# Which approach to SSD?



## bkouhi (Nov 7, 2022)

I found two articles about installing FreeBSD on SSD drives:

1. FreeBSD and Solid State Devices
2. Using a Solid State Drive with FreeBSD

The first one is extremely worried about the SSD lifetime, the second one is not. Which guide do you suggest for installing FreeBSD on a 2021 laptop with a 256GB NVMe SSD?


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## zirias@ (Nov 7, 2022)

The first article is specifically about "raw" solid-state memory. It's therefore not applicable for your typical (desktop/server) SSD. These drives contain firmware that already handles wear balancing, so you don't need to do this in software using e.g. MFS.

But this has another consequence: It's close to impossible to reliably "wipe" data from a modern SSD. Therefore, I suggest to go for full-disk encryption from the very beginning. Then, throwing away your key is effectively a perfect "wipe".


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