SSD reliability and interface discussion (Previously: HDD issues)

[Spork Schivago]

Re: SSD reliability and interface discussion (Previously: HDD issues)

There isn't normally a power supply in thumb drives. Perhaps it's an e-ink display that only requires power to change?

Seems so http://www.lexar.com/about/newsroom/...paper-display-

Flash memory suffers from wear and has a finite life span.

Yeah, when I said power supply, I just meant a source of power, like a battery, etc. I shouldn't of been so lose with my words. I did research it a bit and I do believe it is some type of e-Ink.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: SSD reliability and interface discussion (Previously: HDD issues)

There isn't normally a power supply in thumb drives. Perhaps it's an e-ink display that only requires power to change?

Seems so http://www.lexar.com/about/newsroom/...paper-display-

Flash memory suffers from wear and has a finite life span.

If it's only used once though, it'd still die, right?

[Spork Schivago]

Re: SSD reliability and interface discussion (Previously: HDD issues)

Yea, the article I read was talking about reel to reel tape. It seems to me some very old movies are still intact. They are black and white and do not entail color. They may also had a different a process to make them. I would think storing digital signals on tape would be a very basic process unless one first converted them to a analog signal before recording. So there is a lot of unknowns and that is usually the case when people make statements. I guess one would have to have a control test to verify these statements.

Yeah, a little off topic here (well, way off topic from the title of the the thread!) I got a Top Cat cell, autographed by Hanna and Barbera. It came with a certificate of authenticity, but I'd like to verify that it's legit. I took it apart once and the the cell isn't autographed, there's a transparency that's autographed and then placed over the cell. Maybe they used the transparency to copy their signature? Or maybe they did it so they wouldn't destroy the cell. I'd love to find the actual episode which has the cell, you know, to verify that's real as well. It was entitled something like, "Topcat visits the mayor". The cell itself is a picture of a room, blue coloured walls, yellowish / orange coloured floor, a window in the background, etc.

Also, I'd love to see them digitally restore some of the good old cartoons like Topcat and Johnny Quest, Transformers, G.I. Joes, TMNT, Tiny Toons, Tailspin, etc.

[keeney123]

Re: SSD reliability and interface discussion (Previously: HDD issues)

Yeah, a little off topic here (well, way off topic from the title of the the thread!) I got a Top Cat cell, autographed by Hanna and Barbera. It came with a certificate of authenticity, but I'd like to verify that it's legit. I took it apart once and the the cell isn't autographed, there's a transparency that's autographed and then placed over the cell. Maybe they used the transparency to copy their signature? Or maybe they did it so they wouldn't destroy the cell. I'd love to find the actual episode which has the cell, you know, to verify that's real as well. It was entitled something like, "Topcat visits the mayor". The cell itself is a picture of a room, blue coloured walls, yellowish / orange coloured floor, a window in the background, etc.

Also, I'd love to see them digitally restore some of the good old cartoons like Topcat and Johnny Quest, Transformers, G.I. Joes, TMNT, Tiny Toons, Tailspin, etc.

Topcat would really be cool to restore. I guess to verify something like that I would find out who was responsible for producing the cell and ask them how you can verify your copy. Other than that you would have to find a person who specializes in authenticating similar types of items. The latter will most likely want to charge you for their services.

[ThePCDoctor]

Re: SSD reliability and interface discussion (Previously: HDD issues)

This has to be one of those FWIW posts. Eh?

Last May, I bought my first SSD, directly from PNY. It ran for two months and then refused to boot up my PC one morning. There was nothing I could do to revive it.
So, I called PNY's support hot-line and I found out that without the original purchase order, they would do nothing for me.

Then, still needing an SSD, I went to Amazon.com and found a SanDisk SSD of the right size and price for me. I bought it, had it here in two days, installed it, did a restore of my last backup image file and it's been running Great ever since.

With the SanDisk SSD, I got a nice disk management package including TRIM, which I didn't get with the PNY drive.
I now have TRIM set up to run once a week.
BOY! Is this new SanDisk SSD ever FAST!
Boot-up takes only about 10 sec's and Shutdown less than five Sec's.
It's truly amazing!

