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I wasn't a fan of wasting money on the most expensive SSDs even before the whole NAND shortage, but now? No, thank you. Now's not the time to buy a new drive.
I'm holding on to the drives I already own. If you're in the same position, here's what you need to do.
I keep more free space than technically needed
A full SSD is usable, but it's not in its best shape
Filling an SSD all the way up won't kill it, but it very well might kill its performance.
You can keep using your files, launching games, and generally using your PC even when the drive is packed almost to the brim. The problem is that this is exactly when the whole thing starts to feel worse. Updates need room to unpack, games need space for patches, and the SSD itself benefits from having enough free space to shuffle data around in the background.
That's why I try not to treat every last gigabyte as usable space. Once one of my drives starts getting close to full, I take that as my cue to clean it up. I don't follow a perfect percentage every single time, but leaving roughly 15-20% free is a good target.
I clean up my games on the regular
Those game libraries tend to sneak up on you
I'm a gamer, so this may not apply to everyone, but games are always the first thing I look at when one of my SSDs starts running low on space. Nothing else on my PC has the same talent for somehow ballooning up to entire terabytes of data. Updates can be enormous, some launchers need temporary room to patch existing files, and games themselves are gigantic these days. Before I know it, half my boot drive is taken up by games I haven't launched in months.
I don't uninstall everything; I just treat my fastest SSDs like prime real estate. The games I'm actively playing stay on the fastest drives, while all the other ones move elsewhere. Steam has a neat trick that makes this easier.
I keep caches and scratch files away from my main SSD (when it makes sense)
Some apps can be brutal with temporary data
Some apps can chew through SSD space in the background without making a big show of it, especially if you do anything with video or photo editing, screen recording, compression tools, or large downloads. Temporary files, caches, previews, exports, and scratch files all add up. If they're all landing on your main SSD, that drive can start feeling cramped, making you feel like you need more storage long before that's really the case.
I don't try to move every cache folder on my PC, because that's a great way to make things annoying for no real benefit. But for apps that let me choose where temporary files, exports, etc. go, I try to point them somewhere other than my main boot drive.
I check health data regularly
While remembering that it's not a guarantee
Keeping tabs on your SSD health with software like CrystalDiskInfo or HWiNFO is super helpful. I like to check what health data says before I convince myself that I definitely need an upgrade. Most SSD brands also have their own tools for this, although my tool of choice is CrystalDiskInfo.
That said, SSD health data isn't infallible. A drive can show a healthy status right up until the day it suddenly stops working, and an older drive with a lower health percentage might still keep on trucking for a long time.
I update firmware (reasonably)
Using the official tools, mind you
When's the last time you updated your SSD firmware? If the answer is "never," you're not alone. Personally, I don't chase these updates, but I don't ignore them forever.
If an SSD manufacturer releases an update, it's often worth knowing about. You can often find it in the official utility for the drive, or on the manufacturer's website.
The keyword for firmware updates is "reasonably." I don't download random SSD optimizer tools, nor do I try random software that promises to update your drivers for you. It's annoying, but when it comes to this, the long way around is the only safe one.
I know which symptoms mean the upgrade can't wait anymore
Delaying an upgrade is smart only until you might lose your data
There's a big difference between an SSD that's merely cramped and an SSD that's suspicious.
If I'm only dealing with low storage, messy folders, or a game library that's totally out of control, I can clean things up and keep going. But if the drive starts disappearing from my OS, throwing errors, corrupting files, or causing BSODs, you know it's on its way out. That's the time to plan your exit and consider upgrades, high prices or not.
Good habits can buy time, but backups buy safety
I'm lucky enough to have a bunch of different SSDs and HDDs I can, and do, use for various things. Even a 250GB SSD has its uses. With several different drives in action all at once, I know I have a fallback if one fails, and I can follow the 3-2-1 rule religiously.
But if you're still holding on to a drive that might fail at any given time, all I'm saying is: remember to back up your files. An old SSD is still perfectly fine ... until the day it eventually fails.
