From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

Sizes (and packaging) and interfaces.

Aside from SSDs, it seems that the mobile/handheld market is largely
driving FLASH development.

There, capacity and small physical size seem to be the criteria.
I suspect durability is probably low on the list.

But, more importantly, it is targeted for use as a secondary medium;
we don't see moves towards XIP (not easily supported with those
interfaces).

As such, durability is likely not as important.

And, removability (replace-ability) has value.

While I can solder-down "replaceable" packages, the other aspects
of its targeted market seem to discourage that approach (users
don't *invest* in flash devices but, rather, expect to be able to replace/upgrade them long before they wear out).

Anyone using "raw" FLASH devices, in large "capacities", who can
comment on the trends they are seeing in *that*/their market?
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On Wed, 31 Dec 2025 15:26:48 -0700, Don Y
<blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:

Sizes (and packaging) and interfaces.

Aside from SSDs, it seems that the mobile/handheld market is largely
driving FLASH development.

There, capacity and small physical size seem to be the criteria.
I suspect durability is probably low on the list.

But, more importantly, it is targeted for use as a secondary medium;
we don't see moves towards XIP (not easily supported with those
interfaces).

As such, durability is likely not as important.

And, removability (replace-ability) has value.

While I can solder-down "replaceable" packages, the other aspects
of its targeted market seem to discourage that approach (users
don't *invest* in flash devices but, rather, expect to be able to >replace/upgrade them long before they wear out).

Anyone using "raw" FLASH devices, in large "capacities", who can
comment on the trends they are seeing in *that*/their market?

We use a Winbond 32 Mbit flash chip to run our Raspberry Pi RP2040
chips. It has enough storage for a couple of huge programs and a hefty
FPGA bit file.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/npkdfdb4shr2m2jokqa1l/X116_On_Plate.jpg?rlkey=negw6radsojplh0zso6gha2vb&raw=1


It costs 75 cents, same price as the CPU.

We still use USB hard drives as the monthly company backup. That's
about 1.5 Tbytes. Memory sticks are still more expensive.




John Larkin
Highland Tech Glen Canyon Design Center
Lunatic Fringe Electronics
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>wrote:

On Wed, 31 Dec 2025 15:26:48 -0700, Don Y

<blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:

Sizes (and packaging) and interfaces.

Aside from SSDs, it seems that the mobile/handheld market is largely >>driving FLASH development.

There, capacity and small physical size seem to be the criteria.
I suspect durability is probably low on the list.

But, more importantly, it is targeted for use as a secondary medium;
we don't see moves towards XIP (not easily supported with those >>interfaces).

As such, durability is likely not as important.

And, removability (replace-ability) has value.

While I can solder-down "replaceable" packages, the other aspects
of its targeted market seem to discourage that approach (users
don't *invest* in flash devices but, rather, expect to be able to >>replace/upgrade them long before they wear out).

Anyone using "raw" FLASH devices, in large "capacities", who can
comment on the trends they are seeing in *that*/their market?

We use a Winbond 32 Mbit flash chip to run our Raspberry Pi RP2040
chips. It has enough storage for a couple of huge programs and a hefty
FPGA bit file.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/npkdfdb4shr2m2jokqa1l/X116_On_Plate.jpg?rlkey=negw6radsojplh0zso6gha2vb&raw=1

It costs 75 cents, same price as the CPU.

We still use USB hard drives as the monthly company backup. That's
about 1.5 Tbytes. Memory sticks are still more expensive.

My experience with high capacity (2 TB) USB memory sticks is not good
Could have been fake ebay ones.
Samsung SDcards seem OK, never a problem.


