[ale] no putting swap on ssd

[JD]

On 02/07/2011 04:35 PM, Ron Frazier wrote:
> I was listening to a Security Now podcast by Steve Gibson recently.
>
> http://www.grc.com/securitynow.htm
> http://www.twit.tv/sn
>
> I'm not sure what episode it was.  Anyway, a listener had asked a
> question about SSD drives.  Steve recommended against putting a swap
> file, or presumably a partition, on an SSD due to concerns about
> excessive wear on the storage cells, which do have a finite lifetime.
> Now, at the moment, I don't own an SSD, but it's on my want list.  I
> guess I could always put the swap on a spinning HDD.  Has anyone else
> heard anything about this specific issue?
>
> Ron
I heard that episode too ... it could be my selective memory, but later 
in the episode I recall Steve saying that modern SSDs, like used in an 
iPod, have almost a 30 year expected life span if you write to every 
part of the device daily.  His real concern was with the way that 
MS-Windows seems to use swap for no reason when there is still lots of 
real memory unused in a system. That wear on SSDs was his concern. Much 
of the following discussion concerned encrypted SSD wear.  I left 
thinking that I'd plan for a new SSD every 3 yrs if I put a Windows swap 
file on it. I easily could have mis-heard something since I was 
performing manual work at the same time.

I believe that a small number of the older SSD models with the wear 
issues are still out there, so we definitely need to be cautious with 
our selections.

OTOH, this could all be my selective memory. There is an episode 
transcript for anyone that wants to know the exact context.

-jd