Flash write cycles

[Mike (Austria)]

One additional consideration here is that Microsoft have changed their default external media removal policy from "Better Performance" to "Quick Removal".

If I understand correctly, this disables all types of I/O caching and leads to file system metadata getting updated with every single write operation to keep the file system in a consistent state at all times, so it can be unplugged at any time without the "Safe removal" procedure. I believe that this results in a significantly higher wear of the DM42's flash memory, in particular if it indeed has no load leveling.

As described in the article, the setting can be changed and will be remembered separately for every device.

Thanks to caching data in memory, the "performance" mode should delay physical I/O to the device as long as possible, ensuring a minimal number of block writes when finally the device is "safely removed". In my case, enabling "performance" mode substantially speeds up actions such as copying off-images to the DM42. One just has to remember to eject the drive as described in the DM42 user manual before hitting EXIT and unplugging the cable.

If my observations and conclusions are correct, I'd suggest to add a recommendation for Windows 10 users to activate "better performance" mode to the DM42 operating instructions.

Best, Mike