Hendrik Boom said on Tue, 17 Jan 2023 06:55:34 -0500

>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.

This is an excellent data point!

>
>>
>> 1) Use no more than 15% of the SSD/NVMe.
>
>I use about half of it. ext4 partitions with data journalling.

This is an excellent data point. I've been wondering whether I threw
too much SSD at the OS.

>
>>
>> 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.

A laptop is a whole different thing. Because of the prioritization of
portability, two drives on a laptop is suboptimal. If one really needs
big data on a laptop, a plug-in USB spinning rust hard drive gets the
job done, and can be carried right in your laptop case.

>
>>
>> 3) Use fstrim on the root directory after every software update and
>> at least once a week.
>
>Never did it. Still works fine.

Personally, I'd advise using fstrim / . I think it will make your SSD
last longer.

>
>>
>> #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.

Even so, a given SSD sector can endure less rewrites than a spinning
rust sector.

SteveT

Steve Litt
Autumn 2022 featured book: Thriving in Tough Times
http://www.troubleshooters.com/bookstore/thrive.htm