What should I do with my 32GB MicroSD?

Self-Explanable:

  • Use just for Linux ISOs
  • Install a Linux Operating System
  • Install Windows? (please explain how)
  • Install Android
  • Install something else
  • Other
0 voters

Reminder that I wanna use it both for low end and high end systems

SD Cards are not a good idea to run an OS off of.
SD cards have been proven to be much slower, and can be unreliable when under the load of an OS, especially windows/linux. Using it as an OS install disk will also slow down the time it takes to install an OS. Most BIOSes are probably unable to detect the SD Card anyway.

It’s best to use it for less stressful things.

Linus Tech Tips actually made a video on it

If you want to have the best experience of installing apps use a flash drive and install portableapps platform

It’s also a good idea to minimise the amount of applications run from a USB Stick. Flash drives, like all flash storage mediums (Including SD Cards), have a max number of read/write cycles. There’s no way to tell what that number is, but if the limit is reached, the USB will most probably fail without warning.

It’s best not to run programs directly from the USB, and Operating Systems can suck up read/writes even more.

Ventoy with alot of of ISOs

Oh, then thanks for the information

It’s that I actually don’t have any idea into what to do with the MicroSD I have currently. Because my 32GB Flash Drive was always made to install Windows and never got such problems (probably because I never did much with them and somehow lasted more than years; I have it since 2019 by now), and I thought of making two types of installation which could include 2 HTTP boot (for linux) and Windows 7, 10 and 11
But on the other hand, can MicroSD’s be useful for a stuff like backup until I get just 5GB of Space left? What should I specifically do with that because I got an 8GB MicroSD and the 32GB one I have now

Also I just saw the video from Linus Tech Tips and wow, I’m honestly impressed on Linux for the first time ever. Before I knew about this news, I was actually running Arch Linux on a Flash Drive and it was running just fine (and with swap), and I just have no idea how it worked like that. It was an anonymous, unknown but an interesting thing I got. But now that I got everything from that drive to my main SSD now, I guess it is time to just do something else before it gets worse.

So I think I got in a conclusion: whether trying something new, it’s always a good idea to check out for whatever it happens when you do it (and if they are made for it)

So I don’t really know in what to do with my MicroSD except by backup purposes. So do you have any idea?

But as far as I know, a good quality Flash Drive or MicroSD won’t just end up having a problem that fast, or else the problem wouldn’t be totally with the costumer’s consent, but with the product quality, which might explain why I still have my Flash Drive working for years. But because of this MicroSD not being the best quality (although original), I think I might actually take care more of it.

But I have one question; back in 2021 I’ve managed to make the Flash Drive being unable to write (cuz torrenting) but I can still transfer the files that are available but directly to my HDD or any storage of sorts, and it can still be detected as well. So in this case I think backup of the files could be a great idea maybe, or maybe I just get a new Flash Drive so it can last way more than a normal MicroSD

But still, thanks for the info you’ve said below, but now it made me a bit in a doubt about the utility of it. But atleast I got to recover most of the files that I had back in January, so that’s something extra too

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To answer your first question: I recommend you store backups of the files on a cloud service or something. SD Cards and USBs are also not a good idea to use as an “archive” or a backup location. For more intensive purposes like that, i recommend cloud storage, or using a HDD/SDD. If you really must however, (I still have yet to prove if this is an actual fact) give the SD Card or USB a charge once in a while (Like plugging it in once in a while). Apparently not doing so can cause data loss. Also, don’t leave the drive in on a running system if possible, as the OS may occasianally send read/writes to the drive for something like file indexing.

To answer the second question: I only use my SD Card for less intensive purposes. Like storing Music, Apple II and Commodore Disk Images, and stuff like that. I may even use it for emergency storage to store something on in the event I run out of memory (Which happens frequently, thanks Windows)

You’re correct here, higher quality drives and cards usually have a higher read/write limit, but it still can depend on the usage of the drive. I had a 16 GB Sandisk drive, which came in a 3 pack. One drive I used to store everything and run my apps from. After a couple years, I had a warning symptom when the drive started to fail. It started appearing sometimes with a message saying this:
image
I thought nothing of it at first, then it started becoming more frequent, so I backed everything up while i still could. That’s after i took some research into it, i found out about the read/write limits.

That seems like a symptom similar to what I experienced, I recommend backing up just in case. Also make sure you didn’t enable some sort of write protection. This could be as a physical switch on the USB device or SD Card. Another culprit could be how the torrent client was using the device.

Sorry if i failed to answer the question properly.

I’ve been using Home Assistant for many years on various Raspberry Pis and I’ve gone through quite a few inexpensive MicroSD cards trying to do that. A few times a year, Home Assistant would suddenly stop working (file system errors), I’d repair the card, then repeat that until the cards refused to do anything and I’d get another one.

All the configuration was backed up regularly but it was annoying to have to deal with.

Late 2020 I got tired of doing that, I started using a WD Purple MicroSD card (with confirmed wear leveling ability), stopped using the HA OS, then used various advices on their forum to minimize writes to preserve the card better. It’s now been running without failure for almost 3 years.

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While searching about the read/write limit, I wondered about how in average it lasts; it says 10 years and maybe more
So you’re good by now, but yknow, you gotta be prepared just in case it starts to fail (likely not happening this year)

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Hopefully be a while :slight_smile:. It’s certainly a bit annoying that after 25+ years of this technology, there’s no standard to be able to know approximately how many writes or left or any sort of monitoring. It’s not like the card itself doesn’t know.

Apparently there’s some ability for monitoring in the more industrial branded cards.

If you have like any libraries in city, like I don’t know but I know in Ireland there was a library and it had 3D printer and you needed an sad card with 3D figure file in SD card.

Sounds like something that could be used for people who are willing to test a bunch of Raspberry Pi projects, so they just plug-in the MicroSD device and try to check for each of them to test if they would work or smth

Afterall I think a portable HDD would be a great choice for harsh tasks and such (because there are no write/read limits)

but once it falls off, then likely the letter F will happen :skull:, specially if running