While newer model SSDs haven't been in the field long enough to give real-life numbers, accelerated life testing shows SSDs will last for years and years and years longer than mechanical hard drives. After all, moving parts, like inside a hard drive, have a finite lifespan. Chips in the SSDs have no moving parts. In addition, SSDs create much less heat in operation than do rotating disks, and heat is the primary enemy of electronic components.

The expected lifespan of a mechanical hard drive is three to five years. While many last longer, any time you get past five years is a bonus, and shouldn't be trusted with critical data. SSDs are listed as lasting up to 2 million hours of use, which is probably an overstatement (just like mechanical hard drives say they run 500,000 hours).

That said, SSDs lack the two main killers of mechanical drives: movement, and heat. The more movement and heat in a component, the lower the expected life. SSDs should therefore run five to ten times longer, but "should" doesn't always mean "will" so take these numbers, as all vendor numbers, under advisement. But SSDs will last much longer than rotating disks.