• MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
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    5 days ago

    Careful with SD; they quickly wear out with lots of small writes. I once fried one as homedir while trying to compile Firefox.

    • IndustryStandard@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Endurance SD cards made for cctv cameras are the way to go. The Endurance versions are slower and slightly more expensive but they last a lot of writes.

    • Zess@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Sounds like you got a shitty SD card. High endurance cards are recommended for frequent writing.

      • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
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        5 days ago

        Can’t say for sure, because all are mixing high quality with recycled from the scrapyard quality. The big names only a bit less of the scrapyard.

        • LucidNightmare@lemm.ee
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          5 days ago

          Yes, this. I got a 1tb micro SD card a few years ago for my hacked Switch (Fuck Nintendo, especially now that they’ve went after emulation) and finding a LEGITIMATE SD card was very hard, especially since I wanted the high-capacity and they don’t just sell those at Wal-Mart. Be VERY careful about buying SD cards folks, lots of scammers out there in the markets now.

          EDIT: forgot to add that I received TWO duds, fake SD cards that were NOT 1tb, when trying to get my SD card

          • brbposting@sh.itjust.works
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            4 days ago

            How annoying is that! Where did you get the fakes?

            Another question. Is that a separate issue? Like let’s say if you buy from Best Buy:

            Sounds like @[email protected] was saying it’s still a crapshoot even if it’s totally genuine. Like if you buy 10 for 10 different handhelds, maybe only half of them are still working after a couple years but the rest of them last two or three times longer… <speculating>

    • greybeard@lemm.ee
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      5 days ago

      Each write to a memory location wears out that location slightly degrading it’s oxide layer. Flash memories compensate for this by “wear-leveling” which spreads the writes around to different locations to make sure the device wears out evenly.

      It will mark bad locations and stop using them. If you run with the device almost full then it cannot effectively wear level and the few open locations will be overused and wear out.

      It’s not specifically small writes, it’s the number of writes to any one location. But of course it’s faster to do small writes so you end up with more if they are all small.

      Also, there are flash memories optimized for performance that will wear out faster and others that are optimized for longevity that write slower.

      Keeping the device cool will extend it’s life also.

      For longest life, keep the device cool and mostly empty and minimize writes. In critical applications find a device that optimizes lifetime over performance.

      • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
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        5 days ago

        Hold on, i think i now remember: this one was about SD usually having smaller block size, so each small write causing a multiple in blocks written, i think?

      • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
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        5 days ago

        Hmm, for now only about the general fragility, due to cheap controllers and low quality flash. But i think i have an article about this saved somewhere.

        Btw, if you reformat an SD, I/O and lifetime will fall sharply, due to some block size parameters differing, above mentioned article goes in detail about this stuff.

    • PraiseTheSoup@lemm.ee
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      5 days ago

      Are SD cards not still the standard storage for digital cameras? I can think of few things designed to produce more small writes than a digital camera.

      • CMonster@discuss.online
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        5 days ago

        This person is confusing me. I use SD cards for my cameras and drones and routinely move files and reformat them with no issue. I have several cards that are over 6 years old and used daily. SD is the standard for all current cameras and drones.

        • neon_nova@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          5 days ago

          I’ve only heard about SD cards data getting corrupted when doing lots of small writes. This was something people talked about when the raspberry pi first came out I think. But, I’ve been using micro-sd cards for years for all sorts of things and never had a problem.