(!) Crucial SSDs and Powerloss Protection - Read Me :)

[lmk]

Hey all,

As many others have been doing, I have been buying certain SSDs that included powerloss protection (via capacitors, etc) because data security and integrity is paramount.

Crucial SSDs post-M4 (such as the M500, MX100, etc) have listed and advertised this as a built-in feature.

Apparently, there is a big disconnect between what it does do and how it actually operates; generally, not what everyone thinks.

The (AnandTech) article explaining it all was released about 4 days ago and I was completely surprised by the news and all the details.

I have not seen the information propagate over to the forums here. Having seen a post by a fellow forum poster, from a couple days ago, about the protection being included with the links to the Crucial pages listing the feature, I thought it would be a good PSA. This is to bring attention to anyone not yet aware of this. Credits to Patrick, as he seems to have hinted about this in the same thread that prompted the Crucial site links.

Going forward, if this is a requirement, it is key to know how the 'powerloss protection' is implemented by a manufacturer in a particular SSD model.

Powerloss can mean a number of things in the event of a power disruption (loss, fluctuation, etc) and this may include: keeping the data already on the disk intact - not get corrupted; keeping enough power to commit any data in transit/in cache or RAM/etc (still volatile) to the disk; etc.

Hope this helps

AnandTech | Micron M600 (128GB, 256GB & 1TB) SSD Review
(scroll about half-way to "The Truth About Micron's Power-Loss Protection")

 

[Patrick]

Yea I mentioned it in a thread a few days ago. Good to make it its own thread.

 

[yu130960]

Well if that is not material misrepresentation than I don't know what is! All of the reviews at the time of the M500 were referring to powerloss protection and Crucial did nothing to set the record straight. BS.

 

[lmk]

Definitely, it's why I thought people would like this

 

[yu130960]

The author went super soft on Micron in the article, as they held the product out as having power loss protection (unqualified).

"It was not Micron's or our intention to "fool" anyone into believe that the clients drives have full power-loss protection..." <---- This is just offensive to the reader and anyone that bought these drives at the time trading performance of their competitors for the "power loss" protection.

 

[herby]

The author went super soft on Micron in the article, as they held the product out as having power loss protection (unqualified).

"It was not Micron's or our intention to "fool" anyone into believe that the clients drives have full power-loss protection..." <---- This is just offensive to the reader and anyone that bought these drives at the time trading performance of their competitors for the "power loss" protection.

Yeah this does piss me off, Crucial has been getting my money in large part because of this.

Two years of articles and reviews have been mischaracterizing the function of these capacitors and Crucial did nothing to correct the misconception or clarify their marketing material. I would even say that statements like this are misleading:

"Power-Loss Protection: In the rare event that power fails while the drive is operating, power-loss protection helps ensure that data isn’t corrupted. To supplement our power-sensing firmware protection, our SSD engineers designed physical power reserves (capacitors) that are specifically tailored to our NAND requirements and deliver enough power to ensure data remains intact."

Oh, yeah except the cache. You didn't want to save that did you?

 

[Chuntzu]

Well this has opened my eyes. I appreciate the info.

 

[legen]

Wow, this is bad news for us. We based out SAN build on the Crucial M500 drives because they were said to have those capacitors in case of power loss.

Are there any other consumer SSD drives out there that does have full protection by capacitors? I.e. the Seagate 600 Pro?

How would one continue to operate the Crucial drives safely? Ensure that the SAN is always behind a working UPS should do the trick yes?

 

[HellDiverUK]

Intel's SSD have 'real' power loss protection, don't they? I'm pretty sure the Pro 1500 I have has a load of caps in it. Doesn't perform too badly either, and was cheap off eBay (only 272 hours on the clock when I got it).

 

[lmk]

@HellDiverUK

The take away is that one cannot assume any specific manufacturer's drives have 'total' powerloss protection, as that protection can be implemented by and for a few different things. Moreover, the type of powerloss protection a manufacturer provides will vary between the different models they make.

I.e. Some Intel SSDs may have 'real' powerloss protection, but not all. People have lost data with certain Intel models, too.

@legen

Yes, ensuring you have a good UPS with proper power being provided will help mitigate this.