Beep boop - this is a robot. A new show has been posted to TWiT…
What are your thoughts about today’s show? We’d love to hear from you!
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I only use Samsung Pro and EVO SSDs and Samsung FIT Plus flash drives. They use MLC or TLC flash memory and have a 5-year warranty, I have never had a failure with a Samsung drive.
I have not used magnetic hard disk drives for many years.
I have an average workload of personal and small business records, not write-intensive workloads like video editing.
To save wear and tear write cycles on the SSD, I send video clips from my motion-sensor security camera to a RAM drive for manual review, and then only store important clips to flash memory.
My browsers and downloads are set to use the RAM drive.
SSDs have a lifetime TeraBytes Written (TBW) write cycle rating that I check periodically. But, I am nowhere near reaching the TBW limit.
Flash drives generally don’t have wear-leveling, except some premium and industrial grade models, but I use FreeFileSync for daily backups of new and revised files to flash drives, so I am not going to reach the TBW limit to wear out a flash drive.
When backing up files, I use TeraCopy to generate a SHA256 file (.sha256) that stores the hash value for each file. I can run a hash verify check at any time to confirm file integrity.
I store flash drives in a cool environment, in an air-gapped fireproof safe, as part of a 3-2-1 backup strategy.
A hot environment greatly reduces the data retention time of flash memory.
A cool environment lengthens the data retention time.
I never use cheap, generic, or worn-out SSDs or flash drives, or QLC flash memory.
For extra reliability, I store my most important files, such as KeePassXC password and 2FA vaults, recovery codes, and PGP private keys, on Transcend JetFlash MLC flash drives. Their industrial grade JetFlash 270M includes wear-leveling, bad block management, error correction, and can be used and stored under a wide temperature range.