On Wed, 13 Aug 2014 06:19:09 -0700, "William Sommerwerck"
wrote:

wrote in message ...

However, I have been told by some of my computer guru friends
that the SSD will have a shorter life than a regular hard drive...

Unlike HDs (which can last a week or several decades), SSDs have a known
finite lifespan.

Not a "known" lifetime. More like a bell curve of estimated lifetimes
based on uncorrectable errors. If it worries you, run the
manufactories diagnostic software to track the errors. For example
Intel Toolbox and Samsung Magician:
http://www.intel.com/design/flash/nand/managessd.htm
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/semiconductor/samsungssd/downloads.html
I deal with about 8 machines running Intel and Samsung SSD drives. In
about the last 6-12 months, no new errors. With a failure rate of
about 1.5% per year (as compared to 5% for rotating HD storage), I
don't expect to see too many failures with such a small sample.
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2014/01/30/are-ssds-reliable/
Failure rate by brand:
http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/108284-huge-list-of-failure-rates-on-pc-components-french-but-i-translated-nearly-everything/
(Search for "SSD").

It has to do with trapped charge that eventually makes it
impossible to erase and rewrite.

Nice article comparing reliability and failure modes of rotating
storage and SSD:
http://www.idema.org/wp-content/downloads/1879.pdf

You don't want to use an SSD on a system where huge files are constantly being
written and rewritten. You should install the largest drive you can afford, as
it will sustain more write cycles.

Probably good advice. None of my machines or my customers machine or
even their servers fit that description. In my case, it's a small
number of fairly small files that written, erased, and copied
constantly. Various filesystems that are designed to even out
read/write cycles throught different cells on the SSD help quite a
bit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_file_systems#File_systems_optimized_for_fl ash_memory.2C_solid_state_media
I use YAFFS for weather stations running on CF cards.

When I bought a new computer two years ago, I used the SSD solely for the
operating system and files that didn't change often. (Mail, temp files,
indexing, etc, were assigned to a large hard drive.)

I've had more problems with corruption due to unplanned power failures
than anything else. Fortunately, it's repairable by running an erase
cycle (takes forever), and restoring from an image backup.


--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558