Schijflevensduur

Schijflevensduur refers to the expected operational lifespan of a storage device, most commonly a hard disk drive (HDD) or a solid-state drive (SSD). This lifespan is typically measured in terms of the amount of data that can be written to the drive, the total number of operational hours, or the number of power-on hours. For HDDs, mechanical components are a primary factor in their longevity. These drives contain spinning platters and moving read/write heads. Over time, these parts can experience wear and tear, leading to potential failures. Factors like operating temperature, vibration, and the number of start/stop cycles can influence the lifespan of an HDD.

SSDs, on the other hand, use flash memory chips and have no moving parts, making them generally more robust against physical shock. Their lifespan is primarily determined by the endurance of the NAND flash cells, which degrade with each write cycle. This degradation is measured in Terabytes Written (TBW). Manufacturers specify a TBW rating for SSDs, indicating the total amount of data that can be written to the drive before the cells are expected to fail. While SSDs may have a finite number of write cycles, modern SSDs are designed with sophisticated wear-leveling algorithms and over-provisioning to distribute writes evenly across the memory cells, significantly extending their practical lifespan for typical consumer and enterprise use cases. Understanding schijflevensduur is important for data management, anticipating potential hardware failures, and planning for replacements.