The SSD is one of the best upgrades any computer can receive today. With good management and a reasonable dose of maintenance, the average user can fight against capacity limits and maintain an optimal performance level. Even so, according to Alvin Cox, one of Seagate's principal researchers, SSDs can lose data if they are not stored at the correct temperature...
Heat: The Mortal Enemy of Your SSD
When we say that heat is one of the mortal enemies of computing, we are not exaggerating. You only need to look at the titanic efforts that companies make to keep their data centers in thermal equilibrium. Wind tunnels, saltwater and custom hardware are the order of the day, but heat also stalks individual users. Laptops that hang, games with artifacts in the image caused by poorly ventilated graphics cards, processors that automatically reduce their speed to gain stability, and power supplies that explode like firecrackers are part of the "cursed combo" that comes with every extra degree of temperature. Granted: We have very important tools at our disposal to combat its effects, however, heat has the technical capacity (and I emphasize "technical") to cause problems even outside the case, for example, erasing an SSD used as a backup.
The JEDEC Study and Alvin Cox's Findings
According to Alvin Cox, senior researcher at Seagate, solid state drives are susceptible to significant temperature changes in their environment. The study published in JEDEC (and not on behalf of Seagate) explains that SSDs destined for the enterprise market can retain data without power for two years, as long as they are stored at an average of 25 degrees Celsius. Cox's discovery is that for every five degrees of temperature increase, the storage time is reduced by half. Consequently, an SSD stored at an unfavorable 35 degrees will be able to retain data for a maximum of six months.
Don't Panic: Consumer SSDs Are More Resilient
However, this information does not represent any urgency. Why? The study adds that a consumer SSD can retain data for a whole year if it operates for eight hours daily at 40 degrees, and its resting temperature is 30 degrees, much higher than the average of any normal environment. Obeying Cox's "rule of five degrees," an SSD kept at 25 degrees and operating at 40 degrees will see its retention time doubled to two years. In summary: The information is technically correct, but it is a bit more concerning for the enterprise environment, since it takes into account an SSD that exceeded its write endurance threshold, or is very close to doing so. Average users can rest easy.