This Raspberry Pi4 8GB I am posting this from and I use for writing code
has a 128 MB Samsung micro-sdcard.
And both Pi4 have a 4 TB Toshiba USB harddisc connected.
raspberrypi: ~ # df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 124334328 31537324 87698176 27% /
devtmpfs 3879380 0 3879380 0% /dev
tmpfs 4044244 14224 4030020 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 1617700 1320 1616380 1% /run
tmpfs 5120 4 5116 1% /run/lock
/dev/mmcblk0p1 258095 50413 207682 20% /boot
tmpfs 808848 24 808824 1% /run/user/1000
/dev/sda2 3844420600 3218937876 430122060 89% /mnt/sda2

That 4GB has much of what I ever wrote, also backups of the SDcards of other Raspberries (now 5 , 4 on 24/7, PCs and laptop.
Normal PCs are hardly ever on, for example when I want to read DVDs or write M-Discs or do do some satellite stuff (uses special PCI cards).
The 'locate' function (it daily runs 'updatedb') on this Pi4 finds everything I ever did in seconds.
Combine it with 'grep' on the command line:
locate -i christmas | grep -i wav
raspberrypi: ~ # locate -i christmas | grep -i wav /home/pi/.xpequ/christmas-phonelink-sidea.wav.equalizer /home/pi/.xpequ/christmas-phonelink-sidea1.wav.equalizer /home/pi/.xpequ/christmas-phonelink-sideb1.wav.equalizer /home/pi/.xpequ/christmas-phonelink-sideb2.wav.equalizer
locate -i christmas 10.94s user 0.09s system 99% cpu 11.039 total
grep -i wav 0.01s user 0.00s system 0% cpu 11.037 total

Find any code in seconds:
locate -i xpsa | grep .c /mnt/sda2/backups/laptop_sda11/usr/local/httpd/htdocs/panteltje/xpsa/xpsa-0.6.4/xpsa.c
hundreds of entries

Also harddiscs are likely less sensitive to big EMP effects.
The Toshiba 4 TB USB harddiscs I use now seem excellent
One on the TV for movies and stuff

I do use USB hubs on the Pi4 Raspies, much more stuff connected to those
There is more to it,...

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

Jan Panteltje <alien@comet.invalid>wrote:

john larkin <jl@glen--canyon.com>wrote:
On Wed, 31 Dec 2025 15:26:48 -0700, Don Y

<blockedofcourse@foo.invalid> wrote:

Sizes (and packaging) and interfaces.

Aside from SSDs, it seems that the mobile/handheld market is largely >>>driving FLASH development.

There, capacity and small physical size seem to be the criteria.
I suspect durability is probably low on the list.

But, more importantly, it is targeted for use as a secondary medium;
we don't see moves towards XIP (not easily supported with those >>>interfaces).

As such, durability is likely not as important.

And, removability (replace-ability) has value.

While I can solder-down "replaceable" packages, the other aspects
of its targeted market seem to discourage that approach (users
don't *invest* in flash devices but, rather, expect to be able to >>>replace/upgrade them long before they wear out).

Anyone using "raw" FLASH devices, in large "capacities", who can
comment on the trends they are seeing in *that*/their market?

We use a Winbond 32 Mbit flash chip to run our Raspberry Pi RP2040
chips. It has enough storage for a couple of huge programs and a hefty
FPGA bit file.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/npkdfdb4shr2m2jokqa1l/X116_On_Plate.jpg?rlkey=negw6radsojplh0zso6gha2vb&raw=1

It costs 75 cents, same price as the CPU.

We still use USB hard drives as the monthly company backup. That's
about 1.5 Tbytes. Memory sticks are still more expensive.

My experience with high capacity (2 TB) USB memory sticks is not good
Could have been fake ebay ones.
Samsung SDcards seem OK, never a problem.

This Raspberry Pi4 8GB I am posting this from and I use for writing code
has a 128 MB Samsung micro-sdcard.
And both Pi4 have a 4 TB Toshiba USB harddisc connected.
raspberrypi: ~ # df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root 124334328 31537324 87698176 27% /
devtmpfs 3879380 0 3879380 0% /dev
tmpfs 4044244 14224 4030020 1% /dev/shm
tmpfs 1617700 1320 1616380 1% /run
tmpfs 5120 4 5116 1% /run/lock
/dev/mmcblk0p1 258095 50413 207682 20% /boot
tmpfs 808848 24 808824 1% /run/user/1000
/dev/sda2 3844420600 3218937876 430122060 89% /mnt/sda2

That 4GB has much of what I ever wrote, also backups of the SDcards of other Raspberries (now 5 , 4 on 24/7, PCs and laptop.

