How Long Do SSDs Really Last? [New Study 2024]

As the most popular storage device, solid-state drives have enormous advantages such as faster speed, high efficiency, less power consumption, and compact size. However, all storage devices will eventually fail and break down. SSDs are no exception. This article will make sense to you of how long SSDs last and how to check and prolong the lifespan of SSD in the text. Let's dig in now.

How Long Do SSDs Last?

SSDs are faster than mechanical hard drives and have a mean time between failures of 1.5 million hours. However, SSDs have limited write and read times by default. SSDs are using flash memory to store data, and constantly writing and erasing data to the memory cell will wear it out. Thus, these SSD will become less efficient and reliable with time growing usage. In the market, there are many different types of SSD, and they are various in lifespan. However, on normal wear and tear, most SSDs like SATA SSD, M.2 SSD, and PCIe SSD have a similar lifespan - about 3-5 years on average, while the superior SSD type, NVME SSD, has an average lifespan of 10 years.

What affects SSD lifespan

In this section, we have rounded up four main factors that will influence the length of the SSD lifespan:

1. Usage time of the SSD

Like the washing machine, the more you use it, the shorter its life will be. The experts put the average lifespan between five and ten years after testing.

2. Total terabytes wrote time

Similar to the expiration date of food, the total terabytes of written time have already limited the available times of SSD. The total terabytes of written time of most SSDs are 256 TBW. In other words, once the written times exceed this number, the memory cells will start degrading.

3. Drive writes per day

Drive writes per day refers to how much data can be written each day within the warranty of the SSD. DWPD is directly related to the endurance of the SSD - the higher it is, the more endurable the SSD can be.

4. Different cell architecture

There are four types of SSD according to the different cell architectures, and they are distinguished by the number of write cycles, which will impact the endurance of the SSD.

How to Check SSD Lifespan - 2 Ways

This part provides two easy ways to check an SSD's lifespan to help you figure out how long your SSD can last.

Method 1. Check SSD Lifespan via Windows Setting

Checking the SSD status on the Windows Settings can help you detect errors and evaluate its overall condition. This tool can display details of SSD, including available space, the estimated remaining lifespan and temperature, and so on.

Follow the simple tutorial to check SSD lifespan:

Step 1. Press the "Windows + I" keys to open the Window Setting window.

Step 2. Go to "Storage" and click the "Disks & Volumes" option under the "Advanced storage setting."

Step 3. Choose "Properties" to check the estimated remaining lifespan in the "Drive health" section.

Method 2. Check SSD Lifespan via EaseUS Partition Master

As an all-in-one partition management software, EaseUS Partition Master offers the "Disk Health" feature to check the properties of SSD, such as available spare, power-on hours, temperature, total host read/ writes, etc. Based on these data, you can determine whether the SSD is healthy and how long it can last. Learn more information at the following link:

How to Prolong the Lifespan of SSDs?

Compared with other storage devices, SSD is significantly faster and more durable with a longer lifetime. However, how long does your SSD last depends on how you use it. To improve the reliability and lifespan of SSD, we will offer some advanced SSD maintenance tips as follows:

1. #1. Monitor SSD Health Regularly
2. #2. Wear leveling
3. #3. Enable Error Correction Code (ECC)
4. #4. Use TRIM command
5. #5. Manage Bad Block 

#1. Monitor SSD Health Regularly

Regular SSD checks can help you monitor the health of the SSD and report the result, which can help you optimize its lifespan and speed up its performance. You may like to use EaseUS Partition Master since it can support all Windows systems and suit for beginners and experienced users.

#2. Wear leveling

Both dynamic and static wear leveling can balance the distribution of the data program and erase cycles over the whole memory block. In addition, this program will get executed when the data is programmed to the flash memory to help the SSD last longer.

#3. Enable Error Correction Code (ECC)

Error Correction Code is a computing technique that controls data transmission errors over unreliable channels. Enable Error Correction Code can help users detect and correct errors on the flash memory of SSD, which will lengthen the SSD lifespan.

#4. Use TRIM command

TRIM commands allow some blocks of SSD data not to be considered 'in use' and make them erasable. This CMD enables the SSD to handle garbage collection more efficiently, contributing to its lifetime.

#5. Manage Bad Block 

There are early and later bad blocks in the NAND flash memory. To increase the lifetime of SSD, you can try to use bad block management. This method can help you detect and mark the bad blocks to prevent you from writing data into these bad blocks.

Except for the above bonus tips, you can find other helpful advice in the EaseUS editor's review below:

Conclusion

To sum up, there is no storage device that can last forever. Even though the average lifespan of an SSD is longer than other devices, it has a limited lifetime. We can buy a particularly durable SSD and use the above SSD maintenance tips to prolong its lifespan as much as possible. More importantly, keep backing up all the important data on the SSD regularly against a rainy day.