Data Safety and Solid State Drives
John C. Dvorak, the Lone Ranger of sanity at PC Magazine once again warns of things known, but forgotten, or pushed aside by the powers that be, In a column from a couple of days ago, he warns of the possible problems encountered by those who are using Solid State Drives. The kind that are being put, with great frequency, in low cost portable computers.
After relating what has personally happened to him with flash-based drives in his travels, he gives a story of what happened to hybrid hard drives, the technology that was to have made Vista a wonderful thing. (This is one reason why the idea of using a USB thumbdrive came about, it was to have partly ameliorated the slowness experienced by those who did not have a lightning fast PC when Vista was released.)
The article ends, in typical fashion, with a warning. One thing those who have not been around as long as Mr. Dvorak has could do is heed his words; he has rarely been wrong about the world of computers.
There are a number of hot memory technologies lurking in labs around the world, and unless flash can prove itself more reliable, storage technology will turn toward something entirely different—if something new actually makes it out of research and into development. Until then, people, always take an extra memory card with you when you travel! You won’t regret it. This happens to every shutterbug every so often. And as for the solid-state-drive revolution, well, good luck with that one.
Having had the same experience with thumbdrives, I’d definitely think twice about anything stored on anything flash-based, that did not have a backup on a more trustworthy medium.
One of the very bad things that has happened over the last twenty years in computers is that storage has gotten cheaper and more reliable. Why is this bad? Backup is something everyone should do, with all the data they wish to keep. And two backups are better than one.
Just a thought. (should you need more convincing, a trip to the column cited should help)
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9 Comments
Summer is Finally Upon Us | Chris Pirillo
June 5th, 2009
at 5:00am
[...] Are solid state drives safer? [...]
Summer is Finally Upon Us | Tech-monkey.info Blogs
June 5th, 2009
at 5:24am
[...] Are solid state drives safer? [...]
Vince
June 5th, 2009
at 11:23am
Nowadays, even USB pen drives can also be hacked and data can be easily stolen from them. So it is better to go for online data storage where data is stored at secured servers.
the oracle
June 5th, 2009
at 11:49am
Vince, I’m sure that is true, however, though I have worked in corporate situations, I generally work with individuals, or small businesses, so I tend to think on a smaller scale.
My thoughts are for critical stuff, a hard drive stored at the bank, in a safety deposit box, with 2 copies of DVD backup onsite is what I recommend.
Thanks for the comment.
Keithy Stoneberger
June 5th, 2009
at 5:37pm
I been hearing aboiut ssd but i havent used any, but from i read about it, is it whats being used now in the netbooks? if there is a higher failure rate, could it be because the card is overheating?
the oracle
June 6th, 2009
at 12:30am
Keithy, that is not the problem, because it happens to thumbdrives – the same exact technology. I’ve had two fail, after little usage and they never got warmer than body temperature, from being carried in my pocket.
Solid State Nimmitz ~ Windows Fanatics
June 6th, 2009
at 4:39pm
[...] solid state drives [...]
Tracy
June 6th, 2009
at 10:39pm
I’ve had three failed flash drives in as many years. No warning- just died one day. OTOH, had one hard drive fail- but had warnings and so was able to get my data off of it prior to total failure…
Is it any wonder that some of the largest institutions still backup to tape?
Summer is Finally Upon Us | dv8-designs
June 8th, 2009
at 6:58am
[...] Are solid state drives safer? [...]