Rumors: Samsung SSDs, "data drift" never fixed?

[Gravity Jim]

Someone I like and respect (but who has limited tech knowledge) on a Facebook group I read is spreading what looks to be an unsubstantiated rumor (at least based on what I can glean from Google search, etc.), and I'm hoping you guys know the facts.

She's been told by her "Mac guy" that all Samsung SSD have a fatal design flaw that prevents their "data drift" problem from ever being resolved, and if you have one it will eventually slow to the point of uselessness. I'm not seeing this with my drives and they've been installed a good long while now, and all the online research I did pointed to one over-heated article from last year from one guy who swears to good that Sansung used the wrong physical memory in their drives and it can never be made better. Other references to the problem mostly quote this seminal article verbatim.

My friend also thinks that if you leave an SSD "unpowered" for a few days it will forget everything. I remember hearing something about in light of "enterprise" drives, but....

Anyway, I'd like to correct any misconceptions for the members of this group. What's the real skinny on Samsung SSDs?

[mikehalloran]

The issue concerned the 840 and 840 EVO only and it wasn't "data drift" whatever that is; it's "stale data". To my knowledge, the 840 Pro was never affected.
http://www.pcper.com/reviews/Editorial/ ... -over-time
I've heard various reports about whether the last firmware upgrades actually fixed it. Many report it did; others say there are still problems. The 840 series has been discontinued over a year now. Don't buy one.

The 850 series kicks on it anyway and is often less expensive. I have installed over ten with capacities from 500G to 2T without any problem. The 850 EVO has a 5 year warranty and the 850 Pro is warranteed for 10 years.

One should not use SSDs for long term static storage. There are concerns that unpowered dormant drives may lose data after a couple years or longer. . . . Mechanical HDs are far less expensive for this use anyway.

[Gravity Jim]

Thanks, Mike. I own two 840 EVO drives. Should I replace them? I did all the firmware updates as they came available, and Blackmagic Speed Test indicates they're still reading and writing about as fast as the internal SATA buss will allow.

If I do replace them, should I avoid Samsung? Buy Crucial drives? Intel?

[mikehalloran]

I own two 840 EVO drives. Should I replace them?

No reason that I can think of. Most reports are that Samsung for it right finally. If you start having the issue, you'll know. Otherwise, if it works, it works.