SSD advice

[pickdropper]

A word of advice to those who have SSDs in their computers:

Backup every day.  When SSDs fail, it often occurs without warning or any hope of (inexpensive) recovery.  I knew this, but had gotten behind with backing things up.

Just FYI.

[Haberdasher]

just curious- how long did your drive last before it went tits up?

[pickdropper]

Less than two months.  That was part of the reason I had been a bit lax with backups.  I had just gone through a massive backup before migrating to the new drive.

[Haberdasher]

wow, sorry to hear that.  I can see how that would sneak up on you.
hopefully that is a statistical outlier.  i just put one in a good friend's older notebook to breathe some new life into it.  I'm hoping it lasts the lifetime of the laptop but I guess you never know.  Looks like I better instill a backup ritual.

[croquet hoop]

I feel bad for you, a drive crash is always a major bummer. What kind of failure was it? Some drives have procedures to re-set the drive (without erasing it, so not an actual reset), maybe you won't lose everything it contained.

In any case, yeah. Whether you use HDDs or SSDs, ALWAYS make backups. And since SSDs can be sensitive devices (although the technology is mature by now), always make sure you get one known for its reliability (some SSDs have failure/return rates around 50%... the good ones — Samsung, Intel or Crucial — are around less than 1%).

[billstein]

Yep. It's not a matter of "If" your HD will fail, it is a matter of "when". That can be a platter HD or SSD. You're right in saying that many times there will be no warning at all. I know because I've had two devastating failures where I lost so much important information. Therefore a good backup strategy is essential. I've become paranoid and probably over do it.

I have two hard drives for data in my computer. I use allway sync to keep the second disc up to date with all the data. This way if one goes down I can carry on with no delay.

I also do this with the SSD that has my system and program files on. I bought a second one and backed it up after putting all my major programs on. Therefore if I have a deadline hanging over me and the system fails I can put this second SSD into an external disk caddy and I'm up and running again in minutes.

Then, because I am paranoid and because it is important to have a backup that is off site, I've signed up for Carbonite. This automatically backs up all the data into the cloud. I can pick up those documents from any computer, from my Ipad or from my phone.

Then, because I'm really paranoid, I also store some things I want to get to easily on Google drive. That also allows me to open a word document or whatever else I'm working on from any computer.

[pickdropper]

I feel bad for you, a drive crash is always a major bummer. What kind of failure was it? Some drives have procedures to re-set the drive (without erasing it, so not an actual reset), maybe you won't lose everything it contained.

In any case, yeah. Whether you use HDDs or SSDs, ALWAYS make backups. And since SSDs can be sensitive devices (although the technology is mature by now), always make sure you get one known for its reliability (some SSDs have failure/return rates around 50%... the good ones — Samsung, Intel or Crucial — are around less than 1%).

Yep, and I know better about doing regular backups.

The drive in question is a 6 week old Samsung 840 Pro.  Supposedly one of the more reliable ones. 

The loss is totally on me, but I recognize how easy it is to get out of the habit of backing up crucial information.  The reason I posted this was to help remind everybody else of the consequences of that.

I did have a backup, just an older one.  Unfortunately, I lost a lot of my recent work, including some graphic layouts I had spent quite a bit of time on.

[culturejam]

Bummer! Sorry to hear that.

I once fdisk'ed a partition that had a video project I'd spent about 100 hours working on. Since then, I've refused to use command-line partitioning tools. 

[pickdropper]

Bummer! Sorry to hear that.

I once fdisk'ed a partition that had a video project I'd spent about 100 hours working on. Since then, I've refused to use command-line partitioning tools. 

Ouch.  That would sting a bit.

[angrykoko]

Wow, I'm glad I read this one.. made me check my offsite backup and it had expired (not sure why I didnt get a renewal email..maybe went to spam).

I'm uber paranoid, have only system and desktop on SSD drive, everything else on a traditional second drive.
I also have a raid-5 box that I backup to along with offsite.

[jubal81]

After losing all my Eagle projects a while back I installed dropbox on my mac. Now all the important files live in the dropbox folder.

[gordo]

just curious- how long did your drive last before it went tits up?

Uhhh, I believe the politically correct term is "nipples north".

We now return you to the regular thread... 

[lincolnic]

I have two hard drives for data in my computer. I use allway sync to keep the second disc up to date with all the data. This way if one goes down I can carry on with no delay.

This. If you're not backed up in at least two places, you're not backed up.

[nzCdog]

youch!  time to fumble for my backup drives again

[pickdropper]

I have two hard drives for data in my computer. I use allway sync to keep the second disc up to date with all the data. This way if one goes down I can carry on with no delay.

This. If you're not backed up in at least two places, you're not backed up.

Yeah, I agree with this.  My desktop has tons of redundancy.  It was my laptop where I got lax (and I know better).