Seagate Fast SSD

[HEXUS]

Does exactly what it says on the tin.

Read more.

[peterb]

Unpowered data retention time?

Possibly one of the more important parameters for portable storage.

[azrael-]

Unpowered data retention time?

Possibly one of the more important parameters for portable storage.

That was literally the first thing that crossed my mind when I started reading the review.

[DanceswithUnix]

Unpowered data retention time?

Possibly one of the more important parameters for portable storage.

Depends entirely on how you store it.

Even an sram chip retains information for an hour if stored in liquid nitrogen so flash would probably last centuries, but flash only lasts for hours if stored in the oven.

It sounds like there might be a JEDEC standard model in JESD 47 but I'm not interested enough to stump up money to read it.

There is a fairly famous table in this presentation that people happily misinterpret as "OMG my data will be gone in a week": https://www.jedec.org/sites/default/...0Mode%5D_0.pdf

JEDEC figure based on Intel data is one year if stored at a rather warm 30C. Looking down that table, you roughly double the retention time if you drop the storage temperature by 5 degrees which makes sense given it is down to electron mobility in the flash cell. So 2 years at 25C, 4 years at 20C. So stuff it in the fridge and you could be looking at 30 years retention time. My freezer says it is at -20C, if the data isn't still there in 1000 years feel free to post on here and complain. If I am still on here, even as a brain in a jar, I will happily apologize for my misunderstanding the table and lack of interest in researching relevant standards.

Edit: I did leave a Force GT SSD in the garage for probably a year which does get rather hot in summer, and on sticking it into a PC it booted into Windows fine.

[peterb]

Depends entirely on how you store it.

Even an sram chip retains information for an hour if stored in liquid nitrogen so flash would probably last centuries, but flash only lasts for hours if stored in the oven.

True, which is why it would be useful if mfrs standardised on a methodology - eg

n months at 20C

n months at 30C

It is arguably more important than read/write speeds for a portable device, but of course not such a headline grabbing parameter for the marketeers.

[Lord Midas]

£540 is simply far too expensive!!
£100-£150 and I'll snap one up.

[Ahkey]

Would be interested in seeing how this stacks up against the Samsung Portable T5.

[DanceswithUnix]

True, which is why it would be useful if mfrs standardised on a methodology - eg

n months at 20C

At 20 degrees, I expect the drive will be out of warranty by the time your data expires.
It is a difficult one for the manufacturer though. If this is down to carrier mobility then one batch of flash chips might have different properties to the next.

£540 is simply far too expensive!!
£100-£150 and I'll snap one up.

They do seem to be nearly twice the price of sticking a Crucial MX500 into a USB carrier.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I have a usb powered ruggedised laptop drive based external disk which still works after 11 to 12 years and the data seems fine. Also the 1TB version seems very overpriced and you could end probably building two DIY 1TB external drives for less money!

The main advantage of an external SSD would be as an external work drive attached to a laptop,ie,for video and image processing.

[DanceswithUnix]

The main advantage of an external SSD would be as an external work drive attached to a laptop,ie,for video and image processing.

A drive you are not so scared of dropping would be my main reason, though at £30 a pop for 500GB external hard drives you can almost afford to play conkers with them compared to these SSD drives!

But then as a rule I don't put any data I care about on anything made by Seagate.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

A drive you are not so scared of dropping would be my main reason, though at £30 a pop for 500GB external hard drives you can almost afford to play conkers with them compared to these SSD drives!

But then as a rule I don't put any data I care about on anything made by Seagate.

If the case is properly ruggedised it shouldn't be an issue,but the main use for external SSDs AFAIK is for content creation:

https://theunlockr.com/2017/10/04/be...video-editing/

Also TBH for backup during your holidays,etc you could probably get away with a flash drive.

[persimmon]

YEP THESE arent for archivl storage of your financial records (if so, do store in fridge/freezer) the benefits are quick easy small reliable transportable, pocketable. The seagate meme is dead.