Pogo + USB powered wd 2.5" external drive life expectancy

[chadr]

I have a pink pogo plug on the way and am considering a wd 2.5" USB drive for $40 USD or so. Can I expect the pogo + wd drive to last years with light duty use 24 x 7? Would a USB flash be a better option for less than 64g of storage needs? I know flash has limited write cycles but is that even something I need to worry about?

[hojnikb]

If you set hdpram correctly, so hdd shuts down when not needed its gonna last for some time.
Flash drives are ok, if you dont write to them constantly, as these days flash has around 5k writes before it dies.
Its your choice; if you need space, then get hdd.If you need silence and you dont need that much space, go with usb flash drive.

[chadr]

My current Pc based server seems to run the drive all the time due to ssh and http traffic. Could adjusting the hd parameters help this so that write activity to the drive is cached longer? I assume there is nothing to help with the read requests a server normally gets. I'm thinking a solid state drive may be nice too so I never have to worry about a server recovery/rebuild again... Wishful thinking.

Is there any risk to getting stuck needing serial access to recover if I am running arch entirely from USB instead of the internal pogo storage? Is there some good reading on backup/recovery routines that will make it easy on me when the plug or my USB storage fails? Is it simple as creating an image of the drive on a regular basis and storing on some other external drive?

[WarheadsSE]

SSD meaning never having to do a rebuild again....? What happens when the SSD dies from write wear?

[chadr]

According to some things I've read that isn't likely to be the case. Sure the drive can break but writing to the drive isn't a concern. I have seen some on tiger direct for less than $100 for some amount of gb less than 100... Forgot the capacity.