Re: Sync option destroys flash!

Michael H. Warfield
2005-05-13T18:23:05Z

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On Fri, 2005-05-13 at 14:09 -0400, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> On Fri, May 13, 2005 at 01:53:48PM -0400, Michael H. Warfield wrote:
> > Yeah, I've heard that claimed but a real problem is that nobody can
> > tell which ones do or don't until you've got a crispy chip. I've looked
> > and I haven't been able to find a single reference on any that you might
> > pick up at Best Buy or Fry's. I've never seen one that has it written
> > on it that it has any sort of wear leveling like that. But I guess we
> > don't all buy our flash drives at an industrial supply house (forget
> > Tiger Direct or CDW either - consumer grade). I would bet that most
> > people don't even REALIZE that flash has a limited life and wears out.

> I believe any flash with a sandisk controller in it will do pretty good
> wear leveling (I think all the ones labeled sandisk have their
> controller, although they don't all have sandisk flash chips). The
> controller is what does the wear leveling. At least for CF and SD this
> is what they do.

Funny you should mention SanDisk. Maybe the newer ones have gotten
better but the CF cards I used in my PDA were mixes of the SanDisk 128
Meg and SimpleTech 128 Meg. Burned up several before I realized it was
the nightly backup program that was eating them and I didn't notice any
difference between the brands. I don't know what controller was in the
SimpleTech CF cards. Any way to tell short of dismantling them?

:

> Len Sorensen

Mike
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