Full Install on USB Flash, How Long Will It Last?

[tomasrey88]

Hi,

I did a full install of Mint Linux on a USB Flash. It runs great. It is a bit slower than a full install on hard drive, so I'm guessing that USB 2.0 throughput is slower than an internal hard drive. Anyways, here's my question, "How long will it last?" You see, USB flash, if I remember correctly, has about 1 million read/write cycles. If I use it like a hard drive, then I suppose that it will use the linux swap partition continuously so that the life of my USB flash will be limited. I have 2 GB RAM on my quad core 64 bit computer (using 32 bit mint linux). I will be saving my personal files on a separate flash drive so when the OS flash drive dies, my personal files will be preserved. I use my computer every day and I do not do any video editing nor 3d gaming. Everything is just simple web browsing (no video) and word processing. I use my computer about 4 hours per day. How long will my USB flash with Mint Linux last? I mean, when will I use up my 1 million read/write cycles?

It is 4GB USB flash and I have already used 3.1 GB so I haven't installed any of the updates for fear that they may put me over the 4GB limit. I have also installed gFTP instead of Filezilla because Filezilla is bigger and space on my 4GB flash is limited.

Anyways, thanks for the answer to my question and if I may assist you in any way, please let me know.

Much appreciation,
tomasrey88.

[bobcollard]

First of all make sure you "Unmount the Volume" before removing the flash drive from any computer. That is one of the easiest ways to ruin the contents I know of. That and any shutdown or power off are the two most likely to ruin your day. As you noted your storage is minimal at best so try to keep things down, you can delete or remove any applications you won't need. Find one application for each use that works and stick with it. Keeping home on a separate drive is great, be sure to back that up too. Good luck with the number of uses. With any memory drive, disk, or ram, or USB it is not a case of if it will fail it is a case of when, they all fail sooner or later.

[libssd]

I use an 8gb SDHC card or USB stick as my test installation environment, and I think the "wearing out" issue has been greatly over-stated. However, there are some good tuning tips tips here, many aimed at reducing the number of writes to solid state media:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160122115 ... imization/

That said, I have had USB's fail without warning, so make sure you have a good backup strategy.