Re: [tlug] SSDs

[Lyle H Saxon <llletters@example.com>]

On Wed, Aug 12, 2009 at 10:07 AM, Curt Sampson<cjs@example.com> wrote:
> I don't think I'd worry too much about the "wear and tear"; it's still
> not getting as much as, say, a reasonably busy web server with a lot of
> data. I'd be curious as to how editing on the SSD versus the hard drive
> compares, though; why don't you try doing an editing session with the
> files on your hard drive and see how it works out?

Once the edit points are set, I don't think it makes much difference
one way or the other while the edited whole is being assembled, but
when I am opening file after file (since each scene recorded with my
video camera is a different file), there's an unpleasant "thunk"
(well, not exactly "thunk", but something close to it) when I open the
file.  By copying over a batch of files to the SSD, when I continually
open and close them, there is no irritating/scary "thunk" noise, so I
imagine less "wear & tear".  With constant access, I think an HDD is
just constantly doing things, but the sensation with my video box is
that the drive is idling (sorry for the car term - I know it's not
actually "idling"), and the sudden request for huge video file
playback kicks it into drastic "thunk"-making activity.

I'm getting embarrassed here, and very tempted to delete this, but
this is probably at least humorous (unintentionally), and if it makes
someone laugh, that makes it worth posting.  Not enough laughing in
this world of ours....

In the case of digitized video tape files, which are typically two
hours in length (from Hi8 video), I do lot of flying forward and
backwards, and spend hours working on one file.  So the large file is
saved to the SSD drive, and then I work from that one file for quite a
while.

Another thing - I suppose it's better for a hard drive if (when
rendering into another file format and/or when assembling cuts) to
have the source file and target file on different drives?

Speaking of flash memory life.  I generally (with a digital camera)
reformat the SD card after every upload.  Something generally goes
wrong with the camera after taking from 30,000 to 40,000 pictures
(often switch contacts go bad, etc.), but I've yet to have a flash
memory card go bad on me.  How many times can they be reformatted
anyway?

In the case of my video editing, the *only* thing going on the SSD
drive are source video files for editing.  I would think it's not very
stressful to the SSD?

Lyle