Is it safe to use an SSD for Backup purposes? [closed]
Solution 1:
Yes, SSDs are safe to use for backup purposes. (Although, I can't imagine why you would want to, but that's a different subject.)
A few lessons we should learn from this:
- SSDs are not less reliable than HDDs
- Modern SSDs are still unproven technology
- Multi-layer cell memory is more reliable (but costs more)
- Most importantly, any kind of drive can fail. If the data matters, plan accordingly.
Solution 2:
When you say backing up family photos, I'm guessing you want long-term, archival-quality storage. If not then you can skip reading this, but if that's the case, then neither technology is really suitable for that.
Two things to keep in mind about SSDs vs. HDDs for backups...
Firstly, SSDs are far more expensive than hard drives. People pay the price premium because of their speed. Backups waste that advantage so you're spending extra money for half the space and none of the benefit. Yes, they're more robust than hard drives, but DVD-Rs and tapes are even more so.
Secondly, hard drives usually give plenty of warning before they die and the data is usually recoverable when it happens. But when SSDs fail, they go from zero to dead quite quickly. One day they work, and the next day they don't -- sometimes for no reason at all. They also have a tendency to eat your data like some kind of bit-monster that feeds on zeroes and ones when they die.
I work in a large environment with SSDs everywhere. In my experience, they're not any more or less reliable than hard drives are. The only difference is that usually there's no getting the data back from a dead SSD.
Solution 3:
It is safe. Tell the people who tell you otherwise they got no clue. A typical customer grade SSD lasts now around 35 years, if you write 20 Gbyte/day on it.
Just take a look at this SSD endurance test to get the hard facts:
http://techreport.com/review/26058/the-ssd-endurance-experiment-data-retention-after-600tb