Wondering about SSD failure rates

[CMH]

Just wondering if this is common, or is it common to have SSDs fail after a couple of years. I've owned 4 SSDs, all for home use (OS drive) as below:
2x Corsair Nova in RAID 0 - Win 7
1x OCZ Vertex 2 - Win XP
1x Kingston SSD Now V+ - Win XP (later upgraded to win 7. This computer also was moved to another home at the time of OS upgrade).

Now, the RAID array failed and SSD was suspected after attempts to reinstall OS came up with corrupt data errors.
The other 2 just cannot be detected by BIOS anymore.

As you can see, I can't see any similarity between them. There is no similarity in programs used (not even backup programs are the same!)

So am I just unlucky or is there an issue with SSDs in general? Or maybe I'm using it wrong.... (no defrag I swear!)

 

[CMH]

I have now got all of them RMA'd without a problem.

OCZ was kind enough to swap the Vertex2 to an Agility 3.
Corsair swapped the Novas to GTs. Pccasegear was kind enough to credit those for me, so I'd be picking up a larger drive instead.
The shop I bought Kingston from asked me to go directly to Kingston, but they agreed to take it back. This was the last drive I sent back so I have yet to hear from them.

Thought I'd update.

 

[slh28]

Well nice to know you got something back on those failed SSDs. I've had a Crucial C300 for about 2 years, it's in my parents machine now and still going strong.

 

[CMH]

Received the Kingston back. Was a V100, now a V200.

Now hoping that they'd last another 3 years. Hopefully by then SSD prices have dropped as much as they have in the last 3 years.

 

[EXCellR8]

My Intel drives, while not the fastest of SSD, are still holding up even in RAID. Bought them both used too... risky I know

 

[CMH]

Personally won't buy SSDs used mainly due to the max number of writes possible (I think I hit it with the Novas). However if you know the guy I don't see why not. Besides, they're used as Boot drives, shouldn't be keeping important data on that....

 

[Dawn1113]

I have not had an SSD fail on me yet. I have two on my machine right now (not in RAID) and they are both running up to spec.
My brother has one running near three years now, as well, and he has no complaints thus far.

It's good you got something back for all four of your drives, CMH.

 

[DelJo63]

the theory goes that the MTBF for SSDs is very similar to that of HDs

 

[CMH]

Interesting. I always thought that SSDs have a higher MTBF than HDDs, due to HDDs having a ton of moving parts, and stricter operational conditions.

Googling didn't help, I'm getting all sorts of numbers, with no explanations. Most seem to agree that SSDs, especially newer ones, have higher MTBF.

 

[DelJo63]

That would seem to be true to me too, however personally, since '87 when I got our first machine, I have YET to experience an HDD failure. In fact, the HD from that '87 machine is STILL good with zero bad blocks. Guess I'm just lucky

btw: the sole system loss was a laptop bios failure which did not harm that HDD one bit.

 

[CMH]

I've had a couple of HDDs fail. Generally I do replace them often enough so its not a problem for me. SSDs seem to have broken my routine since I don't use it to store crap, so no need to upgrade them so often....