16-year-old SATA II SSD survives 1 petabyte of writes, exceeding its endurance rating by 25x
By
Zhiye Liu
Summary
An enthusiast conducted an experiment writing 1 petabyte of data to a 16-year-old Sandisk P4 SATA II SSD, which survived 25 times its rated TBW endurance. The article explains how NAND flash degrades over time with writes/erases, compares SSD warranties to car warranties, and challenges the misconception that exceeding TBW ratings means immediate drive failure. The legacy drive far exceeded expectations despite its age and low endurance rating.
Source
Hacker News16-year-old SATA II SSD survives 1 petabyte of writes, exceeding its endurance rating by 25xtomshardware.comKey quotes
· 3 pulledThe NAND in SSDs gradually degrades over time as you write or erase data, similar to the wear and tear your car or virtually any other electronic device in your house experiences.
Just as cars come with a manufacturer's warranty defined by either years of use or a certain number of miles, whichever comes first, SSDs also come with a warranty defined by either years of use or a metric known as TBW (Terabytes Written).
However, there is a common misconception that when SSD exceeds its TBW rating, it will immediately fail.
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