Unlike an HDD, an SSD has a limited number of writes that are possible 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, here's an interesting way to estimate.
On average, a modern SSD will survive until you've written about 700 TB of data over its lifetime. Some may survive longer, some shorter -- this is just the average. If you can see how much lifetime data you've written on your current SSD, you can estimate its remaining lifespan.
- Install and launch CrystalDiskInfo.
- Look under Health Status. If it says Good, then you don't have anything to worry about yet. If it says anything else, then 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 400 TB mark, for example, then you know that you're more than halfway through the lifespan of the device. As you near 700 TB, you'll want to think about 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!
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 much data has been written to your SSD? Did you find this tip useful? Let us know in the comments!