Walter Knapp wrote:
> ...you can reuse a MD disk a million times.
> Will compact flash stand up to a million connects
> and disconnets? How many years will the
> internal battery last? And so on.
Walter has often raised reasonable questions about the
suitability of Compactflash memory for field recording.
This issue of durability, however, is *not* one of them.
"A million disconnects" would take 24 disconnects every
day for 114 years. The Compactflash Association standards
include a more reasonable specification of 1 million
re-writes, and 10,000 insertions at a minimum.
Top vendors like Lexar and Sandisk offer a lifetime
warranty on their Compactflash products. Compactflash
is used in flight data recorders because they often can
survive a plane crash.
And I hope we can put this issue of "battery life"
to rest. Compactflash does not use a battery of any
sort to maintain the data in the card. Once it's written,
the data will last a minimum of 10 years without any
connection to a powered device.=20
So criticize Compactflash for being too expensive,
or for requiring a download to computer for archiving.
But don't be concerned about its durability.
--oryoki
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