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SSDs

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You notice that the 500 GB drives seem to be pretty reliable. It's the 250's that appear to be problematic.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
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The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
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I'm not surprised...

Note that my new Apple MacBook M1 Pro has a 500 GB SSD drive, so I guess I'm good to go. However, my wife's older MacBook Air has a 250 GB SSD, does all of the MacBook Air's that I bought our granddaughters.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
 
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I didn't pay much attention to that as all of my TB sized storage devices are spinning disks.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
 
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My big ones are spinners, too... I use M.2 drives for OS and for applications, though... one for each. Two of my backups are SSDs (one an M.2).

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik
 
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In addition to the 500 GB on-board storage, I have two external drives, a 3 TB portable which goes with me when we travel, and a 4 TB drive, which is my system archive/back-up that stays home and is kept in our safe when we're traveling. I'm also starting to use 512 GB memory sticks as secondary back-ups for things like photos and personal records.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
 
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Yeah, some of my stuff is on spinning disk, but I've had sufficient mechanical scares, like accidentally bumping an external HD into flying several feet at an airport, that I've taken to using SSDs. HDs are not immune to failures, and the last time I had any failures, it was with an HD and it cost mucho dinero to recover the data. The only dislike about SSDs is the cost, since they are still about 3x the cost of a comparable HD, assuming you can even find them in the size you want.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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My desktop was first fitted with a 1TB Seagate HD some 5years ago, and it copped out within a few days. Got it changed out to a WD Blue 1TB 7200rpm HD (1 plate) and havent had any problems since. A 5400rpm option would have been quieter, but these dont seem to be available in Australia.
 
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Interesting articles and thanks.

Wholeheartedly agree w/ IR! I've currently a similar situation in that I've a failed 4TB spinning disk that I need to recover 1.8TB of data - ouch$$$. I've another 4TB spinning disk that has not mounted a few times, so I think that one is about to fail.

I want to replace my backup disks w/ SSDs, but waiting for price to drop for the larger 4TBs. Did not know about M.2's. Maybe I might be better off w/ several smaller SSDs instead of the larger ones.
 
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My 3 TB portable drive is a WD Elements drive, which is a 5400 rpm drive connected using a USB 3.0 interface. By portable, I mean that it's powered through the USB connection. Also, it's connected directly to my MacBook M1 Pro via one of the USB-C ports.

Screenshot_2023-03-16_at_4.26.14_PM_wpnkie.png


My second external drive is a 4 TB G-Technology drive. It's a 7200 rpm drive, also connected using a USB 3.0 interface. Now this drive has an external power supply, which is one reason why it's my stay-at-home back-up and archive. Note that it's connected via a Lenovo ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 docking station, which our son gave me, which was a good deal considering that they list for something like $280. He had recently upgraded to a Thunderbolt 4 (something about needing to support more than one 4k display) so he gave me his old dock (one 4K display is more than adequate for me).

81ATBKZPcSL._AC_SL1500__y276vy.jpg


I bought both of these drives from Amazon in January 2020. I paid $79 for the 3 TB WD drive and $127 for the 4 TB G-drive.

As a side note, if I were to purchase those same drives today from Amazon, it would cost $119 for the 3 TB WD drive and $229 for the 4 TB G-drive.

Note that I've never had any problems with either drive, they always boot up and I can't recall ever having a file that I wasn't able to open.

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
 
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If your motherboard can accommodate M.2, they are likely the fastest... direct to the PCIe bus... My experience is that they are very reliable. My first M.2 was many years ago... I had to order it from Australia, because they weren't available in NA at the time. Nearly all of mine are Sabrient.

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik
 
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Did not know about M.2's. Maybe I might be better off w/ several smaller SSDs instead of the larger ones.
Click to expand...

It's worse than you think. Almost all of the fancy boxed SSDs have something like an M.2 inside; in some cases, you can actually remove the the PCB and install it in your laptop in the M.2 slot. Those boxes are about 90% air, and host the M.2 --> SATA --> USB3 adaptor.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
I can do absolutely anything. I'm an expert! faq731-376 forum1529 Entire Forum list
 
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M.2 drives run hot. The first one I got had an operating temperature of 100C. Sabrient makes a great heatsink and ASUS motherboards for M.2 drives have a fairly good heatsink, too. All my rigs have liquid cooling (except laptops)and lots of fans and ventilation.

-----*****-----
So strange to see the singularity approaching while the entire planet is rapidly turning into a hellscape. -John Coates

-Dik
 
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Temperature . . . thanks fellas!

I made a wooden case w/ very little clearance for air circulation to stack all my external hard drives. while cleaning dust from the wooden case, I noticed the external hard drives were very warm. I wonder w/ the lack of air circulation in the wooden case contributed to the failure of the 1, 4TB hard drive. I think I will make another wooden case w/ more clearance & set the case on the window sill (no direct sunlight) to help keep them cooler. Now that I think about it, before the wooden case, I just stacked 2 drives on top of now another and do not recall any very warm drives.

never bought anything from amazon and never plan to.
 
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Here's a shot of my computer set-up showing where I've placed my external drives. I purchased a wooden desk shelve to hold everything and it worked out just fine:

RB-032_ivmflj.jpg

March 2023 (Apple iPhone 11 Pro)

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:

The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
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