On Mon, Jan 16, 2023 at 07:10:35PM -0500, Steve Litt wrote:
> The Original Linux Fan via Dng said on Mon, 16 Jan 2023 13:24:24 -0800
>
> >SSD's may be much faster, but they don't have
> >the lifetime.  So, many of us consider SSD's to be
> >throw-away devices, that need the fewest writes,
> >and regular backup.
>
> I wouldn't be too sure of your preceding paragraph. My old computer's
> SSD lasted 4 years and then I retired the computer, so I assume it's
> still working. My current computer's NVMe is 13 months old and still
> working just fine. My rule of thumb is I expect spinning rust (or NVMe
> or SSD) to last 3 years: Anything beyond that is an unexpected goodie.
>
> I think an SSD or NVMe stands an excellent chance of lasting 5 years if
> you handle it like I do:

My new laptop is now about 4 years old, and uses an ssd as hard drive.
Works fine, except the battery is toast.

-- hendrik

>
> 1) Use no more than 15% of the SSD/NVMe.

I use about half of it. ext4 partitions with data journalling.

>
> 2) Put /usr and /var, etc, on the SSD/NVMe, but not /home or other data

Everything is on the ssd. 111.7GiB, says fdisk.

>

> 3) Use fstrim on the root directory after every software update and at
>    least once a week.

Never did it. Still works fine.

>
> #1 sounds wasteful, but today 1TB SSD/NVMe are less than a hundred
> bucks.
>

> #2 Where you start wearing out your SSD/NVMe is with frequent
>    rewriting, which happens primarily on /home and other user data
>    directories.

unless the ssd is capable of its own wear-levelling.

>
> If the computer is done on the cheap (Raspberry Pi, small SSD), it's
> probably going to be for a few specific tasks, so my 40GB /usr becomes
> more like 15GB.
>
> SteveT

-- hendrik