Baslinux mailing list

[David Moberg <davidjmoberg AT gmail.com>]

James Miller wrote:
> >From: Anthony Albert
> >This is so - the read cycles are unlimited, but write cycles are
> >limited.  Enough of them, to the same area, will, over time, cause the
> >flash device to fail.
> >
> >That said, in early devices it was <10K write cycles.  Current devices
> >are rated at >100K write cycles, and the controllers in the devices
> >spread the write cycles out amongst the available blocks, evenly, so
> >that no single block gets as many writes.
>
> Thanks for the clarification. I must admit that I've never heard of anyone
> having a flash disk fail, and have certainly never had it happen to me. Has
> anyone else onlist either heard of one failing, or had one fail?

I had a 128MB SmartMedia card fail on me. I got it used, and I used
it in a camera to take about a thousand pictures or so. It doesn't
work anymore - when I put it in the camera, the camera says
CARD ERROR. It doesn't work in a card reader either. Might I
have worn it out by too much writing? How would you tell? The
camera works with two other SmartMedia cards. The card does
not appear to be damaged, and the contacts are in perfect
condition.

David