Advice Request SSD vs HDD reliability

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Are SSDs more reliable than HDDs?

  • Yes, significantly more reliable than HDDs

    Votes: 45 71.4%
  • Yes, but only marginally more reliable than HDDs

    Votes: 3 4.8%
  • Very little difference in reliability between SSDs and HDDs

    Votes: 3 4.8%
  • No, SSDs are less reliable than HDDs

    Votes: 12 19.0%

  • Total voters
    63

Chuck57

Level 9
Verified
Well-known
Oct 22, 2018
433
Had an old computer I purchased in 1991. Forty MB HDD and 2MB RAM, Win 3. I gave it away in 1995. The person I gave that old computer to still has it and it still runs great. It now has Win 3.1. Won't run anything newer, but he doesn't care. It does what he wants with the antique programs he uses, and he's obviously not a computer geek and could care less about the Internet. I cannot say how many hours a day he uses it. But that's 29, pushing 30 yrs on the HDD.
 
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Digerati

Level 7
Verified
Well-known
Mar 2, 2017
318
Has this happened on other parts too? laptops and desktops?
That would be hard to quantify because it would be necessary to know what components inside laptops and desktops are failing and it would be necessary to keep track of those failures over the past 10+ years. I have not done that. But I will say I am still using my Toshiba A505 laptop I bought in Feb 2010 and it still has the original hard drive and original battery too.

But for sure, electronics in general have become more reliable as "solid state", digital electrons and integration technologies advance. I mean back in the day, there were TV repairmen that even made house calls! Your neighborhood grocery and drug stores had free vacuum tube testers. Radio Shacks abound.

When PCs were first being manufactured, companies used to run "burn-in" tests on each computer before they left the factory. This is because typical failures, if they are to occur, occur within the first few minutes and hours or not until years later. And finding those early was better than having an upset customer.

But soon, Dell, Northgate, Compaq, Gateway and the others soon realized their burn-in tests were resulting in fewer and fewer failures because components were not failing. That continues today.

But hard drives are not pure electronic devices. They are electromechanical. You can look at the warranties to get an idea too. In the past almost all drives came with at least 3 year warranties. Some came with 5. These days, 1 and 2 year warranties are not uncommon.
 
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ForgottenSeer 89360

In my practice (at home) I've had 2 HDDs fail within 5 years of usage, whilst SSDs have never failed me. I still have 6-7 year old SSD running on an old laptop of mine.
My Samsung 850 pro is 2 years old and it's health (according to the SMART data) is 98%.
I've replaced many HDDs both at work and for friends, and family, but I haven't been asked to replace an SSD.
I think it's safe to conclude that SSDs are far more reliable.
 

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