[SOLVED] SSD - Write cycle life also depends on how many items are being written?

ShangWang

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Hi all,

Let's say I had a file that was 1GB and wrote it to my SSD, would writing 300 files that are 1GB combined affect the write life cycle of an SSD or is it treated the same since they're both the same size?
 
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No, I mean if 300 files COMBINED are 1GB, is writing that the same as writing a SINGLE file that is just 1GB?
About the same.
One could quibble about sector sizes and slack space at the end of each sector. And the larger file allocation table.

But in the context of drive lifespan and TBW, irrelevant.

ShangWang

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Mar 26, 2021
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About the same.
One could quibble about sector sizes and slack space at the end of each sector. And the larger file allocation table.

But in the context of drive lifespan and TBW, irrelevant.
I see, thanks. I was just worried because I was backing up save data which is only about 30mb but it's over 900 items and takes a while to backup so I was wondering if writing a lot of small items would wear SSD.
 
I see, thanks. I was just worried because I was backing up save data which is only about 30mb but it's over 900 items and takes a while to backup so I was wondering if writing a lot of small items would wear SSD.
I'm under the impression that most wear leveling algorithms would prefer "going down the line" as it were when updating already existing data rather than erasing the page and re-writing to it.

The only reason why it takes a while to back up those files is because the file system has to run its record keeping for each file. Consider say 10 people lining up for something at Starbucks vs one person ordering 10 drinks. It'll take longer to process the 1-drink-per-person scenario. Or 10 people in a checkout at a supermarket having 2-3 items apiece versus a single person with 20-30 items.
 
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ShangWang

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I'm under the impression that most wear leveling algorithms would prefer "going down the line" as it were when updating already existing data rather than erasing the page and re-writing to it.

The only reason why it takes a while to back up those files is because the file system has to run its record keeping for each file. Consider say 10 people lining up for something at Starbucks vs one person ordering 10 drinks. It'll take longer to process the 1-drink-per-person scenario. Or 10 people in a checkout at a supermarket having 2-3 items apiece versus a single person with 20-30 items.
Yep, most of the time it's just re-writing existing files to be updated, would that cause more wear than usual? I don't really understand what "down the line" means.

I also already have 472GB total host writes in under a month, is this a lot?
 
Yep, most of the time it's just re-writing existing files to be updated, would that cause more wear than usual? I don't really understand what "down the line" means.
What I mean down the line is that say that the data already exists and it needs to be updated, but the page the data resides on doesn't have enough free space to include the update. So it goes "down the line" to find another page with enough free data. And it may prefer using a completely blank page because chances are other bits of data will also expand and it'd be better to let them have some space for future growth.

Or if the data in page is marked for deletion, it doesn't get erased right away. The page is only erased if the space is actually needed.
 
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ShangWang

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What I mean down the line is that say that the data already exists and it needs to be updated, but the page the data resides on doesn't have enough free space to include the update. So it goes "down the line" to find another page with enough free data. And it may prefer using a completely blank page because chances are other bits of data will also expand and it'd be better to let them have some space for future growth.

Or if the data in page is marked for deletion, it doesn't get erased right away. The page is only erased if the space is actually needed.
Thank you, and by "going down the line" with multiple small files would this cause more wear than usual even if it's a few mb each time?