* On 2017 29 Aug 08:21 -0500, Simon Hobson wrote:
> Alessandro Selli <alessandroselli@???> wrote:
>
> >> I figure that over sizing the drive will help with wear leveling.
> >> I'm not sure if that is a valid assumption, however.
> >
> > I am convinced it is. The more cells to pseudo-randomically spread
> > writes to, the lower the number of write operations that are
> > performed on each one of them.
>
> Provided that the drive knows the block is "unused" - which requires
> that the OS support TRIM. Without TRIM, when a block changes from
> in-use to free, the drive will still see it as "a block with data in
> it" - and thus it cannot erase it and put it in it's free pool. I'm
> not sure that writing zeroes to it will make it "free" to the drive.

Hopefully this will be that case as I am running Slackware Current on it
and ATM am running kernel 4.9.41 (I know an update would have 4.9.44
available). TRIM support should be at the latest.

> Partitioning the drive, leaving some space unused is probably the only
> reliable way to ensure that the extra space is genuinely free - and
> thus part of the erased blocks pool.

That's easy enough for me to do. My present partitions are sda1 of 30G
and it is 59% used and sda3 is 164G and is 76% used.

I ordered the 500GB SSD this morning.

> The more of the drive contains static data, then the less space used
> for wear levelling - unless the drive automatically moves static data
> around to compensate. I suspect that most drives will these days -
> which probably makes the whole discussion moot !

Much of my home directory (164G partition) is static--media files, some
Virtual Box images, etc.

> PS - once you got to SSD, make sure your backups are kept well up to
> date. I know this is good advice all the time, but while spinning rust
> very often gives warning signs before failing, SSD often "just die"
> with no warning.

I need to finish my rsnapshot server. :-)

- Nate

--

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possible worlds. The pessimist fears this is true."

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