TIL that SSDs can lose data if left unplugged for long periods of time (only required to hold data up to 1 year), unlike HDDs which as long as the material holds it can take years.
Edit: added link: https://www.slashgear.com/1893447/dont-leave-your-old-ssd-unplugged/
@djlink on topic: I’ve today plugged in a Compact Flash card that hasn’t been powered in more than 3 years.
Perfect data retention.
Took a quick dd image of it, just in case.
@digitalstefan @djlink
The highest capacity CF car I have is 1G Byte. It's about x3 the area of the 512G Byte SSD. So the cells could be over 2000x bigger. Likely to be more stable.
I have a 1T micro SD Card in an ex-Chromebook running Linux Mint (64K Flash drive). I don't expect much life from it even powered mostly daily, but the contents are on my server, 2x workstations and a "real" laptop. The 2x workstations and laptop each have SSD and an HDD for user data.
@raymaccarthy @djlink It's a wonder that we have such sophisticated storage options, but finding out that data retention is poor for SSD's is a bit unnerving.
I have a good backup strategy at home, but I would be annoyed if I lost data to this kind of problem.
My "proper" storage journey started with an 80MB 2.5" HD in an Amiga an has culminated in a 2TB and 4TB SSD in my PC, 2TB in my Framework laptop, 2TB MacBook and 2TB SSD + 2TB microSD in a Steamdeck.
Bonkers, if you think about it.
David Amador
DigitalStefan
Ray McCarthy