Am Thu, Feb 20, 2025 at 12:18:30PM -0600 schrieb Dale:
> Michael wrote:

> I use external USB sticks a lot for critical backup files, world, /etc
> and most important, /root where some of my so called scripts live. 
> Reading this thread made me question even more the dependability of USB
> sticks.  I've read elsewhere that even some highly respected brands are
> heading down the road to being iffy.  So, I just bought a enclosure and
> a m.2 stick.  This is what I got. 
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CYLDM23M
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DQSX3Z76


You should have announced it beforehand, so we could have given you input as 
usual. :) I’m sure it will work just fine as temporary storage, but don’t 
use it as singular backup device without, well, backup. Because I feel the 
urge to dampen your mood by saying that the E100 is a very very cheap model, 
if not the cheapest of all from any of the big named brands. It’s probably 
still better than sticks, I guess.

The E100 just came out, so there are no long-term experiences available yet.
There has been a news item on my German hardware site on its recent release: 
https://www.computerbase.de/news/storage/heimlich-eingefuehrt-ssd-serie-crucial-e100-erreicht-den-markt-im-tbw-tiefflug.91090/

Google-translated to English:
https://www-computerbase-de.translate.goog/news/storage/heimlich-eingefuehrt-ssd-serie-crucial-e100-erreicht-den-markt-im-tbw-tiefflug.91090/?_x_tr_sl=de&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=de&_x_tr_pto=wapp

The ghist of the article:
- It’s so low-profile there was no press announcement by the manufacturer.
- According to the article, it has a new record low for guaranteed lifetime 
  writes (TBW, terabytes written). The article has a nice table of 
  comparison with many other SSDs. The next best has more than twice the 
  amount.
- The (slighty harsh) comments speak of leftover recycling. The users are 
  hard-core gamers though, so the best is just good enough for them.

https://www.techpowerup.com/ssd-specs/crucial-e100-480-gb.d2306 mentions TLC 
and no DRAM, though the computerbase article speaks of QLC (which is more 
likely, especially given the TWB value). So don’t expect a speed miracle, 
especially behind USB.

Another thing to consider: don’t put it into the safe for a year without 
powering it up. As was explained in a previous mail, QLC uses sixteen 
different levels of charge inside one single flash cell. The chance of a bit 
flip increases the longer the SSD is powerless and charge slowly (very 
slowly) dissipates. It’s hard to find exact numbers, and it’s more of a 
statistical question. Could be a research topic for a slow Sunday. ;-) 
Also, don’t you live in a hot area?

I don’t know if an SSD does a re-charge regularly by itself, or whether you 
need to actually read out the cells for the controller to notice any issues. 
This may be another good research topic. You could simply tar the entire 
mounted SSD to /dev/null to read the entire payload once (without reading 
the unused areas to save time):
tar cf /dev/null /path/to/filesystem/

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