"Michael A. Terrell" wrote in
m:


Terry wrote:

On Sun, 06 Jun 2010 03:57:43 -0400, "Michael A. Terrell"
wrote:


The prices are starting to drop:

30 GB SATA 2 SS drive: $199

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...em-details.asp
?EdpNo=4933684&Sku=O261-6228

4 GB 2.5" PATA/IDE SS drive: $49

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...em-details.asp
?EdpNo=2552722&CatId=5301

What is the advantage of these drives over, say, a 32 GB jump drive
at $70 (this week at Office Depot)? Speed? If so, how great is that
advantage in practice?


They replace the hard drive in a computer. Someone was asking
about
small hard drives for machine tools. Spinning storage with an IDE/PATA
interface is disappearing from the market. What good is a jump drive
on something with no USB port?

I would never use flash based memory devices for primary storage. They
are fine for moving files around on USB thumb drives, but they are
inherently unreliable. Flash drives wear out, and have internal
algorithms to spread the wear around. I know a number of folks who've
had thumb drives die on them. I realize that they have been improving,
but until I see some serious unbiased tests on long term reliability, I'm
sticking with spinning things. I think conventional hard drives are also
less likely to get flipped bits from cosmic rays, although with adequate
encoding, that _shouldn't_ be a problem.

Doug White