Seagate SSD fails at end of large transfer

The standalone Seagate SSD that I got for backup failed completely toward the end of a massive transfer. Fortunately almost everything I valued was still available elsewhere. I bought a Seagate hard drive to replace it.

Did you try to fill it to capacity?

I've read where its not recommended to fill it completely as it leads to quicker SSD death.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/444461/the-ultimate-guide-to-proper-ssd-management.html

https://www.slrlounge.com/tips-to-get-the-most-from-your-ssds/

jedishrfu said:

Did you try to fill it to capacity?

Never got close to capacity. Rarely used it.

Hornbein said:

Rarely used it.

My understanding is that external SSDs don't do well if you don't power them up regularly. Could that be your issue?

phinds said:

My understanding is that external SSDs don't do well if you don't power them up regularly. Could that be your issue?

Could be.

Hornbein said:

toward the end of a massive transfer.

Heat, maybe? Insufficient cooling?

Rive said:

Heat, maybe? Insufficient cooling?

Maybe 90 F.

There is a lot of lore around SSDs, some of it true, some of it once true, and likely some of it never true, However, if the entire drive is bricked, rather than returning errors, odds are that the failure was in the internal controller circuitry.

That said, SSD would not be my choice for backup. SSDs trade cost for speed, and for backup, having two copies, even if slower, usually performs the function better than one.

The NAND in SSDs seldom fails. It may be just a small capacitor that shorted or a fuse that blew, and is now preventing the entire board from working. Seagate SSDs are known for small component failures. That doesn't mean you should repair and re-use such drives, but from a data recovery perspective, the NAND seems to fail much less often compared to an SMD capacitor or fuse.