Paperkey 1.3

[Peter Lebbing]

On 07/01/13 16:39, Mark H. Wood wrote:
> I'd suggest assuming some periodic read-only use, since we *should* be
> testing our backups regularly to discover decay *before* it makes
> something irretrievable.

I would assume the decay to make it irretrievable the moment you discover
it. Hoping the bit flips in a non-vital piece of (meta)data seems like a
risky backup strategy.

Flash memory stores its data as an electrical charge, which can leak away.
It does so very slowly, but it still does[1]. We are talking about years.
And reading a cell does not "refresh" it, so read-only use will in principle
not do anything to extend the storage time.

Peter.

[1] Johan Wevers mentioned radioactive radiation. Sounds plausible to me,
that should be capable of knocking electrons away, I'd think as a layman.

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