[Shop-talk] OT flash drives

[alfuller194 at gmail.com]

This discussion of using flash [or other electronic non-volatile memory for storage] reminds me of how we used to treat magnetic tape used for backups. Since it was known to have a limited number of cycles, we kept track of use, and retired the media BEFORE it began to show symptoms of degrading.  I suspect people still using tape continue to actively manage the media…

 

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All the best,

 

Al Fuller

 

From: Shop-talk <shop-talk-bounces at autox.team.net> On Behalf Of Jeff Scarbrough via Shop-talk
Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2020 2:57 PM
To: Shop-talk at autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] OT flash drives

 

 

 

On Sat, Mar 14, 2020 at 2:45 PM Steven Trovato via Shop-talk <shop-talk at autox.team.net <mailto:shop-talk at autox.team.net> > wrote:

Why is that?  At first glance, I would think that something with no 
moving parts would be more reliable than something with moving parts, 
if both are manufactured to the same standard.

 

Flash memory has a limited number of read-write cycles.  It's usually a large number, but the process is inherently riskier than magnetic memory (or so I'm told).

 

Modern hard drives park the heads when it's not in operation, so if the drive isn't spinning, it's difficult to damage the media short of a long drop or submersion.   

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