Oops. 4 TB of course

Normal PCs are hardly ever on, for example when I want to read DVDs or write M-Discs or do do some satellite stuff (uses special
PCI cards).
The 'locate' function (it daily runs 'updatedb') on this Pi4 finds everything I ever did in seconds.
Combine it with 'grep' on the command line:
locate -i christmas | grep -i wav
raspberrypi: ~ # locate -i christmas | grep -i wav >/home/pi/.xpequ/christmas-phonelink-sidea.wav.equalizer >/home/pi/.xpequ/christmas-phonelink-sidea1.wav.equalizer >/home/pi/.xpequ/christmas-phonelink-sideb1.wav.equalizer >/home/pi/.xpequ/christmas-phonelink-sideb2.wav.equalizer
locate -i christmas 10.94s user 0.09s system 99% cpu 11.039 total
grep -i wav 0.01s user 0.00s system 0% cpu 11.037 total

Find any code in seconds:
locate -i xpsa | grep .c >/mnt/sda2/backups/laptop_sda11/usr/local/httpd/htdocs/panteltje/xpsa/xpsa-0.6.4/xpsa.c
hundreds of entries

Also harddiscs are likely less sensitive to big EMP effects.
The Toshiba 4 TB USB harddiscs I use now seem excellent
One on the TV for movies and stuff

I do use USB hubs on the Pi4 Raspies, much more stuff connected to those >There is more to it,...

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On 12/31/2025 3:26 PM, Don Y wrote:

Sizes (and packaging) and interfaces.

Aside from SSDs, it seems that the mobile/handheld market is largely
driving FLASH development.

There, capacity and small physical size seem to be the criteria.
I suspect durability is probably low on the list.

But, more importantly, it is targeted for use as a secondary medium;
we don't see moves towards XIP (not easily supported with those
interfaces).

Apparently, the "largest" NORs are in the 64MB range (512Mb).
Large enough for a sizeable bit of code without resorting
to dynamic application loading (which is somewhat wasteful
and potentially less reliable given most embedded CPU
capabilities)

SSDs seem to rely on fast interfaces to leverage the
larger capacities oF NAND without significant penalties.

And, the "removable" market assumes devices have short lifespans
(as their users likely discard and upgrade frequently).

So, for any *sizeable* application, dynamic loading seems
to be the only practical solution -- let NOR find a role in
just booting a system (SoC) and expect it to pull the
app(s) in, as needed.

[Of course, there's no guarantee that what you loaded
some hours/days/etc. ago is still "intact"... hence the
folly of NAND]
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

On Thu, 1 Jan 2026, Jan Panteltje wrote:
"My experience with high capacity (2 TB) USB memory sticks is not good
[. . .]

This Raspberry Pi4 8GB I am posting this from and I use for writing code
has a 128 MB Samsung micro-sdcard.
And both Pi4 have a 4 TB Toshiba USB harddisc connected.
[. . .]

[. . .]

Also harddiscs are likely less sensitive to big EMP effects.
The Toshiba 4 TB USB harddiscs I use now seem excellent"


Gelukkig nieuwjaar!

We had bad experiences with USB hard disks and with USB memory sticks. Why
do you not have problems with USB hard disks?

Met vriendelijke groeten!
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

=?UTF-8?Q?Niocl=C3=A1s_P=C3=B3l_Caile=C3=A1n_de_Ghloucester?= <thanks-to@Taf.com>wrote:

On Thu, 1 Jan 2026, Jan Panteltje wrote:

"My experience with high capacity (2 TB) USB memory sticks is not good
[. . .]

This Raspberry Pi4 8GB I am posting this from and I use for writing code
has a 128 MB Samsung micro-sdcard.
And both Pi4 have a 4 TB Toshiba USB harddisc connected.
[. . .]

[. . .]

Also harddiscs are likely less sensitive to big EMP effects.
The Toshiba 4 TB USB harddiscs I use now seem excellent"

Gelukkig nieuwjaar!

We had bad experiences with USB hard disks and with USB memory sticks. Why >do you not have problems with USB hard disks?

Met vriendelijke groeten!

