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benterristoday at 4:35 PM2 repliesview on HN

Does rewriting data help prevent bit rot? Does it mean powered drives can take advantage of it by periodically rewriting the same data over?


Replies

monster_trucktoday at 5:35 PM

It depends on the type of flash being used and the controller managing it. That he did not even identify the chips should inform you of the extent that these results can be trusted.

All I can say for sure is that you should not trust any flash for long term storage, thumb drive or otherwise. In serious enough, high usage, high heat enviornments where everything working without problems or delay is part of what they are paying us to be responsible for, it is standard practice to clone fresh images to nvmes every time, with multiple spares that can be swapped out in minutes when they inevitably fail anyways.

vel0citytoday at 5:30 PM

It depends on how the flash modules are maintained and their quality, but yes having freshly written data will imply better data consistency on flash media.

Flash media relies on recharging, which may or many not happen often enough.