Don't throw away your old SSD—do this with it instead

If you have an older SSD that you're looking to replace, you're probably wondering what to do with your previous drive. There are many ways to repurpose it, but the one thing you should not do is throw it away.

As long as the drive is functional, it can be useful, and even if it's not, you should still be careful with your data.

SSDs are more durable than you might think

And to think that some people used to claim otherwise.

SSDs don't come with an expiration date , although they do have a finite number of read/write cycles to go through, measured in TBW (terabytes written). This rating tells you roughly how much data can be written to the drive before the NAND flash is expected to wear out.

While that sounds like an endpoint for your SSD, it isn't—for two reasons. One, most users never come close to hitting that limit. Two, even if you do somehow make it there, the drive can still stay healthy far beyond what you'd expect from the raw TBW number alone.

Even smaller SSDs these days have TBW ratings in the hundreds of terabytes. Actual failure rates are low, although of course, any drive can fail for any reason at any given time.

Backblaze reports on the SSDs that are part of its fleet, running in storage servers as boot drives. The average annualized failure rate (AFR) in the first quarter of 2023 was 0.96% across its entire fleet of 3,144 SSDs (at the time). The second quarter raised that number to 1.05%, with eight SSDs failing during that three-month period. But that's across an entire quarter, and those SSDs are heavily utilized.

A lot of the time, you replace your SSD only when there's a problem with the old one. Not many people chase the fastest SSDs (nor should they), so chances are that if you're replacing your drive, the old one is either dead or dying. But if it's functional, there are loads of things you can do with it before you finally let it go one day.

Most SSDs can take quite a lot, although you should still try to treat yours well and avoid common SSD mistakes as much as you can.

What to do with your old SSD

I always find some use for my old SSDs.

When I replace my SSD, I usually turn it into a backup drive, but that's far from the only thing you can use yours for.

Turn it into an external portable drive

Converting your SSD into an external drive is usually as simple as dropping it into a USB enclosure. SATA SSDs will typically cap out around 400-550MB/s in USB 3.2 enclosures, which is par for the course, as they don't get a lot more than that inside your PC, anyway. NVMe SSDs are faster and can hit as much as 1,000MB/s in a good USB 3.2 Gen 2 enclosure. With a high-end Thunderbolt or USB4 enclosure, those speeds can go beyond 3,000MB/s.

These repurposed SSDs make for perfect portable storage. They're speedy, making them perfect for game libraries, media, or video projects.

Use it for backups or system images

Be honest: when was the last time you backed up your system? It's alright, I didn't come here to shame you, but to offer solutions. Turn your old SSD into a dedicated backup drive.

Check drive health with CrystalDiskInfo before using an SSD for important backups.

You can use the drive for regular system images, critical documents, or snapshots of your game drive. Just don't bet too heavily on one drive. If something is extremely important to you, back it up in more than one location.

Repurpose it for a NAS

There's no better place for your SSD to enjoy retirement than inside a NAS (network-attached storage). While most NAS setups rely heavily on HDDs, SSDs still play a crucial part in running your own home network.

Consider using your SSD as cache , a boot drive, or a fast drive to run VMs and containers.

Gift it to someone

Once you purge the SSD of all data , there's no reason not to gift it to someone you trust. You probably have relatives or friends with not-so-great PCs, and an SSD is an easy upgrade that brings a noticeable boost to every single workflow.

What to check when reusing an old SSD

Don't just jump right in.

Before you trust your SSD with a whole new important job, make sure it's up to the task. A lot of SSD failures don't just happen out of nowhere, and frequent monitoring helps prevent them.

Take a few steps to monitor your SSD health and extend its lifespan , including:

• Check S.M.A.R.T. health and wear indicators. As mentioned, CrystalDiskInfo is good for this.

• Update firmware before repurposing, as you may be able to get rid of some bugs or performance issues in the process.

• Don't overfill the SSD; you want to keep around 20% of its space free.

• If you've had some trouble with the drive, demote it to non-critical tasks until you figure out the underlying cause.

If the drive works and doesn't cause freezes, crashes, or frame rate drops, you're likely good to keep using it.

How to dispose of an old SSD

If it has to go, make sure you do it safely.

Call me a hoarder, but I think there's no reason to get rid of any SSD that still works. They take up next to no space and can come in handy in a pinch. But, if you disagree or your SSD is past help, make sure you're disposing of it safely.

• Start by wiping all your data. Some manufacturers include this in their proprietary software, but if they don't, check whether your motherboard manufacturer has a "sanitize" or secure erase option in the BIOS/UEFI. Just be careful that you're selecting the correct drive.

• Delete all partitions and format the drive, especially if you couldn't use secure erase before.

• Some people choose to physically destroy the SSD before disposing of it, but you don't need to do this if you wipe your data completely.

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With all that done, you can send or bring the SSD over to an e-waste recycler.

Most of the time, you're better off keeping your older, slower SSD. Even if you don't want to build your own NAS, there are still plenty of uses for an older drive.