From owner-freebsd-usb@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Oct 5 15:46:26 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: usb@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3060A2B6 for ; Sat, 5 Oct 2013 15:46:26 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from 000.fbsd@quip.cz) Received: from elsa.codelab.cz (elsa.codelab.cz [94.124.105.4]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-CAMELLIA256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id E32E127CF for ; Sat, 5 Oct 2013 15:46:25 +0000 (UTC) Received: from elsa.codelab.cz (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by elsa.codelab.cz (Postfix) with ESMTP id 378492842F; Sat, 5 Oct 2013 17:46:24 +0200 (CEST) Received: from [192.168.1.2] (ip-89-177-49-222.net.upcbroadband.cz [89.177.49.222]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by elsa.codelab.cz (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 0782028428; Sat, 5 Oct 2013 17:46:22 +0200 (CEST) Message-ID: <5250344E.2000500@quip.cz> Date: Sat, 05 Oct 2013 17:46:22 +0200 From: Miroslav Lachman <000.fbsd@quip.cz> User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.9.1.19) Gecko/20110420 Lightning/1.0b1 SeaMonkey/2.0.14 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Julian H. Stacey" Subject: Re: hot usb sticks References: <201310051335.r95DZOx4004869@fire.js.berklix.net> In-Reply-To: <201310051335.r95DZOx4004869@fire.js.berklix.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: usb@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-usb@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: FreeBSD support for USB List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 05 Oct 2013 15:46:26 -0000 Julian H. Stacey wrote: > Has anyone else noticed how hot USB sticks can get when used for backup ? > & also that IO errors occur after a while, which go away after a cold reboot. > > Not the whole stick, but the metal connector gets hot, so chip is > hotter still. Obviously one won't notice this on large plastic > encassed sticks, but 2 main sicks I use are: > sandisk 2Gig metal case "vendor" "0x0781"; "product" "0x5151"; > delock 8G miniature (~ 3mm of platic beyond plug) > "vendor" "0x05e3" "product" "0x0727" > > I usually notice this when I am updating (writing) a crypted (gbde) > UFS file systems using port/net/rdist6 (which only rewrites updated files). > > Source data is 1,446,438 K bytes in 42,611 files so average > size of 34 K. But a lot of the files are really small, (~/.* config > & mail files etc, so as rdist will be updating each one sequentially, > & each will take a read + write cycle on a stick block,& as many > small files will probably map to the same stick block, thats > some concentrated cycles. > > More stick detail at > http://www.berklix.com/~jhs/src/bsd/fixes/FreeBSD/src/jhs/etc/devd/jhs.conf > > Quite often I have to reboot my target host that has a stick inserted, > I believe regardless of OS version on USB target host > > Possibly there might be less heating when only reading (as read > cycles are also quicker), but mainly I'm backing up, writing. > > I was thinking of making a heatsink to clamp to a USB socket on an > extension cable, but before that I'll try hanging a USB extension cable > adjacent to a case fan. I have a few USB sticks, some of them are really old (and fast!), for example 512MB A-Data with 200x speed, or 8GB 133x. These fast sticks are almost cool. Some cheap modern sticks are hot even if used as read-only for booting ZFS backup server, where whole base system is on UFS USB stick monted read-only and all writes are on ZFS partitions of 4 HDDs. Even in this RO scenario, the hot stick died after about 2 years. Writes on it was made about 3 times a year because of system or ports updates. So in my case: newer -> cheaper -> slower -> hotter = shorter life. Miroslav Lachman