Cheers Mates!
The Doctor

[keeney123]

Re: SSD reliability and interface discussion (Previously: HDD issues)

That is interesting that the company that you bought the drive from PNY did not have their own transaction of the drive?

[Uranium-235]

Re: SSD reliability and interface discussion (Previously: HDD issues)

my police friend doug had a PNY drive, and it booted fine but once it got into windows transactions slowed dramatically, he could not have two windows opening at the same time without the drive choking. I suggested Samsung 850 Pro

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: SSD reliability and interface discussion (Previously: HDD issues)

a quick search around the web shows that pny is notorious for not honoring their warranty along with their drives having a high failure rate.

their drives also dont seem to have any wear leveling and trim from what uranium described. in short, stay away from no name brands for ssds unless u dont care about the warranty or the drive failing.

[keeney123]

Re: SSD reliability and interface discussion (Previously: HDD issues)

Guess the company does not want to stay in business.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: SSD reliability and interface discussion (Previously: HDD issues)

Topcat would really be cool to restore. I guess to verify something like that I would find out who was responsible for producing the cell and ask them how you can verify your copy. Other than that you would have to find a person who specializes in authenticating similar types of items. The latter will most likely want to charge you for their services.

Yeah, the people who sold it on E-Bay are a Florida based company that specializes in selling autographed memorabilia. They provided the certificate of authenticity. However, it states something along the lines of...we believe, to the best of our knowledge, that this autograph is authentic. If you find otherwise, within a year of purchase, please let us know and we'll issue a refund. My wife bought it for me many many years ago. Does anyone know if Hanna and Barbara are still alive? I'd love to send the cell in and get it autographed by each of them if I could, instead of just having autographed transparencies.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: SSD reliability and interface discussion (Previously: HDD issues)

That is interesting that the company that you bought the drive from PNY did not have their own transaction of the drive?

I had a similar problem but with an Ultra modular power supply. Bought two of them once. Both died. I had registered each of them. They both came with a lifetime warranty. When I called to get them replaced, they replaced the first, but the second one they claimed I needed the original receipt. Even if I had kept it, it would of been totally faded. We searched everywhere for it and found some receipts that where completely faded (we keep receipts in two separate places. One for lifetime ones, one for limited ones). Anyway, they refused to replace it with the receipt. They said the warranties weren't transferable and without me having the receipt, they couldn't prove I wasn't the original buyer. I asked if I could send in a photocopy of my license or something and they said no, I needed the receipt. Never bought an Ultra power supply after that.

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: SSD reliability and interface discussion (Previously: HDD issues)

another reason to be careful of lifetime warranty gimmicks. often they are used to fool ppl into buying a product and then they cook up half-cocked reasons not to honor the warranty or to downgrade it to x years warranty. only way is to create as much awareness about the brand not honoring their warranty and to stay away. in short, serve your revenge very coldly by making them go out of business.

[tom66]

Re: SSD reliability and interface discussion (Previously: HDD issues)

It would be nice to buy non-MLC NAND based SSDs for reasonable prices. Theoretically, they should only be twice the price, because the density is half. But this is not the case, SLC is always professional grade and so they are stupidly expensive.

MLC NAND does 3,000 cycles, SLC NAND does 60,000+. So there is a good reason to want SLC. And let's hope TLC NAND doesn't get into SSDs any time soon, that has a cycle life around 600 cycles.

As for OCZ, I have two old SSDs (Solid Sata II 120GB) which are still going, about 7 years old, my brother gave them to me when he upgraded. However, not really used them in a while. I put one in my laptop which massively sped it up, over the stock 160GB HDD.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: SSD reliability and interface discussion (Previously: HDD issues)

another reason to be careful of lifetime warranty gimmicks. often they are used to fool ppl into buying a product and then they cook up half-cocked reasons not to honor the warranty or to downgrade it to x years warranty. only way is to create as much awareness about the brand not honoring their warranty and to stay away. in short, serve your revenge very coldly by making them go out of business.