I dunno,
I have 4 Toshiba 4 TB USB harddisks in use
and one 1 TB Seagate, that must be almost 20 years old now.
2 of the 4TB are on 24/7, one records security cameras, weather, air traffic, sound, sometimes sea traffic,
radiaton 24/7 weather 24/7 never a problem.
An other 4 TB is connected to my Samsung TV and has movies an music and other TV stuff I recorded, no problmes so far.
The 1 TB is not in use ATM.

I once had data corruption in an old PC harddisc when a power failure happened.
Had to reformat it, do keep backups so.. no problem.
And I once dropped a harddisc more than 20 years or so ago from the bookshelf, that one became a total loss.

Filesystems.. I have use Reiser FS exclusively over the years.. now on this Raspberry Pi4 8 TB I am posting this from ext4.
/dev/sda2 3844420600 3219046928 430013008 89% /mnt/sda2
/dev/sda2 on /mnt/sda2 type ext4 (rw,relatime)
Also on 24/7

What is your problem? Bad connectors? What make / model are you using?
The 4 TB are connect to my Raspberry Pi together with other USB stuff (like RTL_SDR sticks and USB to serial adaptors, USB audio adaptor) via Sitecom 8 port USB hubs.
All is on an UPS.

I had 2 years 'uptime' on the security recording USB 4 TB a while back.
The Toshibas spin down after a short time if no data transfer to those, so that may help longlivity and power use perhaps.
The security one never spins down, is always recording.



--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

Jan Panteltje schreef: |---------------------------------------------------------|
|"The security one never spins down, is always recording."| |---------------------------------------------------------|

Impressive!

Jan Panteltje schreef: |----------------------------------------------------------------------|
|"[. . .] |
| |
|[. . .] do keep backups so.. no problem. |
|[. . .] |
| |
|[. . .]" | |----------------------------------------------------------------------|

Dank u wel.

I try external USB media which failed for backups of many gigabytes
each.

|-----------------------------------------------------------------------| |"What is your problem? Bad connectors? What make / model are you using?|
|[. . .] |
| |
|[. . .] |
|The Toshibas spin down after a short time if no data transfer to | |those, so that may help longlivity [. . .]" | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|

We tried these failed external USB media with laptop/notebook
computers. Old laptops' computers' USB ports tend to stop
working. Such a problem might lead to not enough electricity being
provided by a USB port to a peripheral. Whatever the reasons, USB
flash sticks from various manufacturers and of various sizes (8GB and
much bigger) have a problem or a different problem: e.g. an 8GB stick completely stopped working whereas a different problem which I
experience is FAT tables becoming corrupted so files are still there
but unhelpfully renamed. I back up many versions of a file, so on such
a USB thumb drive it is not easy to determine which version is which
version.

Each of these USB flash drive pens experienced no more than a few
hundred power cycles so way under a USB specification for longevity.

As for failed external USB hard disks . . .

We do not have many experiences with external USB hard disks. A then
workmate who is not a computer scientist used to then use a
misconfigured CentOS GNU/Linux installation on a laptop computer. He
is not at all at fault that it used to be misconfigured - such faults
are entirely faults of the inept administrator who is called Paulo
Alexandre Cunha Gomes who owns
NetStream - Consultadoria e Gest|uo de Redes Inform|iticas Lda,
Rua da Cidade de Fez Lt. 96, Nr. 25 Esq.,
3000-445 Coimbra,
Portugal.

This laptop computer is for simulations which almost fill up its
internal hard disk in a matter of hours. This external hard disk
failed almost the 1st time that this then workmate attempted to back
up onto this external hard disk. This failure upset him. He
incorrectly blamed himself. I told him that he is not at fault over
this failure.

Years later I myself used an external USB hard disk for the 1st
time. I paid 50 Euro for it (not 49.99 Euro - exactly 50 Euro). I used
it with a notebook computer or a laptop computer running Microsoft
Windows. This external drive came with an NTFS. A few days later files
on it became corrupted. In 2018 its filesystem used to be bad. Like
with USB flash drives' corrupted FAT filesystems, maybe an operating
system or a computer's provision of USB power is at fault.

