Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit login

AFAIK, SSDs usually give one warning before dying, and that's suddenly becoming irreversibly read only. They might not always survive a reboot (which certainly would be the first thing I'd do if my OS suddenly reported a drive as RO) but you usually do have a time window to get your data off safely.

An SSD randomly giving the ghost is one of my greatest fears when it comes to desktop computers, because there's no way to get any data off them when they die. With spinning rust you can usually send the drive to an expensive data recovery company who will likely transplant the platters and send you a copy of what's on disk, but if a flash chip is slightly damaged because of a short or whatever, you won't have such luck.

Yes, I know, I should make more backups, but every time I thought I'd gotten everything safely backed up, I found a file or folder that I forgot to include.




An ssd becoming read only, and having random read errors happens when it is overheating aswell.

I’ve had an nvme reaching temps 70+ celsius, because the geniuses who designed the mobo put the socket right where cpu hot air flows..

I aged a couple of years when the machine bsoded and then told me windows files are missing. I thought everything is gone, but fortunately when the ssd colled down everything went back to normal.

Had to put an extra fan in the case, and disable couple of cpu cores though to make the system stable.


You’re ultimately at the mercy of the SSD software, which was written to minimize development costs for a limited-product-lifetime embedded device.

Most of these quirks are undefined behavior, and you won’t ever see the source code.




Consider applying for YC's Spring batch! Applications are open till Feb 11.

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: