Compact Flash cards, durable?

[Bozz]

I read an article about using a CF card in an IDE adaptor as a replacement for a hard disk to run a simple DOS based PC. They are not fast and not very big but I don’t need that, they are silent and cheap, not moving parts so have many advantages.

My question is, are they durable? Can you write to them innumerable times like standard RAM or will they really wear out as the article suggested? The one that I just got has a 30 year guarantee which would suggest not. The problem is probably circumventable in that, with a 32Mb CF card, which is far in excess of my needs, and 64Mb RAM I can form a 16-32Mb RAM drive and just copy the data there and run it.

It would be nice to know a definitive answer.


Ian Boys
DTE Systems Ltd

 

[ceh4702]

The standard Hard drive guarantee is only 1 year?
About 5-10 years for a SCSI Hard drive warranty.

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[franklin97355]

http://www.needmorehardware.com/shop/au/compact.htm

 

[Bozz]

Thanks Franklin97355. To those too lasy to follow the link 1,000,000 erase cycles is a suggested manufacturers estimate. I think I'll take the copy to RamDisk route if only for speed.

Ian Boys
DTE Systems Ltd