Working primarily from external drive to extend computer drive's lifespan?

[GanChan]

Would it extend the usable life of my Macbook Air's hard drive if I stored most of my files on an external hard drive so that drive would take most of the file read/write burden?

Probably not, right?

 

[dyt1983]

edit: to remove personally identifying information not relevant to the thread.

 

[GanChan]

You mean the original MBA with a spinning hard drive or an SSD MBA? If you mean the newer ones, sure, yeah, if you rarely write to the internal drive, it will live a lot longer than if you do not. But, under normal use, the lifetime is probably going to exceed the usefulness of the product (unless it is subjected to harsh or unusual use), so the tradeoff of using an external solely to extend the life of the SSD is probably not worth it.

Yeah, I meant a new-ish (2104) model with a SSD. My "master computer" is my Mini, and I regularly back up the Mini's folders to a USB 3.0 thumb drive. I've just been working directly from the thumb drive when I use my Air (instead of transferring those folders onto the Air's SSD), and haven't experienced any meaningful lag in response time....

I tend to go a looooong time between computer purchases, though, so you could say that I ask significantly more longevity of them than the average "update-every-couple-years" user.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Yeah, I meant a new-ish (2104) model with a SSD. My "master computer" is my Mini, and I regularly back up the Mini's folders to a USB 3.0 thumb drive. I've just been working directly from the thumb drive when I use my Air (instead of transferring those folders onto the Air's SSD), and haven't experienced any meaningful lag in response time....

I tend to go a looooong time between computer purchases, though, so you could say that I ask significantly more longevity of them than the average "update-every-couple-years" user.

Whether you use your Air's internal drive or not it should still last around 5 years plus. Remember an SSD has no movable parts, so it doesn't wear out like a traditional spinning hard drive.

 

[glenthompson]

Would it extend the usable life of my Macbook Air's hard drive if I stored most of my files on an external hard drive so that drive would take most of the file read/write burden?

Probably not, right?

Right. The external spinning drive will probably die long before you've reached the write limits of the SSD. Most people can expect 10+ years of life out of an SSD if they use it heavily. At my current rate I expect my 840 Pro to last about 50 years.