Re: SDD partitioning and allocations

[Jeffrey Walton <noloader@gmail.com>]

On Thu, Jul 10, 2025 at 10:39 AM Dan Purgert <dan@djph.net> wrote:
> On Jul 10, 2025, songbird wrote:
> > hello all, some questions at last...  it's been a while.  :)
> >
> >   I was able to get some SSD replacements and want to add them
> > to my existing setup, but in previous years I recall that there
> > was some recommendation to leave some part of the SSD unallocated
> > and not formatted as part of a file system so any parts that
> > failed as bad blocks or wore out could be allocated from these
> > unused areas.
>
> The SSD has this onboard (and, IIRC, always has) -- for example, a 1T
> drive may have 100G of extra blocks you cannot allocate.
>
> >   I do like having multiple backups on the different SSDs just
> > in case one of them decides to fail on me.  No signs of any
> > troubles so far.
>
> Longterm (powered-off) backup is actually better on spinning rust; as
> SSD are somewhat more susceptible to bit-rot when powered off.

LTO-6 for the win!

And don't forget to send the tapes to Iron Mountain for offsite backup.

Jeff