My Prediction: SSD's to replace hard drives in 1-1/2 to 2 years

[cypress]

Good experience with them....quite a while ago I tried one out of my wifes prior laptop, got a Samsung hybrid. Cloned her original drive to it. I immediately saw well improved bootup speed, login, and responsiveness when working around.

Have not done a lot of them to get a feel for reliability...but I'm sure if the SSD components fails..it's not total loss like with an SSD with how it works with the SSD cache part.

So if the SSD part fails, does the mechanical part just take over the drive and continue to function just fine?

 

[Larry Sabo]

I've been using an ADATA 128GB SSD in my laptop and put a 64GB ADATA into a customer's laptop at the same time about a year ago. Not a single problem so far. Using an ADATA 256GB SSD in my desktop for the past 3 months with no problem either.

I see that all SSDs are really dropping in price lately. That 256GB Crucial MX100 Jimbo mentioned is $120 CAD now, which is really attractive.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

So if the SSD part fails, does the mechanical part just take over the drive and continue to function just fine?

I was under the impression it moved more temp stuff over...like pagefile/swap file...but after a quick check, the drives have some algorithm that factors in most frequently accessed files and puts them on the SSD. So I guess it can be just as deadly.

 

[phaZed]

So if the SSD part fails, does the mechanical part just take over the drive and continue to function just fine?

Stonecat is correct, most commonly used files will be regularly cached in SSD memory. From my experience if the SSD fails, so does the drive. The HDD controller goes wonky if either the SSD or mechanical portion fails.

 

[nlinecomputers]

All true but you still have physical hard drive platters and that can be recovered given the right equipment. And while it does cache files the original files are still on the HDD so the only issue might be a delayed write failure should the drive die during a write operation. All told it is still a much better recovery chance then a pure SSD.

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

The more I think about how hybrids work..the more I Google-Fu it...the more I think it'll fail pretty bad. Appears the files are indeed "stored" there...and different drives have different algorithms that determines what is kept there..and it can change over time.

Kinda how, back in the WinXP days, it had that "drive alignment" that put the more frequently accessed files on the outside of the platter for better performance.

And it's bridged someone (the SSD component and the platter component) to all appear as the same drive to the OS. So if one, or the other part tanks...I bet the OS gets a MBR or FAT related error..partition tanked.

But as nline mentions...with the right equipment..can likely still recover quite easily from the surviving part (likely the platters)

 

[phaZed]

Now recovery isn't going to be an issue because we're backing up, correct?

 

[nlinecomputers]

The more I think about how hybrids work..the more I Google-Fu it...the more I think it'll fail pretty bad. Appears the files are indeed "stored" there...and different drives have different algorithms that determines what is kept there..and it can change over time.

Kinda how, back in the WinXP days, it had that "drive alignment" that put the more frequently accessed files on the outside of the platter for better performance.

And it's bridged someone (the SSD component and the platter component) to all appear as the same drive to the OS. So if one, or the other part tanks...I bet the OS gets a MBR or FAT related error..partition tanked.

But as nline mentions...with the right equipment..can likely still recover quite easily from the surviving part (likely the platters)

So you are saying that the cached files are NOT stored on the physical platters? *shudder*

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

So you are saying that the cached files are NOT stored on the physical platters? *shudder*

I think the firmware of the hybrid drives use an algorithm a lot like WinXP does with that auto-alignment. most frequently accessed files get put at the fastest part of the drive...instead of the outer perimeter like XP does, it's put on the SSD portion.

Based on the bit of reading I did today. It's the most thinking I've done on these drives. Kinda tired now...time for a beer!

 

[frase]

Personally I own an OCZ SSD have had no problems with it - two years now.

Once affordability comes down and data storage goes up, well yea they will I think. Though at the moment for a single system HDD replacement I don't think so yet.

 

[Tim275]

I can see laptops going that way pretty soon, especially with the new M.2 SATA. I think even with laptops though it will take slightly more than one year for it to become standard. As for desktops, I think it will take longer still. Especially for storage, editing, write intensive tasks, or even gaming - where bar load time, little performance increase is seen. In terms of business', no. Maybe on employees workstations (but we all know how slow some business' can be to upgrade, cough... XP, XP), maybe even on a NAS, but not in servers. Certain write intensive applications such as CCTV surveillance will also continue to use HHD for the foreseeable future. At least until the endurance of the SSD has been improved, or a new technology has come along.