Re-using old SSD as NAS boot/OS drive?

[AntFurn]

Hi, Quick question I hope.
I'm building a home NAS and have a couple of old OCZ Vertex 2 60GB SSDs kicking around and I'm wondering if it's a bad idea or not to use one as the boot/OS drive. I'm likely to be running OMV on it and would use the 2nd to create an offline mirrored back-up of the other. Could run them mirrored but think it makes more sense for it to be an off-line backup.

Thanks, Antony

primary os drive stats:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME FLAGS VALUE WORST THRESH FAIL RAW_VALUE
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate POSR-- 120 120 050 - 0/0
5 Retired_Block_Count PO--CK 100 100 003 - 0
9 Power_On_Hours_and_Msec -O--CK 100 100 000 - 3335h+19m+00.050s
12 Power_Cycle_Count -O--CK 100 100 000 - 898
171 Program_Fail_Count -O--CK 000 000 000 - 0
172 Erase_Fail_Count -O--CK 000 000 000 - 0
174 Unexpect_Power_Loss_Ct ----CK 000 000 000 - 33
177 Wear_Range_Delta ------ 000 000 000 - 1
181 Program_Fail_Count -O--CK 000 000 000 - 0
182 Erase_Fail_Count -O--CK 000 000 000 - 0
187 Reported_Uncorrect -O--CK 100 100 000 - 0
194 Temperature_Celsius -O---K 030 030 000 - 30 (Min/Max 30/30)
195 ECC_Uncorr_Error_Count --SRC- 120 120 000 - 0/0
196 Reallocated_Event_Count PO--CK 100 100 000 - 0
231 SSD_Life_Left PO--C- 100 100 010 - 0
233 SandForce_Internal ------ 000 000 000 - 2816
234 SandForce_Internal -O--CK 000 000 000 - 3904
241 Lifetime_Writes_GiB -O--CK 000 000 000 - 3904
242 Lifetime_Reads_GiB -O--CK 000 000 000 - 6336


backup drive stats:
1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate POSR-- 100 100 050 - 0/4436730
5 Retired_Block_Count PO--CK 100 100 003 - 0
9 Power_On_Hours_and_Msec -O--CK 100 100 000 - 11442h+07m+37.500s
12 Power_Cycle_Count -O--CK 097 097 000 - 3168
171 Program_Fail_Count -O--CK 000 000 000 - 0
172 Erase_Fail_Count -O--CK 000 000 000 - 0
174 Unexpect_Power_Loss_Ct ----CK 000 000 000 - 49
177 Wear_Range_Delta ------ 000 000 000 - 1
181 Program_Fail_Count -O--CK 000 000 000 - 0
182 Erase_Fail_Count -O--CK 000 000 000 - 0
187 Reported_Uncorrect -O--CK 100 100 000 - 0
194 Temperature_Celsius -O---K 030 030 000 - 30 (Min/Max 30/30)
195 ECC_Uncorr_Error_Count --SRC- 100 100 000 - 0/4436730
196 Reallocated_Event_Count PO--CK 100 100 000 - 0
231 SSD_Life_Left PO--C- 100 100 010 - 0
233 SandForce_Internal ------ 000 000 000 - 3648
234 SandForce_Internal -O--CK 000 000 000 - 5952
241 Lifetime_Writes_GiB -O--CK 000 000 000 - 5952
242 Lifetime_Reads_GiB -O--CK 000 000 000 - 6016

 

[T_Minus]

It's a bad idea to use oCZ drives for anything new or used.

 

[BlueLineSwinger]

There's generally nothing wrong with using a couple older SSDs mirrored as the OS volume. Only real drawback I can think of using up a couple SATA ports.

If you go this route, I think it would be better to simply keep both in the system active as a RAID 1 mirror. Keeping one outside the system, properly synced up with the active OS volume, sounds like a pain. Also, it defeats one of the main reasons for using a RAID: maintaining uptime. Instead, just remember to make a backup of the config whenever you make a change.

It's a bad idea to use oCZ drives for anything new or used.

But yeah, this. Most I would use them for is in a couple USB drives for transient info and other unimportant stuff.

 

[EffrafaxOfWug]

Oddly enough I still have a couple of OCZ SSDs still in use - the oldest from 2009, so just about it's 10th anniversary. Granted, they're all ones using the old Indilinx controller rather than their notoriously unreliable later drives with the sandforce controller.

These Vertex 2's are possibly lucky to have survived this long; the failure mode most associated with them is losing the NAND mapping tables when the power is removed (making all data on the drive inaccessible) so it's a bad idea to put them in a task where they'll frequently be unplugged. Keep them in a RAID1 but don't swap them out, use a proper backup

 

[vudu]

>It's a bad idea to use oCZ drives for anything new or used.

I agree. Had multiple failures. Pretty sure they don't like having the power yanked as noted above.

 

[T_Minus]

>It's a bad idea to use oCZ drives for anything new or used.

I agree. Had multiple failures. Pretty sure they don't like having the power yanked as noted above.

Yeah, even in RAID1 the hassle of dealing with them far out weighs the value\benefits of using them.

Spend $15-$30 on used Intel Enterprise (not consumer) from 3-5 years ago and be happy not pulling your heair out, ha!

 

[AntFurn]

Thanks for the advice everyone, I knew the later vertex 3s & 4s had a lot of lissues but thought these earlier drives were ok. They've had a pretty easy life and haven't been used since about 2012 so wondered if they'd still be ok for this. I'll keep my eyes open for other options.

Antony

 

[i386]

their notoriously unreliable later drives with the sandforce controller.

Intel used the same sandforce controllers in their 3xx series ssds but fixed/stabilized the firmware far better than the other ssd vendors

 

[EffrafaxOfWug]

Yup, OCZ basically removed all the stops in order to get higher performance from those drives and it scuppered reliability.

 

[AntFurn]

Spend $15-$30 on used Intel Enterprise (not consumer) from 3-5 years ago and be happy not pulling your heair out, ha!

If only they were that price here in the UK :-(
If anyone can point me to a reliable source to buy a couple of these in the UK, I'd be most grateful.
Otherwise I guess my options are something like this: Intel SSD D3-S4510 240GB Brand New | eBay

 

[Deslok]

The intel drives on ebay are great, OCZ not so much I've actually seen the power loss dumped tables failure and wouldn't touch any sandforce ocz drive(some of the post toshiba acquisition drives aren't terrible)
I used a pair of these for ages and loved them even if they're only sata II Intel SSD 320 Series 2.5" 120GB Sata Solid State Drive FAST/FREE DISPATCH!!!! | eBay

 

[Deslok]

Intel used the same sandforce controllers in their 3xx series ssds but fixed/stabilized the firmware far better than the other ssd vendors

To my understanding it wasn't till the 520(their first sata 6gbps drive) that intel used a sandforce controller although that trickled down to the 330 it didn't apply to the earlier 320. One of the hallmarks of sandforce controllers is write compression something you won't see in the earlier Intel sata 3gbps drives