Sometime in the future,
the internal SSD on your Mac is going to die.
That's right.
No matter what you do
or how carefully you look after your Mac,
the SSD will stop working eventually.
The only question is,
how long will it last before it dies?
Well, the truth is that you probably don't need
to worry about it.
And in this video, I'll explain why
and also include some helpful tips
on how to extend the life of your SSD
so make sure you watch until the end.
I'll also include a link in the description
to an article on the created tech website
with all of the sources and references used
during this video.
And if you have any questions or want to know more,
make sure you join our discord using the link below.
Okay, so why is this such a big problem in the first place?
Well, a few years ago Apple changed
their design process for new Macs.
Previously, you could open up a Mac
and replace the internal SSD or hard drive
if something went wrong.
But fortunately for modern Macs,
the SSD is actually soldered onto the logic board
and cannot be removed.
So if it dies, your Mac is essentially turned
into a big useless paperweight
and you're at the mercy of Apple
as to whether or not they will fix it for you.
Okay, so let's talk about the actual SSD inside your Mac.
Now having a basic knowledge
of how SSD technology works is very important.
So make sure you watch this entire section.
The SSD inside your Mac uses technology
called NAND Flash Memory,
which is a type of non volatile storage technology
that does not require power to retain data.
NAND flash memory has been used for years
and it's all around us.
For example, in your mobile phone,
a USB flash drive or somewhat more recently
soldered to your Macs logic board.
Don't believe me,
well, here's a picture of an SD card and a USB drive.
Can you see the little NAND flash memory chips?
Now let's take a look inside Apple's latest computer
the M1 Pro MacBook, look familiar?
Now there are actually several different types
of NAND flash memory, and they all offer different levels
of performance and endurance characteristics
at a range of price points.
I won't go into detail on these different types though
as that's outside the scope of this video.
All you need to know is that NAND flash memory works
by storing little ones or zeros in cells
and when combined this actually forms your data.
An image or a text file or even a video,
it's all constructed of millions or billions
of little ones and zeros all contained
on tiny cells within the memory chip.
But there's a little problem.
Each of those cells has a finite lifespan.
That is there's only a certain amount of times
that cell can be written to
before it starts to become unreliable.
For example, think of writing
on a piece of paper using a pencil.
If I write my name and then erase it using an eraser,
that doesn't really do much, right?
But what if I repeat this process 10 times
or a hundred times or even a thousand times?
Eventually, this surface of the paper
is going to be too stained, ripped
or thin for me to continue writing on
and it will be unusable.
Flash memory is the same.
Each time a cell is written to,
it becomes slightly more worn down.
This is known as PE or Program-Erase Cycles.
As the memory cells in the drive get used and reused,
eventually this will result in slower response times,
corrupted data and potentially total drive failure.
It's actually kind of similar to the way
the battery on your MacBook degrades over time.
If you want to watch a video I made on that topic
and learn how to maximize the lifespan of your battery,
I will link that video as well.
Now, back to SSDs.
There are a couple of technologies available
that can slow the degradation process of flash memory
such as trim or over provisioning.
But to keep this video relatively short and compact,
I'll focus on the most important one.
SSD NAND storage devices have an onboard controller
that can spread the rights over all of the available cells
to ensure the cells wear evenly to maximize lifespan.
This is a process called wear levelling.
Wear levelling can be explained with a simple diagram.
Take a look at this one.
Devices without wear levelling
write to the same cells over and over again
until those cells become worn and eventually unusable
which are the red cells In the example.
If you introduce wear levelling however,
new data being written is spread out across the entire chip
to cells with the least amount of usage.
This whole process ensures that the cells wear evenly
and keeps your SSD in good condition
for as long as possible.
Since this process spreads new rights over all
of the available cells, it makes sense that the more cells
you have, the longer your SSD will last, right?
And you'd be correct.
Take a 256 gigabyte SSD for example
and compare it to a one terabyte SSD.
The larger one terabyte SSD
has four times more storage capacity
which means it has roughly four times more cells.
So every time you write new data,
it can be spread out across a much larger surface area
reducing degradation of individual cells.
So a great tip is, if you are wanting to keep your Mac
for a long time, consider upgrading the SSD
from 256 gigabytes to 512 gigabytes or even one terabyte.
And no matter what size SSD you have,
you should always keep at least 10 to 15%
of the total capacity of your SSD free at all times.
The SSD needs room to write new data
and you don't want to restrict it
to only a tiny number of cells.
