Internal flash degrading: something to worry?
 

It's known all flash memories degrade over time, and after certain number of writes they are no more usable. Should I be concerned with this in case of N810? Especially, what to do with the followings?
- swap partition
- browser cache, temp files, and all data to be written at runtime
- user specific data, like config files, data files, etc...

If I should be concerned, what's the best practice to prolong the life of flash memory in case of N810? Ideally, I hope to use the internal flash and 2GB memory just to store read-only files (written only when I install new apps), and store all other data to the external SD memory. Is this possible?

Oh, by the way, after reading many posts here, I'm still not sure class 6 SDHC cards are better than 4. Is the bottleneck the N810, or will class 6 provide better performance?

Re: Internal flash degrading: something to worry?
 

It's also known that (copied) CDs die after some time, or harddisks. Are you concerned about it?

Re: Internal flash degrading: something to worry?
 

Here is an interesting article on flash and wear leveling: http://www.byteandswitch.com/storage...emory-last.php

I think you shouldn't worry too much since it is likely that the internal flash will last longer than the lifetime of the rest of the device even with fairly heavy use.

Re: Internal flash degrading: something to worry?
 

If you are worried about lifetime of the internal flash memory, you have still the option to boot the whole OS from SD card.

Re: Internal flash degrading: something to worry?
 

Just do not overwrite internal flash too many times and it will survive long enough. Of course, permanent swapping to flash not a good idea. But you will dislike how device works while reading/writing swap file too much anyway - it's awfully slow and so you will be only able to tolerate very light swap file usage anyway. In such cases only almost "unused" code or data will live in swap so writes are quite rare while RAM is still freed from almost never used code/data, hence giving more room for some useful things instead.

However let's admit I like n800 with 2 cards better in this aspect. You can both replace card (in unlikely case it wears out or just to install bigger one) and use 2 full-sized SDHC cards. And if you're really worried, put frequently rewritten data to external card(so you can replace it in the case), As well as you can do with swap file (after learning couple of things about Linux so you can specify things from commandline or startup scripts rather than use GUI dialog to do it for you).

Re: Internal flash degrading: something to worry?
 

Don't worry, the screen will fail well before the memory.

Re: Internal flash degrading: something to worry?
 

For CDs and HDDs, I can get a new one and move the data over. For N810 I can't. Also I'm actually getting a used one. So, that's why I'm concerned. I wish there is something that can test the remaining life of a flash memory. Yes, like N800, I do wish N810 also has dual SD card slots, one for OS and the other for data....

BTW, N810 does have wear leveling feature?

If I install OS in the external memory, my understanding is that I'll have to partition it, some for Linux (OS and swap), and the other for data (FAT32). Under this scenario:
- If I connect N810 to a computer using Windows XP, is the data partition accessible and OS partition inaccessible?
- How much space do people usually allocate for OS and swap?
- If swapping occurs that infrequently, can I just disable it? What'll be the consequence?
- Is there something like "C:\WINDOWS\TEMP" in Linux? If so, can I use external memory for that?

Re: Internal flash degrading: something to worry?
 

Really? :eek: Then I really don't need to be worried at all. :)

Re: Internal flash degrading: something to worry?
 

I am glad you brought this up. I have questions :)

CD: I have burned CDs since the very early age. I know they have a limited lifetime and I thought it is such a big number I should not care. Wrong, wrong, wrong! I handled my CDs like my 1st born. I only read them after burning, no 2nd burn, no additional tracks etc, only burn once. And, some CDs still die after 10 years or so. Absolutely NO physical damage observed. CDC whatever, cannot be read. Not all of them, about 10 out of 150 CDs failed after 10 years of 'fair use on read'.

DVD: I have since migrated to DVDs and stored EVERYTHING on DVDs. Even the very 1st one I burned 9 years ago, still read and NOT a single one has problems, so far. I have burned some 300 DVDs.

Harddrive: very BAD BAD BAD experience, I burn every single byte of info on harddrive to DVDs.

Questions:
1) How often your CDs failed and after how long? Is there a patern you can recognize, like brand of cd or burner or software?
2) I dont want to ask this, but I would have to :( Has anyone experience DVD failed after successful burning? How often and after how long?
3) What is your backup habit on really really important stuff? Flash? CD? DVD? Harddisk?
4) How about DL DVDs?
5) Blue Ray?

related links,
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=25023

TIA,

bun

Re: Internal flash degrading: something to worry?
 

Well, there are lots of reports of n800 screens failing after about one year. There are just some regarding n810, but I assume it's because the n810 is newer.