Yeah, only reason I bought them to begin with was because I thought if they where offering a lifetime warranty, it must of meant that they stood behind their products, they used high quality parts, etc. Another thing was once you buy one of those Ultra's, you have 30 days to register online. If you don't register online, you don't get the lifetime. You get a couple years, dependent upon model I believe. I want to say the Ultra X2 had a three year if you didn't register online.

It was a learning experience. Now, with lifetime warranties, we scan the receipt with the PC and still keep a physical copy, just in case they "require" a receipt. Seems to take about a year for the ink on thermal paper to disappear.

[Spork Schivago]

Re: SSD reliability and interface discussion (Previously: HDD issues)

It would be nice to buy non-MLC NAND based SSDs for reasonable prices. Theoretically, they should only be twice the price, because the density is half. But this is not the case, SLC is always professional grade and so they are stupidly expensive.

MLC NAND does 3,000 cycles, SLC NAND does 60,000+. So there is a good reason to want SLC. And let's hope TLC NAND doesn't get into SSDs any time soon, that has a cycle life around 600 cycles.

As for OCZ, I have two old SSDs (Solid Sata II 120GB) which are still going, about 7 years old, my brother gave them to me when he upgraded. However, not really used them in a while. I put one in my laptop which massively sped it up, over the stock 160GB HDD.

So right now, SLC NAND based solid states would be the best to buy? Back to the M.2 standard...if I were to build a desktop, I'd want a motherboard that supported the M.2 standard using the PCI-E 3.0 bus and using the NVMe logical device interface, if I wanted the fastest speeds, right?

[keeney123]

Re: SSD reliability and interface discussion (Previously: HDD issues)

This has to be one of those FWIW posts. Eh?

Last May, I bought my first SSD, directly from PNY. It ran for two months and then refused to boot up my PC one morning. There was nothing I could do to revive it.
So, I called PNY's support hot-line and I found out that without the original purchase order, they would do nothing for me.

Then, still needing an SSD, I went to Amazon.com and found a SanDisk SSD of the right size and price for me. I bought it, had it here in two days, installed it, did a restore of my last backup image file and it's been running Great ever since.

With the SanDisk SSD, I got a nice disk management package including TRIM, which I didn't get with the PNY drive.
I now have TRIM set up to run once a week.
BOY! Is this new SanDisk SSD ever FAST!
Boot-up takes only about 10 sec's and Shutdown less than five Sec's.
It's truly amazing!

Cheers Mates!
The Doctor

Perhaps it would be worth contacting the attorney general of NJ where PNY home company is and file a complaint. http://www.njconsumeraffairs.gov/

[Per Hansson]

Re: SSD reliability and interface discussion (Previously: HDD issues)

And let's hope TLC NAND doesn't get into SSDs any time soon, that has a cycle life around 600 cycles.

2012 called and wanted their TLC drives back
http://www.techspot.com/article/997-...e-degradation/

[ChaosLegionnaire]

Re: SSD reliability and interface discussion (Previously: HDD issues)

waaa. thx so much for the article u wrote. so the moral of the story is to not be the guinea pig and to just stick to tried and tested tech like mlc based drives. cuz it seems like tlc tech is so new that even samsung themselves do not know how their own invention behaves or actually works for that matter...

i remember when ssds first came out, it took quite a few years to figure out the issues plaguing ssds. kudos to the anandtech guy for figuring out the read-modify-write issues with early ssds and to implement garbage collection to avoid the problem.

i forsee at least another 3 years or so for them to figure out and fix the issues plagung tlc drives. if not, tlc nand will just become another ugly stain in the memory of ssds and we will require another new innovation to take flash memory forward cuz these days, hard drives are really becoming more and more crappy... look at all the 1 and 2 year warranties hard drives these days come with. i really relish the days during the dvd era when hard drives had to come with at least a 5 year warranty or no one would buy them...

[keeney123]

Re: SSD reliability and interface discussion (Previously: HDD issues)

It seems to me that if they use spin computing with a hard disk this might solve some problems. If one had a disk made up of and array of read/write spin pick ups that matched up with a hard disk. The read would be easy as the magnetic field of the bits on the hard drive could be pick up on the receptive disk. the hard part would be actually creating a large enough magnetic field to change the hard disk.