Alternative to using USB-Stick as mass storage on NSLU2

[u7l11ey@mail.lrz-muenchen.de]

Dear List Members,

this is not really a Debian question; if there is a better place to ask
this, please let me know.

I've been using a NSLU2 under Lenny as a very energy-efficient server for
logging my solar heating system. Since I need very little storage space, I
decided to use a 2GB USB stick, which in principle is working fine.

However, within 2 years I have already had the 2nd stick go bad,
presumably because of the limited number of write cycles on such flash
devices, so this is the second time I've lost my complete system. Nothing
that can't be restored, but still a nuisance. I followed the advice on
Martin Michlmayer's NSLU2 pages to reduce write activity on the stick, but
obviously that wasn't enough.

I don't really want to use a harddisk because that would mean a manifold
increase in energy consumption of the system, which now uses <<10W. Are
there any brands of USB sticks that other users can recommend that are
more resilient? Or what mass storage device can you recommend that uses as
little power as possible?

I've also been thinking about getting a SheevaPlug or its newly announced
successor GuruPlug and using the internal SD card as mass storage. Does SD
have less problems that USB sticks when used instead of a harddisk, or
would I run into the same issues?

Regards, Richard