--- In nslu2-linux@
>
> Hello. I am a newbie here using the slug.
> I will be using the slug for temp meassurements using OWFS in our
> cottage, I will generate graphs and alarms for critical temps.
> I will be runing the slug from a 4GB USB thumbdrive. To reduce the
> access of the disk I have done the "touch /.ext3flash" command.
>
> I assume this question is a bit hard to comment on but can anyone give
> me a hint on what to expect when it comes to the lifecycle of the USB
> drive ?
> If the slug is on 24-7 how long can it be before I can expect problems ?
> Are we talking week, months, years or what ?
> I hope someone with a bit more handson experience can comment or share
> some insights.
>
> Brg
> Emil, in Sweden.
>
I think you will find that the lifetime is not related to how long the drive is used but on how many times it is written to. If you design your programs so that they save up data and only write it out when they are running low on RAM you'll greatly extend the lifetime over doing many more smaller writes.
My slugs has been running off flash drives with no special setup beyond the wiki suggestions for several years now problems. One is on a 256 MB drive and one is on a 4 GB drive.
I seem to recall reading a couple articles about larger flash drives (having more free space on the drive) also having longer lifetimes as the internal firmware can move the writes around and perform wear-leveling so no one spot gets written to often enough to fail early.
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