How I Got Full Windows XP Installed Under 2GB!
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From: the wharf rat on 15 Jan 2010 15:40 In article <hiq7mg$dcp$1(a)news.eternal-september.org>, BillW50 <BillW50(a)aol.kom> wrote: > >I average 100MB to 150MB writes per day of writes to SLC flash drives. >At that rate, it would take 4,000 years to hit 100,000 writes per cell. > But writes aren't evenly distributed across cells. The exact pattern depends on free space available, the balancing algorithms, and the patterns of the load. Also, MTBF doesn't mean that ALL those cells will last that long. It's a statistic; you'll see plenty of failures before that magic number is reached.
From: the wharf rat on 15 Jan 2010 15:40 In article <hiq67a$3hp$2(a)news.eternal-september.org>, BillW50 <BillW50(a)aol.kom> wrote: > >And that 10 years data retention starts the clock all over once again >you make one backup and one restore. > Flash memory failure is a hard failure of the cell, not a data refresh issue.
From: BillW50 on 15 Jan 2010 15:47 In news:hiqjra$o0b$2(a)reader1.panix.com, the wharf rat typed on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:40:10 +0000 (UTC): > In article <hiq7mg$dcp$1(a)news.eternal-september.org>, > BillW50 <BillW50(a)aol.kom> wrote: >> >> I average 100MB to 150MB writes per day of writes to SLC flash >> drives. At that rate, it would take 4,000 years to hit 100,000 >> writes per cell. > > But writes aren't evenly distributed across cells. The exact pattern > depends on free space available, the balancing algorithms, and the > patterns of the load. Also, MTBF doesn't mean that ALL those cells > will last that long. It's a statistic; you'll see plenty of failures > before that magic number is reached. No problem. As that is what wear leveling takes care of. I have been using flash drives (SSD) for running Windows for two years now and no problems yet. -- Bill Asus EEE PC 702G8 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC Windows XP SP2
From: BillW50 on 15 Jan 2010 15:52 In news:hiqjsp$o0b$3(a)reader1.panix.com, the wharf rat typed on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 20:40:57 +0000 (UTC): > In article <hiq67a$3hp$2(a)news.eternal-september.org>, > BillW50 <BillW50(a)aol.kom> wrote: >> >> And that 10 years data retention starts the clock all over once again >> you make one backup and one restore. > > Flash memory failure is a hard failure of the cell, not a data > refresh issue. Not from what I understand. It isn't a hard failure, but a soft one. As the cells slowly leaks and it takes 10 years before the information can't be read anymore. That is true if you don't use it for 10 years. But use it all of the time, wear leveling will rewrite it zillions of times in ten years. So no worries there. -- Bill Asus EEE PC 702G8 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC Windows XP SP2
From: mike on 15 Jan 2010 16:02
BillW50 wrote: > In > news:390281aa-76b6-41f9-88ba-4f7a50c32b00(a)h9g2000yqa.googlegroups.com, > die.spam(a)hotmail.com typed on Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:52:02 -0800 (PST): >> flash drives are NOT made for this application. constant read/writing >> to the drive will kill it very quickly as they are limited to the >> number of re-write cycles and have a limited number of years data >> retention. >> >> Flamer. > > First of all, the system drive is already a flash drive. It is called a > solid state drive (SSD). So you would rather burn out the SSD soldered > on the motherboard ($150 worth) than to replace a flash card ($8), eh? > > Second of all, SLC flash drives are good for 100,000 writes. MTBF is 227 > years, or 7 times longer than hard drives. Writing about 100MB per day > on a 4GB flash would take about 4,000 years to wear it out. This is a hot discussion topic that won't be settled here...but Aren't most large flash drives MLC now? Consider the case where your flash drive is full except for one block. You have a continually updated log file that writes OFTEN. With no wear leveling, you've got big trouble. With excellent wear leveling, it may not matter at all. And wear leveling is probably not in the spec or discoverable by legal means. I'd expect a usb flash to have little and a SSD to have a LOT of wear leveling. YMMV. I just don't buy into 4000 years life. I've seen anecdotal reports on wearing out a flash drive in a month with windows without taking any precautions to limit writes. People who used the embedded windows tools to limit writes fared much better. > > And if you are really worried, just get an ADATA flash which is > guaranteed for life. Or you get a free replacement. Although that won't > happen for another 4,000 years. In my experience, the life of the guarantor is the weak link in that strategy. > |