On
Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2016 18:16:08 +0100 (CET)
I wrote this unanswered email to the company which sold me my failed
USB external hard disk: ########################################################################
#"[. . .] #
# #
#I bought from you an external hard disk. Yesterday it has been # #connected to a computer that it had not been connected to # #before. Unfortunately the NTFS on it became corrupt yesterday. #
# #
#I ran ChkDsk as an administrator on Windows XP. ChkDsk of Windows XP # #reported that e.g. more than 10 files are illegible and ChkDsk did not# #repair this filesystem. #
# #
#I also attempted to access this disk on Windows 7 as an ordinary user #
#(I do not have access to an administrator account on Windows 7). #
# #
#When will you be able to repair this? #
# #
#[. . .]" # ########################################################################

In 2018 during many days of a single run of ChkDsk, ChkDsk predicted
that it would take years to complete that run on that hard disk in the corrupted state it used to suffer then.

(I used to use many distributions of GNU/Linux and many versions of
Microsoft Windows and one version of Apple MacOS with USB thumb
drives. An Apple did not destroy them.

I use only Microsoft Windows with external USB hard disks. An
ex-workmate used CentOS with an external USB hard disk when it
failed.)

As for external hard disks which did not fail . . .

I have a WD Elements SE "one terabyte" USB "Portable hard drive" and
another WD Elements hard drive. They are not from the aforementioned
shop. They are not from NetStream - Consultadoria e Gest|uo de Redes Inform|iticas Lda. I cautiously do not power them much because I do not
want repetitions of our external-hard-disk misadventures. I do not yet
detect a problem with these WD Elements drives.

(S. HTTP://Gloucester.Insomnia247.NL/ fuer Kontaktdaten!)
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

=?UTF-8?Q?Niocl=C3=A1s_P=C3=B3l_Caile=C3=A1n?= de Ghloucester <thanks-to@Taf.com>wrote:

Jan Panteltje schreef: >|---------------------------------------------------------|

|"The security one never spins down, is always recording."| >|---------------------------------------------------------|

Impressive!

Jan Panteltje schreef: >|----------------------------------------------------------------------|
|"[. . .] |
| |
|[. . .] do keep backups so.. no problem. |
|[. . .] |
| |
|[. . .]" | >|----------------------------------------------------------------------|

Dank u wel.

I try external USB media which failed for backups of many gigabytes
each.

|-----------------------------------------------------------------------| >|"What is your problem? Bad connectors? What make / model are you using?|
|[. . .] |
| |
|[. . .] | >|The Toshibas spin down after a short time if no data transfer to | >|those, so that may help longlivity [. . .]" | >|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|

We tried these failed external USB media with laptop/notebook
computers. Old laptops' computers' USB ports tend to stop
working. Such a problem might lead to not enough electricity being
provided by a USB port to a peripheral. Whatever the reasons, USB
flash sticks from various manufacturers and of various sizes (8GB and
much bigger) have a problem or a different problem: e.g. an 8GB stick >completely stopped working whereas a different problem which I
experience is FAT tables becoming corrupted so files are still there
but unhelpfully renamed. I back up many versions of a file, so on such
a USB thumb drive it is not easy to determine which version is which
version.

Each of these USB flash drive pens experienced no more than a few
hundred power cycles so way under a USB specification for longevity.

As for failed external USB hard disks . . .

We do not have many experiences with external USB hard disks. A then
workmate who is not a computer scientist used to then use a
misconfigured CentOS GNU/Linux installation on a laptop computer. He
is not at all at fault that it used to be misconfigured - such faults
are entirely faults of the inept administrator who is called Paulo
Alexandre Cunha Gomes who owns
NetStream - Consultadoria e Gest|uo de Redes Inform|iticas Lda,
Rua da Cidade de Fez Lt. 96, Nr. 25 Esq.,
3000-445 Coimbra,
Portugal.

This laptop computer is for simulations which almost fill up its
internal hard disk in a matter of hours. This external hard disk
failed almost the 1st time that this then workmate attempted to back
up onto this external hard disk. This failure upset him. He
incorrectly blamed himself. I told him that he is not at fault over
this failure.

Years later I myself used an external USB hard disk for the 1st
time. I paid 50 Euro for it (not 49.99 Euro - exactly 50 Euro). I used
it with a notebook computer or a laptop computer running Microsoft
Windows. This external drive came with an NTFS. A few days later files
on it became corrupted. In 2018 its filesystem used to be bad. Like
with USB flash drives' corrupted FAT filesystems, maybe an operating
system or a computer's provision of USB power is at fault.

