This Verbatim SSD can only be written once, and that's by design

[Shawn Knight]

Why it matters: Verbatim has announced a new solid-state drive designed specifically for long-term storage. The company's WOV Series is an external SSD that packs 128GB of NAND flash and connects to your PC via USB 3.2 Gen 1. Verbatim is pitching it as a write-protected SSD, meaning you can only read from it under normal conditions.

In order to write to the drive, you must first install a dedicated piece of software that is only compatible with Windows 10 or Windows 11. The drive does work with Windows, Mac, and Chromebook, but is limited to read-only mode. The idea is to protect mission-critical files from being accidentally deleted or overwritten.

Read and write speeds are rated at 540 MB/s and 180 MB/s, respectively. You'll have to take Verbatim's word for this as the drive will error out when attempting to run a benchmark program.

Verbatim said it used high-quality MLC NAND flash in the drive. Because it isn't being recorded over again and again, there is very little deterioration to worry about. As such, Verbatim claims users can expect data to remain intact for 10 years or longer when stored at a temperature of 55 Celsius or cooler.

Speaking of, the drive is backed by a 10-year hardware warranty in which Verbatim will replace a bad drive during this period. Notably, the warranty does not guarantee stored data so you'll likely want a secondary backup as a fail safe. What's more, Verbatim says data cannot be erased and the only way to effectively do so is to physically destroy the SSD.

No word yet on when the Verbatim WOV Series SSD will launch or how much it'll retail for.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/94447-verbatim-introduces-write-protected-external-ssd-10-year.html

 

[Dd663]

What's more, Verbatim says data cannot be erased and the only way to effectively do so is to physically destroy the SSD.

That would imply that each bit is only allowed to be set once by the proprietary software. In other words, there's no overwriting. Once you've used up a certain portion of it, that portion is gone and cannot be reused. Is that correct?

Edit: This comment was posted before the article was retitled to clarify that the SSD can only be written to once.

 

[m4a4]

Sounds only software based. I wonder how easy it would be worked around.....

 

[emmzo]

Can't you set "read only" from proprieties of the files you want to not accidentally delete? Do you need a special drive for that, which you can't rewrite ever? How much of a slug you'd have to be? Or maybe I don't get it, please, someone explain.

 

[TheBigT42]

Can't you set "read only" from proprieties of the files you want to not accidentally delete? Do you need a special drive for that, which you can't rewrite ever? How much of a slug you'd have to be? Or maybe I don't get it, please, someone explain.

And get a SLC Drive

 

[Ziggy1971]

Since it can only be written once, that explains why the box is only advertised in Chinese; they couldn't change it. LOL

 

[Reallyhow]

Why bother with a 3.2 controller when you have those godawful speeds?

I also wouldn't put a lot of stock in that 10 year warranty claim. I tried multiple times to warranty a dead 2TB external from them during its 7 year period, and didn't get a response once.

 

[tellmewhy]

No thank you.
If I have to write it only once then I would buy an HDD which is cheaper, has higher capacity and longevity (when the heads are parked).

 

[Kiku360]

Since it can only be written once, that explains why the box is only advertised in Chinese; they couldn't change it. LOL

Since it can only be written once, that explains why the box is only advertised in Chinese; they couldn't change it. LOL

It’s actually in Japanese…the last word reads as ‘Cable’.

 

[Squid Surprise]

It’s actually in Japanese…the last word reads as ‘Cable’.

I believe the first few words say “huge ripoff for dumb English folk”

 

[hahahanoobs]

"The idea is to protect mission-critical files from being accidentally deleted or overwritten."

It appears not many people got this far in the article.

 

[Dd663]

"The idea is to protect mission-critical files from being accidentally deleted or overwritten."

It appears not many people got this far in the article.

I'm pretty sure that line wasn't in the article when I first commented on it.

 

[hahahanoobs]

I'm pretty sure that line wasn't in the article when I first commented on it.

You said the title is changed.
You said the body is changed.

 

[Dd663]

I doubt that very much.

Shawn Knight could tell you whether or not the article had that line as originally posted before being revised. But I don't particularly care if you believe me or not.

You said the title is changed.
You said the body is changed.

Yes, the title was changed. It used to be more pedestrian, something like "Verbatim announced new read-only SSD". The body had minor alterations, IIRC, including that line I mentioned.

 

[hahahanoobs]

Shawn Knight could tell you whether or not the article had that line as originally posted before being revised. But I don't particularly care if you believe me or not.

Why would I ask him ANYTHING? Are you feeling okay?
And I can't remember a time when such an important part of an article would be missing, so there's that.

 

[bviktor]

Yay, more industrial waste. Have they ever heard about checksumming?

 

[amghwk]

It's a good candidate for selling physical copies of games. But with current trend of digital-only downloads, that isn't going to be useful too.

As for championing storing crucial data and preventing deletion, I just can't buy that reason.

 

[Athlonite]

How to turn an SSD into CD/DVD/BD R and sucker more money out of dupes