Re: Progress on my new Debian box
On Tue, 24 Jun 2014 04:34:00 +1000
Andrew McGlashan <andrew.mcglashan@affinityvision.com.au> wrote:
> On 24/06/2014 3:16 AM, Bzzzz wrote:
> > On Mon, 23 Jun 2014 12:43:19 -0400
> > Steve Litt <slitt@troubleshooters.com> wrote:
> >
> >> I've got the hardware all set up. AMD dual core 4100, 16GB RAM,
> >> 240GB SSD for /, 750GB Western Digital Black for /var, /tmp, /run,
> >> and swap partition,
> >
> > As a SSD has limited write capacities, people usually avoid
> > using it for things that are often (re)written.
> > Unfortunately, you just indicate _all_ wrong directories to
> > store on a SSD…
>
> I believe that would be true of quite /old/ SSD drives, but definitely
> not for newer ones. The new drives are subject to write issues, but
> to hit that problem will take just as long as a traditional spinning
> drive -- they too have limits, spinning drives are mechanical.
>
> There have been very heavy torture tests on thew newer range of SSDs
> and they are performing exceptionally well with mega data being
> written [1], up to fairly heavy data usage levels.
>
> There is apparently a way to restore SSD drives to original condition
> by super heating the layer that breaks down (due to writes),
> targeting the exact spot with the right temperature returns the SSD
> drive to brand new state. Not sure when this newest generation will
> hit the market though. [2]
>
> [1]
> http://www.pcper.com/news/Storage/continuing-Tech-Report-SSD-torture-test
>
> [2]
> http://www.tomshardware.com/news/flash-nand-dead-heat-heals,19491.html
Thanks Andrew,
I think the issue you're talking about is drive wear and tear, and like
you say, if your drive lasts 3 years, it's served its purpose and you
can buy double the space for the same price you paid for it three years
ago.
There's another SSD limitation: Deleted sections (I don't know the
official unit) don't necessarily become available for re-use by the OS,
unless you trim either with fstrim on a periodic basis, or by mounting
it with the "discard" attribute (but only if the drive supports trim,
otherwise, lost data). This is kinda sorta like issues with
fragmentation on the old MSDOS drive format.
If there comes a time when you want to return the whole drive to
section by section virginity, you can do that as follows:
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/SSD_Memory_Cell_Clearing
However, this sounds like a dangerous operation for a lot of reasons,
so while this new Debian computer is my daily driver, I'll content
myself with occasional fstrim -v / commands.
Thanks,
SteveT
Steve Litt * http://www.troubleshooters.com/
Troubleshooting Training * Human Performance
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