On
Date: Wed, 28 Dec 2016 18:16:08 +0100 (CET)
I wrote this unanswered email to the company which sold me my failed
USB external hard disk: >########################################################################
#"[. . .] #
# #
#I bought from you an external hard disk. Yesterday it has been # >#connected to a computer that it had not been connected to # >#before. Unfortunately the NTFS on it became corrupt yesterday. #
# #
#I ran ChkDsk as an administrator on Windows XP. ChkDsk of Windows XP # >#reported that e.g. more than 10 files are illegible and ChkDsk did not# >#repair this filesystem. #
# #
#I also attempted to access this disk on Windows 7 as an ordinary user #
#(I do not have access to an administrator account on Windows 7). #
# # >#When will you be able to repair this? #
# #
#[. . .]" # >########################################################################

In 2018 during many days of a single run of ChkDsk, ChkDsk predicted
that it would take years to complete that run on that hard disk in the >corrupted state it used to suffer then.

(I used to use many distributions of GNU/Linux and many versions of
Microsoft Windows and one version of Apple MacOS with USB thumb
drives. An Apple did not destroy them.

I use only Microsoft Windows with external USB hard disks. An
ex-workmate used CentOS with an external USB hard disk when it
failed.)

As for external hard disks which did not fail . . .

I have a WD Elements SE "one terabyte" USB "Portable hard drive" and
another WD Elements hard drive. They are not from the aforementioned
shop. They are not from NetStream - Consultadoria e Gest|uo de Redes >Inform|iticas Lda. I cautiously do not power them much because I do not
want repetitions of our external-hard-disk misadventures. I do not yet
detect a problem with these WD Elements drives.

(S. HTTP://Gloucester.Insomnia247.NL/ fuer Kontaktdaten!)

These are the 4 TB harddisks I use now:
https://www.alternate.nl/Toshiba/Canvio-Basics-2022-4-TB-externe-harde-schijf/html/product/1898086
I have been buying stuff from Alternate since 2005 or so, reliable seller.
I remember I once had a problem with my Seagate 1 TB harddisc on Linux,
emailed Seagate 'We do not support Linux' was their answer!
I never bought a Seagate product again.
Fixed the problem myself.

I do not run MS windows at all here.
Some satellite and TV receiver boxes I have use small USB sticks that have that MS OS.
My main backup USB sticks use Reiserfs.

When I bought my laptop it came with some MS windows version
just put Ubuntu on it and everything worked.
Then had Slackware on it for many years (is also on my real PCs)
and put a recent Ubuntu on my laptop when Slackware gave an install problem (was probably my fault).
Needed to upgrade OS anyways.. Mainly for the browser..

Old saying: If it works do not fix it
If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It

These are the USB hubs I use:
Sitecom USB 3.0 Hub 7 port usb-hub
No longer available fropm Alternate, come with external power adaptor.
no problem powering my 4 TB disks from my Raspberries.
The Seagate 1 TB USB disc has its own power supply.


--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

Jan Panteltje schreef: |------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|"I remember I once had a problem with my Seagate 1 TB harddisc on Linux,| |emailed Seagate 'We do not support Linux' was their answer! |
|[. . .]" | |------------------------------------------------------------------------|

I am sorry to hear so.

Jan Panteltje schreef: |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
|"I do not run MS windows at all here. |
|[. . .] |
| |
|[. . .]" | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|

Congratulations. You are sensible.

I became coerced to use Microsoft Windows to transfer files to
computers belonging to different persons. E.g. printing shops.

Jan Panteltje schreef: |-----------------------------------------------------------------------| |"These are the 4 TB harddisks I use now: |
|[. . .] |
|[. . .] reliable seller." | |-----------------------------------------------------------------------|

Thanks for details. I searched on that website for the latest good
printer model that I bought but it did not show it to me. This printer
is a Canon PIXMA GM4050 MegaTank printer. It is still on its 1st
bottle of ink. It printed 5693 pages. Good value for money. Unlike
Epson. Cf.
HTTP://Gloucester.Insomnia247.NL/Epson/

I bought my Canon printer on 23rd March 2025.

