Kindle Disk Maintenance?

[MarjaE]

What is a good way to maintain the disks of the older Kindles?

Because of compatibility issues, speed issues, and space issues I often need to (a) test different versions of pdf files, to see which ones work, which ones freeze, and which ones crash and (b) swap files to avoid using up all the disk space.

Will fragmentation slow down the disk? Will frequent swapping damage the disk? In either case, what are viable maintenance options?

I try to keep a selection of fiction, most of the relevant sources for ongoing research, pubmed articles which may relate to my chronic illness, and some other interesting articles, and rules and articles for some games I'm looking into, all available. That requires a lot of triage.

I currently use either Ghostscript or Willus's k2pdfopt to pre-process pdfs. I am trying to find the best balance for readability and reliability and speed.

I currently use Calibre to export files. I use a virtual library of books to export, and mark them as "incompatible," "read," "wait," or "extra," if I don't plan to export them. But it's a crude system and doesn't allow finer-grained priorities.

[ilovejedd]

Kindles use flash based storage with limited writes probably without the features on SSDs (TRIM, etc). I don't think there's really much maintenance you can do.

Absolutely do NOT run defragment on it. You're more likely to kill it faster doing that.

[MarjaE]

Thank you.

I suppose that means I need some way to (a) avoid pdf testing and (b) avoid swapping too many files on and off the Kindle, and (c) still avoid keeping too many files on the kindle, swapping them on and off instead.

I think I could use my iRiver Story HD for pdf testing-- it has similar compatibility constraints, and an sd card slot, but it has a screen too small for actual pdf reading.

I don't have any idea how to balance the other 2 constraints. I can't create collections and move files on my iRiver, otherwise I'd use it for most epubs and mobis and reserve the Kindle for pdfs.

[NiLuJe]

I honestly think you shouldn't actually worry about that at all.

I have a K2 that's seen some pretty fairly heinous stuff being done to it, being my original testing device, and it's still kicking.

It'll die if it's meant to die, but otherwise, meh.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by MarjaE

I don't have any idea how to balance the other 2 constraints. I can't create collections and move files on my iRiver, otherwise I'd use it for most epubs and mobis and reserve the Kindle for pdfs.

The iRiver Story HD supports directory navigation, so you could use directories instead of collections.

[MarjaE]

Thank you both.

I currently use Calibre to assign books into collections based on Genre and Projects. For these purposes, each book has 1 genre, but multiple projects.

I may also use the Kindle menus to reassign books to "To Read," or "To Log," or "To Cut," making it easier to update my Calibre library, and eventually use the Kindle menus to delete books.

I also don't have to worry about long filenames screwing up folder structures on the Kindle.

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by NiLuJe

I honestly think you shouldn't actually worry about that at all.

Definitely not. Modern flash, even the cheap stuff in Kindles and the ultra-cheap stuff in USB sticks, is quite capable of coping with a really rather significant number of writes without problems. Unless you're filling up the entire Kindle every few days, just ignore it.

(I too was worried about this when I got my first server with an SSD, used for disk caching: I made a mistake and bought a read-biased one rather than write-biased, rated at 1/3rd device write per day for three years, and panicked over the likely rapid failure, because it's a complete sod to change. I was *much* too paranoid:

EnduranceAnalyzer : 755.71 years

Sure, this is a much more expensive and larger SSD -- it cost twice as much as the Oasis on its own -- but it's also far more heavily written to. Judging by the low number of reports of flash failure we see here, I suspect the flash on an Oasis will outlast most of the moving parts -- i.e. the buttons and the screen, which does after all have spinning droplets in it -- and the battery as well.)

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by NullNix

Definitely not. Modern flash, even the cheap stuff in Kindles and the ultra-cheap stuff in USB sticks, is quite capable of coping with a really rather significant number of writes without problems. Unless you're filling up the entire Kindle every few days, just ignore it.

I've actually managed to kill USB flash drives running portable Firefox, Google Chrome and LibreOffice. Well, not quite kill but rather rendered certain sectors unusable (likely bad/uneven wear leveling).

TLC NAND, you're looking at 500-1000 P/E cycles so that's (not factoring write amplification):
8GB: 4-8TB NAND writes
32GB: 16-32TB NAND writes

In any case, no need to baby it but running regular defrag is a no-no. I remember trying defrag on a relatively full SSD once and it made two drive writes worth.

[NullNix]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

I've actually managed to kill USB flash drives running portable Firefox, Google Chrome and LibreOffice. Well, not quite kill but rather rendered certain sectors unusable (likely bad/uneven wear leveling).

TLC NAND, you're looking at 500-1000 P/E cycles so that's (not factoring write amplification):
8GB: 4-8TB NAND writes
32GB: 16-32TB NAND writes

In any case, no need to baby it but running regular defrag is a no-no. I remember trying defrag on a relatively full SSD once and it made two drive writes worth.

Yeah. That volume, you're talking deleting a device-worth of books and filling the whole thing up again on a daily basis for years before it starts getting risky. Who on earth would do a thing like that?

(For some non-Kindle usage patterns, sure, you probably can wear them out with enough usage, though it's fairly difficult. But a Kindle?!)