Come, come, come, everyone come listen to my little secrets about SSDs!
We all know that SSDs are miles ahead of HDDs in speed, but this little guy has its “shortcomings.” Yes, the lifespan of an SSD is limited. Once its write cycles are exhausted, the SSD completely shuts down like a star going out. Unlike HDDs, which are physical drives, data recovery from a failed SSD is extremely difficult.
But don’t worry, modern SSDs do have some solutions. Most SSDs are equipped with protective mechanisms that allow you to safely copy all your data before the SSD fails, although you might have to say goodbye to it afterward.
Recently, a friend of mine experienced a graphics glitch and a sound failure while playing “War Thunder.” He hurriedly pressed Alt+Tab to exit the game, only to face a blue screen crash. After that, the computer wouldn’t boot again, leaving him confused about what had happened. Later, he found out that the SSD had reached the end of its lifespan.
Fortunately, SSD design is quite clever. Everyone knows SSDs have a limited lifespan, but they issue warnings before problems arise, helping you save your data. Both SSDs and HDDs use a system called SMART (Self-Monitoring, Analysis, and Reporting Technology) to monitor the health of the drives in real-time. This system can evaluate the drive’s status using up to 255 attributes; although SSDs typically have fewer, manufacturers develop unique attributes to assist in health assessment.
For example, Western Digital drives have a special SMART attribute (16) that tracks how many logical block addresses have been read since the drive was used. This feature is unique to Western Digital and is part of their monitoring for drive health. While participating in SMART is voluntary, manufacturers strive to ensure compatibility, which is key.
Many SSDs use SMART to monitor how close they are to failure. When a preset threshold is reached, the SSD locks and enters read-only mode. This means you can no longer perform write operations, but it serves as a clear signal to users to back up their data quickly. In read-only mode, you can continue to access data, but any additional write operations could lead to complete SSD failure and irretrievable data.
So, reading data from an SSD is not stressful, but once it enters read-only mode, it’s wise to back up your data immediately. Rest assured, even if the SSD fails, you can still retrieve your data, but during this time, you might not be able to use your computer normally. Regular backups are also very important, so don’t forget!
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