect your SSD if you have a laptop with a battery.
We also recommend leaving at least 30% of your SSD storage with empty space. Completely filling your SSD with data can reduce its lifespan due to "wear leveling."
SSDs Have a Long Lifespan
Since SSDs don't have moving parts, they're very reliable. In fact, most SSDs can last over five years, while the most durable units exceed ten years.
However, how long your SSD will last depends on how often you write data into it, and you could use that to estimate the lifespan.
