flash RAM cards
Nov. 1st, 2006 05:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miriam_eMy mind is jumping all over the place. I'll write this out to stop me thinking any more about it.
If you have a Flash RAM card in your camera, or handheld computer, or mp3 player, or you have one of those little pendant-sized Flash RAM USB drive devices, what is the best way to use them?
They have only a limited number of read-write cycles before they fail. A strategy is needed to ensure the longest possible lifetime. I've been thinking about it (while I lay awake in bed this morning trying to sleep). Here are my thoughts:
Avoid deleting files until the device is full. At that point delete everything and start fresh. This lets you get maximum use out of it. Each memory location gets used precisely once in each write/delete cycle. This gives you thousands of uses before it begins to fail. Of course if the device gets used on a computer then this may be impractical as there may be many files that you will want to have permanent access to. In that case take a similar approach, but keep those files, but give the device a clean-out of all unnecessary files when it is full. Avoid deleting till you've filled it, then go through in a big spring-clean to maximise space and start filling it again.
Remember: deleting counts down the number of uses you get. Accumulating stuff in the device till full ensures you don't use any memory cell more than once over as long a period of time possible.
If you have a Flash RAM card in your camera, or handheld computer, or mp3 player, or you have one of those little pendant-sized Flash RAM USB drive devices, what is the best way to use them?
They have only a limited number of read-write cycles before they fail. A strategy is needed to ensure the longest possible lifetime. I've been thinking about it (while I lay awake in bed this morning trying to sleep). Here are my thoughts:
Avoid deleting files until the device is full. At that point delete everything and start fresh. This lets you get maximum use out of it. Each memory location gets used precisely once in each write/delete cycle. This gives you thousands of uses before it begins to fail. Of course if the device gets used on a computer then this may be impractical as there may be many files that you will want to have permanent access to. In that case take a similar approach, but keep those files, but give the device a clean-out of all unnecessary files when it is full. Avoid deleting till you've filled it, then go through in a big spring-clean to maximise space and start filling it again.
Remember: deleting counts down the number of uses you get. Accumulating stuff in the device till full ensures you don't use any memory cell more than once over as long a period of time possible.