RaspberryPi Zero2W

[MarkMLl]

Mark20, if you are doing a small project that, once done will just run in the background, you will probably be alright.  Just keep in mind its better to write dribbling data to somewhere other that the sdcard, even a USB key.

A key/thumb drive of a reputable brand sourced from a reputable retailer should have wear-levelling, except in the case where it actually is an adapter for an SD-Card since in that case it will be attempting to preserve medium compatibility.

I've seen somebody do a transistor-level repair on a failed SCSI disc, but if the wear levelling on an SSD etc. fails you're screwed since the files will be fragmented at block level. I don't know to what extent an FS intentionally designed for Flash storage would help, or something that explicitly versioned files; mirrored devices are obviously an option but as I've already said some RPis don't support them (at least for /).

MarkMLl

[dbannon]

I've seen somebody do a transistor-level repair on a failed SCSI (SSD ?) disc,

Wow, that would imply a deeper knowledge of the electronics than the manufacturer would be happy about ?

I don't know to what extent an FS intentionally designed for Flash storage would help,

I have seen vague references to specifically Flash friendly FS, but nothing specific. It would seem to me that doing that wear leveling at an OS level could be quite messy if the storage media was also trying to level things out. Maybe its specific to embedded systems ?

...
At least with Rpi and Lazarus I have a full software ecosystem which I can rely on.

True but generally, if doing any sort of development, I find find cross compiling, where FPC/Lazarus runs on my laptop and writes a binary in a directory that is sshfs'ed to the Pi just a bit better. I don't have the newest Pi and compute power needed for editing and compiling is only just enough. And if you move to a Pi Zero, more so.  And I am quite sure the disk and general system of your desktop is a lot more robust that the Pi.  On the other hand, maybe I just do all that because I get to sit in the comfy chair !

Davo

[MarkMLl]

Something off with the quoting in your last msg.

Wow, that would imply a deeper knowledge of the electronics than the manufacturer would be happy about ?

It was an SMD in the motor control, so while "deep magic" in the 90s by today's standards would be relatively simple.

However the story might interest.

The drive was from a development system running OS/2, which was such a pig that one really didn't want to reinstall any more times than was necessary.

The chap who I found to do the repair had, it turned out, run a training course I'd attended on disc drive maintenance and repair when we both worked for Burroughs. That meant working through multiple PCBs and replacing chips: the company didn't budget for spare boards to be kept on site.

From that you might get the impression that the company was going through a bad phase. Even without things like Operation Ill Wind and Alweiss's memoir you'd be right. Apart from anything else the senior sales staff used to get together and play poker on payday, which hardly helped set a healthy tone.

A bunch of those same senior guys left and founded Rodime, I don't know whether they got any IP from Memorex which was bought by Burroughs at about the same time. Rodime eventually went downhill, so they bought the gambling business from Littlewoods and returned to their roots.

Great shame: historically the company had had some very good stuff and it was of course significant in popularising ALGOL-style languages.

MarkMLl

[Mark20]

@Davo
of course I agree on cross compilation on desktop and ssh the bin to the target Pi ;-)

@MarkMLl
interesting; I worked for Memorex and then Burroughs in the eigthies...

[MarkMLl]

Funnily enough, I bumped into an ex-B FE at a party just before Xmas. Like most people he assumed that nobody had heard of the company, and was apologetic for having been involved...

MarkMLl