Compact Flash memory test

[Alan Dayley]

On Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 6:01 PM, Nathan England > Running badblocks
-svfw /dev/flashdevice will perform a butteryfly test with 4
> passes, which aught to be way more than efficient to notify you of a failing
> flash volume.

This is good advice.  I would add that any test that proves a rotating
hard drive is good will prove that a flash "drive" is good.

There simply is not a method accessible by a standard customer to
determine if the flash in a flash drive is close to bad.  Some of the
new SATA or PATA hard drive replacements support S.M.A.R.T. that can
inform you of potential problems. But even current Compact Flash cards
do not support such commands.

A 128MB card is most likely a few years old.  Manufacturer differences
can matter a lot back then.  What brand, model, etc. are the cards you
bought?

Alan