When using an SSD to stash your important files, you may want to know the SSD lifespan?
However, the fact is that you are unable to get the exact value.
Even so, you could calculate the estimated value based on some special data.
Now, see more details in this post.
Is It Possible to Know the Exact SSD Lifespan?
It is an undeniable fact that SSDs may wear out over time.
Every time you write data to a NAND cell, the cell will be slightly degraded.
When the write operations are enough, a NAND cell will fail eventually.
SSD lifespan test is helpful to determine when the format of the storage does and doesnt make sense.
Most of you may think that SSDs are more reliable for mainstream use.
However, many cases indicate that SSDs lack of durability.
After all, there are different classes of drives and they have different characteristics.
For example, an SLC disk has far better durability than a QLC disk.
Meanwhile, the way that a disk is used can also influence the SSD lifespan.
How long an SSD will last?
Considering this, manufactures supply some metrics that can be helpful to predict an SSD lifespan.
But, it is still impossible to calculate the exact fail time of the drive.
The manufacture will supply you with the total number of terabytes that are estimated to be written over time.
Here, we will show you an example.
Suppose that there is a computer that is using a 1 TB Western Digital SSD (WDS100T2BOA).
However, it doesnt mean that each NAND cell supports 500 program/erase cycles.
Most SSDs have extra NAND cells on it and they can take over the cells that are heavily worn.
But, this is just an estimate value rather than an exact value.
Firstly, the cell durability is usually an expected range.
Secondly, the disk is rarely used evenly.
Even there is wear leveling, some areas of the drive can be written to more frequently than others.
Another factor of SSD lifespan is the Mean Time to Failure rating of the drive.
The manufacture also provides this value based on the results of endurance testing.
However, it doesnt mean that this SSD lifespan is 200 years.
We dont know how WD gets the number of 1.75 million hours.
Here, we make some assumptions.
Suppose that WD tested 17,500 drives and the SSD lifespan test lasted for 5,000 hours.
During the test, 50 drives failed.
So, you see that this value doesnt indicate the lifespan of the drive.
However, a drive with higher value must be more reliable than a drive with lower value.
Bottom Line
All in all, no formula can be used to test the exact SSD lifespan.
But, both TBW and Mean Time to Failure can give you some hints.
