[Disk Optimize Tips] How Long Does An SSD Last?

Now SSD is getting more and more share of the hard disk market. For users who want to upgrade the hard disk on the computer, the first option we suggest is an SSD. However, various benefits can’t prove it doesn’t have disadvantages. SSD is reliable but definitely not perfect. Do you know how long can you believe your SSD? Is it foolproof? When do you need to change a new SSD? How long do SSDs last?

If you’re not very sure about these questions, it would be well if you read this post to know more about your SSD and how to optimize it and protect your data.

SSD vs. HDD lifespan

SSDs are fundamentally different from traditional hard drives. A NAND Flash chip-based SSD is, by definition, not the same as a standard hard disk. SSDs have no moving components and so employ fundamentally different techniques to write and store data, whereas HDDs preserve their data on a magnetic plate.

Magnetically sensitive disks, an actuator arm with read/write capabilities, and a motor that spins the disks and moves the arm are all used in HDDs. When computers store data, HDDs encode it using magnetic impulses between the actuator arm, disks, and circular tracks.

▶ How long do hard drives last?

The differences in working ways also bring about the difference in the lifespan between HDD and SSD. According to the test data of Backblaze (an online backup company), 90% of hard drives live for three years and 80% survive for four years. In general, you should expect your HDD to last 3 to 5 years on average.

▶ How long does an SSD last?

The first factor that affects the lifespan of SSD is determined by its working way. NAND flash chips, which are functionally comparable to those found in USB drives and flashcards, are commonly used in solid-state drives. Flash media devices read and write data by electrically charging cells, which have a limited lifespan. The fact that data may only be written on a storage cell inside the chips between 3,000 and 100,000 times over its lifespan causes an electric impact.

They lose the ability to hold the charge over time dependably. Although flash drives utilize wear leveling to guarantee that data is written equally throughout the cells, preventing specific cells from receiving too much work, every solid-state device will become less dependable as cells wear out.

Generally speaking, an SSD has almost 5 years of life. However, there are other two important factors to significantly affect the lifespan of SSDs: the total number of terabytes written over time (TBW) and the drive writes per day (DWPD).

TBW is used for calculating how many successful writes a drive will do during its lifespan. If a manufacturer claims that its SSD has a TBW of 150, it indicates that the disk can write 150 terabytes of data. When the disk reaches that point, you'll almost certainly need to replace it.

While the drive writes per day metric is used to calculate how many times users can overwrite the drive's available storage capacity in a single day. For example, if you have a 200 GB SSD with a five-year guarantee, you may write 200 GB onto the drive daily for the warranty term before it fails.

Thus, the SSD Lifespan is also determined by personal usage.

▶ Whose life lasts longer: SSD or HDD?

HDDs aren't new technology, but they have certain advantages. They've been around for decades, so tech pros are well-versed in their operation. Furthermore, HDDs are less expensive than SSDs and typically provide more capacity per model. Because of these advantages, HDDs are a cost-effective and usually practical alternative for many enterprises.

Because they rely on actual moving parts, they are prone to damage and malfunction in ways that SSDs are not. Dropping a device containing an HDD might cause any of these elements to fail, leaving the disk inoperable—and making any data saved on the HDD extremely difficult to recover. Finally, HDDs are bulkier and consume more energy than SSDs. This poses design issues, particularly for mobile devices.

Compared with HDD, SSDs present a distinct set of issues for enterprises. SSDs have several advantages. For instance, SSDs often give speedier performance due to the way they process, store, and retrieve data. This is especially important for complicated corporate programs that might otherwise take longer to load. Aside from that, SSDs are lighter, consume less energy, and are more robust since they lack the fragile moving bits found in HDDs.

In summary, the lifespan of SSDs and HDDs will vary depending on how they are used. If your PC can accommodate more than one disk, we recommend using two disks, an SSD as a system disk for improved speed and an HDD as a data drive for increased storage space.

How to change and optimize SSD on your PC?

If you want to change a new SSD or replace the HDD and you don’t want to waste time reinstalling Windows, and all other programs and resetting all other data files, then we suggest you directly clone your old disk to the new SSD. You can create a duplicate of the old disk but with a better disk.

To safely clone system disk, here we recommend AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, a disk and partition management tool for Windows 11/10/8/8.1/7/XP systems. The “Disk Clone Wizard” function can help you clone your disk and quickly set it all to the way it was. And during the cloning process, you can align SSD partitions to optimize SSD performance further and resize SSD partitions.

Tip: If the SSD is a brand new SSD, please initialize it first.

After you install your new SSD onto your PC, you can follow the steps to clone your disk.

Step 1. Download and run this tool, in the main interface of AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional, click “Clone” and then select “Clone Disk”.

Step 2. Choose the Windows system drive as the source disk and click "Next".

Step 3. Select the SSD drive as the destination disk, and then click "Next".

Step 4. Then, you can check the source and destination disk in the next window or change to "Sector to Sector clone", and click the "Confirm" button to continue if there is no problem.

Here, you can also click the "Settings" button to adjust the partition size on the destination disk or tick "4k alignment" to improve the reading and writing speed of the SSD. 

Step 5. Click “Finish” and then click “Apply” to execute the pending operation.

When the process is finished, you need to change the boot order in the BIOS menu to boot Windows from the new SSD.

Tip: If you only want to transfer your OS, you can choose the “Migrate OS” feature.

Step 1. Restart the computer and constantly press the F2 key (or other keys like Del, F8, F12) to access the BIOS menu.

Step 2. Use the arrow key to select the Boot tab. System devices will appear in order of priority.

Step 3. To give the cloned SSD a boot priority over other hard drives, move it to the first position in the list.

Step 4. Save the changes and exit the BIOS setup utility. The computer will restart from the SSD successfully.

Conclusion

In all, how long an SSD last depends on how you use your SSD. The general SSD lifespan is 5 years. Some users might think changing a new disk will need reinstalling OS and other apps. Well, AOMEI Partition Assistant is a great tool to help you. Besides the cloning feature, this tool can also help you move apps to another drive, convert the disk to MBR/GPT without deleting partitions, and so on.

In addition, the Server Edition can help you conveniently manage your Windows Server 2025/2022/2019/2016/2012(R2)/2008(R2)/2003 computers.