solid state 8 gb wearing out

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lxpatterson

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How does SSD memory typically die? Ive had several laptop drives die on me, and usually it gives funny noises or clicking before it goes, so at least you have some warning. Is the failure typically catastrophic?

Also where is the rest of my memeory? I just bought my aspire one and it says I have 3.7 g free out of 6.4 g. where is the rest of my memory?
 
There seems to be 1 GB used for swap, so that leaves you with 7,4 GB total, hence 7945689497 bytes, or 8 "commercial" gigabytes. Hope I'm right.
 
i would be guessing data courrption, filenames would start to appear funny, or files or photos wouldn't open if they worked before.
 
by the time you have figured out your ssd is dead, you have time to change your laptop a couple of time.

let me get the article.
 
The specifications of the One SSD say that it's lifetime is only 3 years.
 
If you guys go up and check that link posted above about the life of SSD hard drives and you thoroughly check the whole page / site you will see that the writer posted a 2008 update to the article in which he states that his article applies to SLC type SSD's and *not* to MLC type.

The SSD that comes with the Aspire One is an MLC type and suffers from far shorter lifespan than the "millions of writes" drives that he talks about in that article.

Here is the link to the other "follow up article": http://www.storagesearch.com/ssd-slc-mlc-notes.html

Furthermore, here is a link to the specifications of the Intel SSD used in the Aspire One - it is an MLC variety:

http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:r8m ... =clnk&cd=2

The specs listed below mention a MTBF which stands for Mean Time Between Failure and is defined here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mean_time_between_failures

And here is a cut and paste of the specs from the above link:

Code: 
Intel®Z-P230 PATA Solid State Drive
SSDPAMM0004G1, SSDPAMM0008G1
Preliminary Product Manual
Product Features
Capacities
— 4 GB
— 8 GB
PATA Compatibility
— UDMA5 support
— PIO Mode 4
— MWDMA Mode 2
— PATA ZIF interface
Performance
— Sustained Sequential Read Bandwidth:
35 MB/s (targeted)
— Sustained Sequential Write Bandwidth:
7 MB/s (targeted)
Reliability
— Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF)
1 Million Hours
— 3 Years Useful Life
Form Factor
— 1.8 in (W) x 0.9 in (L) x 0.13 in (H)
— Weighs 10 grams (TYP)
Power Supply Voltage: 3.3 V ± 10% (TYP)
Power Consumption (Vcc = 3.3 V)
— Idle: 1.65 mW (TYP)
— Active: 314 mW (TYP)
Power Loss Protection: both hardware and
firmware help prevent data corruption in the
event of a power down during a WRITE cycle
Temperature
— Operating: 0C to 70C
— Storage: 0C to 85C
Shock and Vibration
— Operating and non-operating shock:
600 G/2 ms
— Non-operating Vibration: 3.13 G, 5-500 Hz
— Operating Vibration: 1.1 G, 5-40 Hz

Now it is quite possible that Acer won't be using this particular SSD in ALL of their models, if anyone wants to open theirs up and confirm exactly which model SSD it is, that would be lovely, but I got the info that this is the SSD that the Aspire One uses from Wikipedia entry on Aspire One.
 
lxpatterson said:
How does SSD memory typically die? Ive had several laptop drives die on me, and usually it gives funny noises or clicking before it goes, so at least you have some warning. Is the failure typically catastrophic?
Click to expand...

The symptoms will depend on the operating system (clearly there won't be any hardware clues like you get with a HDD) but will usually involve write errors being reported when your OS is trying to save a file. Usually the data on the damaged part will now be read only so unlike a HDD you shouldn't lose existing data.

Due to the way in which most flash controllers work they remap damaged cells so the only symptom you may see is gradually reducing disk size.

So, the death of flash memory is typically not catastrophic if they die of old age. If you set fire to your One or hack it to pieces with an axe then it might be slightly more catastrophic. This robustness is one of the key selling points (in my opinion) of flash over magnetic HDDs in a device that I intend to have with me almost all the time.
 
The Intel documentation says "3 Years Useful Life" and doesn't give us many more clues than that, it doesn't tell us the maximum amount of writes or anything so we can't calculate an exact amount, just don't expect it to last 50 years like it says in the article posted earlier because this SSD drive is not SLC technology it is the shorter living MLC type.

Again, Intel says 3 years useful life, it does not say it's guaranteed to work for 3 years or give you a 3 year warranty or anything like that so take that as you will, you and me both have the same information now and can only guess how long it will last based on that unless we can get more detailed specs other than "3 years useful life".
 
Duke said:
3 years... that's pretty bad. :cry:
Click to expand...

Do you think so? In 3 years there will be ever more whizzy laptots with larger screens with higher resolutions etc etc and they will be even cheaper and lighter and prettier. We'll all be hankering after the next shiny laptot in a year let alone 3 years.

Look how the price of normal laptops has fallen over the last 5 years. Decent laptops used to cost GBP1500-2000, now you can get a perfectly good one for less than 400. Furthermore, Asus has sparked a competitive frenzy and every man and his dog is releasing another competitor.

The One is a lovely machine, but my bet is that in 3 years, it will be looking pretty old.
 
I would have to agree with Lotus. If the drive does last 3 years minimum (even though the specs don't say that exactly in those words) then that should be sufficient to get plenty of good solid use out of the machine.

Even if you're still using the machine in 3 years, think about how much SSD's will have come down in price and gone up in size in that time, even in 2 years, you could probably "hack" your machine, replace the 8GB SSD with a 16 or 32 GB one for relatively low cost (probably well under $50 in 2+ years).

But again, "3 years useful life" isn't very specific. That could very well mean that certain data blocks on the drive begin failing far before then but that the drive will remap itself sufficiently for at least 3 years (meaning a slow reduction in drive space as data blocks fail). But the fact is, the information Intel is giving us in those specs is really vague, it's hard to say exactly what they mean and we all know how companies reword things to make them sound different than how they truly are.

With that said, I don't think Intel is in the habit of making shoddy hardware so if we get a full 3 years with the whole drive 100% working on this thing, I'd be happy. If you're worried about losing any critical data on the drive, my simple recommendation is to not use the drive to store your critical info. Just let the drive run the operating system, store any valuables on an external SD card or USB stick which will likely get written to far far less and therefore last much much longer. And SD cards are pretty cheap these days, you could get a 2GB one for like $10 - $20 (depending on speed and quality and brand).

As for me, I would expect to use the machine quite extensively but at the same time, knowing my own usage and replacement rate, I would very likely buy a newer model within 2 years at which time I could either discard this one or sell it on eBay so if it lasts a full 3 years that should be more than enough. Time will tell... unless someone can find us some more detailed specs?

And lastly, with all of that said, take note that Acer does provide a 1 Year Warranty on this whole machine.
 
lxpatterson said:
How does SSD memory typically die? Ive had several laptop drives die on me, and usually it gives funny noises or clicking before it goes, so at least you have some warning. Is the failure typically catastrophic?

Also where is the rest of my memeory? I just bought my aspire one and it says I have 3.7 g free out of 6.4 g. where is the rest of my memory?
Click to expand...

Hi,

same at my A1 too. The System-Info under Linpus Linux Lite tells me 8GB Diskspace. If i look into the Data-Manager he tells me the same memory-info like yours. 6.4 GB total, 3.7GB free. I dont think that the our SSD dies. Two ideas for that:

-a swap partition
-a unvisible partion for recovery

grüsse from Germany

Kermit
 
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