For example, an SSD with only 2% capacity remaining.
This will cause the new data to be constantly written
to the same small number of cells
and they will wear out and die much faster.
Okay so, now we know how SSDs work
and how individual cells can
and will degrade over time and with use.
But still we want to know how long the entire SSD
will last before it dies?
Now, there are many factors that contribute
to the rate of cell old degradation within an SSD,
but the biggest factor is something called TBW
or Total Bytes Written.
TBW is a number expressed in terabytes
that your SSD can write
before the memory cells within it may begin to degrade.
Now this doesn't mean your SSD will just die
once it exceeds its TBW rating.
It just means that the possibility of data loss
and entire drive failure increases.
Although like any piece of hardware,
your SSD can still randomly die at any point,
even if it hasn't reached its TBW rating.
The good news is that this is very rare
so I wouldn't worry about it.
Now, many manufacturers use TBW
as a rating to guarantee the lifespan
of the SSD for warranty purposes.
For example, many 256 gigabyte SSDs
have a TBW of 150 terabytes.
This means that the manufacturer guarantees
that their SSD can write at least 150 terabytes of data
before any issues might occur.
Likewise, if you opt for a larger SSD,
for example, a two terabyte model,
the TBW usually scales accordingly
to 1200 terabytes for example.
Now it's important to note here,
that the TBW ratings assigned to SSDs by manufacturers
are usually extremely conservative.
An SSD often can and will blow right
through its rated TBW rating
and continue to work without issues for a very long time.
For example, a technology site called 3D News
performed an experiment in 2018
and tested 50 SSDs with a capacity of 250 gigabytes.
As you can see, almost every single drive blew past
the standard 150 terabytes TBW rating
with most drives exceeding the 150 terabyte figure
by more than five times.
In fact, several drives were able to write more
than five petabytes of data before failing.
A petabyte is 1000 terabytes.
So that's over 5,000 terabytes of data.
Other experiments saw similar results.
For example, this one by techreport.com
where all of the 250 gigabyte SSDs they tested,
achieved at least double their specified TBW ratings
with several once again, lasting for over two petabytes
or 2000 terabytes of rights before failure.
And just in case you're still not convinced,
here's another experiment.
So what about the SSDs Apple users for their Macs?
What are their TBW ratings?
Well, unfortunately Apple does not publicly disclose
information regarding the SSDs they use.
Companies like iFixit have done tear downs
of various Mac devices,
but they found that the SSDs Apple use
are different in each model of Mac
and do not feature any kind of brand logo or identification.
So let's look at some premium SSDs available on the market
which are usually rated for very high TBWs
like the Seagate FireCuda 530 where the TBW
for their 500 gigabyte SSD is 640 terabytes
or double what typical 500 gigabyte SSDs are rated at.
So we can assume that the TBW ratings
of Apple devices are at least the following.
But very possibly double that or more.
So let's do a little experiment.
Assuming you have a 256 gigabyte SSD in your Mac,
what kind of lifespan can you expect?
Well, let's start with the absolute minimum.
Using the 150 terabyte TBW
that will allow you to write 50 gigabytes every single day
for 8.2 years until you'll hit that 150 terabyte rating.
And 50 gigabytes every single day,
365 days a year for 8.2 years straight is a lot of data
And I doubt you'll get anywhere close to that.
By the way, if you are interested in seeing
how much data your SSD has already written
or how much data you write each day,
I will link a video in the description
and also in the top right corner showing you how.
So make sure you check that out.
But don't forget just because you hit
that 150 terabyte rating,
that doesn't mean that's the end of your drive.
Remember that 3D News experiment on 50 different
and 256 gigabyte SSDs where almost all drives
exceeded that 150 TBW rating
by a factor of at least five before failing.
So let's re-calculate.
That's 50 gigabytes a day, every day
for exactly 41 years until your drive will potentially die.
That is if both your computer
and you are still alive in 41 years time.
Taking it one step further,
assuming you triple your usage to 150 gigabytes a day,
that's still roughly 14 years.
And again, remember that a lot
of drives in that 3D News experiment
didn't just go five times longer than their rated TBW.
They went 20 times longer.
So I think it's safe to say that you don't need to worry
about your SSD failing anytime soon.
As I've shown in this video,
you'll be able to write several hundred terabytes
to even the smallest capacity SSDs before they stop working.
And even if you're someone riding
hundreds of gigabytes per day, which is very rare
you'll still probably get 10 years out of the SSD.