This Canon model supports Apple iOS and Google Android, but alas no
other Linux distribution. I should contact Canon.

(S. HTTP://Gloucester.Insomnia247.NL/ fuer Kontaktdaten!)
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

=?UTF-8?Q?Niocl=C3=A1s_P=C3=B3l_Caile=C3=A1n?= de Ghloucester <thanks-to@Taf.com>wrote:

Jan Panteltje schreef: >|------------------------------------------------------------------------| >|"I remember I once had a problem with my Seagate 1 TB harddisc on Linux,| >|emailed Seagate 'We do not support Linux' was their answer! | >|[. . .]" | >|------------------------------------------------------------------------|

I am sorry to hear so.

Jan Panteltje schreef: >|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
|"I do not run MS windows at all here. |
|[. . .] |
| |
|[. . .]" | >|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|

Congratulations. You are sensible.

I became coerced to use Microsoft Windows to transfer files to
computers belonging to different persons. E.g. printing shops.

I had to use MS windows programs at work a few times.
No real problem with that.
But I like coding my own stuff:
https://panteltje.nl/panteltje/newsflex/download.html
including this Usenet client I am using:
https://panteltje.nl/panteltje/newsflex/index.html
Latest version I am using now runs on Raspberry Pi, is not on my website yet Works fine.
Advantage: I have a database with Usenet postings I found interesting going back to about 1998, 2006 on this Raspberry
raspberrypi: ~/.NewsFleX # l
total 1280
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 21971 Jan 9 2006 NewsFleX.xpm
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2576 Jul 30 2006 newsservers.dat.bak
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 6 Jun 24 2007 pids
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Apr 1 2008 news.isu.edu.tw/
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 Apr 1 2008 textnews.news.cambrium.nl/ -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1 Mar 5 2009 global_custom_head
drwx------ 4 root root 4096 Dec 6 2009 http/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 99 Apr 4 2010 signature.org
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8531 Apr 4 2010 signature~
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 8531 Apr 4 2010 signature
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 816 Nov 9 2011 filters.dat.OK
drwxr-xr-x 3 root root 4096 Jul 5 2012 nntp.ioe.org/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 43 Dec 16 2012 stations.tmp
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Mar 30 2015 news.altopia.com/
drwxr-xr-x 10 root root 4096 Mar 1 2021 news.ziggo.nl/
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4096 Jun 1 2021 news.chello.nl/
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Aug 19 2021 news.neodome.net/
drwxr-xr-x 6 root root 4096 Sep 1 2022 news.tornevall.net/
drwxr-xr-x 156 root root 4096 Nov 1 2022 news.datemas.de/
drwxr-xr-x 23 root root 4096 Jan 1 2023 news.aioe.cjb.net/
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 Jan 1 2023 news.cambrium.nl/
drwxr-xr-x 49 root root 4096 Apr 2 2023 freetext.usenetserver.com/ drwxr-xr-x 110 root root 4096 May 6 2024 news.albasani.net/
drwxr-xr-x 26 root root 4096 Jul 20 2024 news2.datemas.de/
drwxr-xr-x 12 root root 4096 Sep 13 2024 194.177.96.78/
drwxr-xr-x 61 root root 4096 Sep 13 2024 freenews.netfront.net/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 835 Dec 2 2024 filters.dat~
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Apr 13 2025 eternal-s
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 189617 Apr 13 2025 old_solani_entries.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 189617 Apr 13 2025 newsservers.dat.from_sda2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 189611 Apr 14 2025 newsservers.dat_eternal_september_new_account
drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Apr 14 2025 setup/
drwxr-xr-x 53 root root 4096 Jun 1 2025 news.netfront.net/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 842 Jun 4 2025 filters.dat
drwxr-xr-x 18 root root 4096 Jul 13 08:32 localhost/
drwxr-xr-x 191 root root 4096 Oct 2 17:36 nntp.aioe.org/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1743 Oct 10 09:59 urls.dat~
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1749 Oct 10 10:02 urls.dat
drwxr-xr-x 79 root root 4096 Jan 1 09:35 news.eternal-september.org/ -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 194835 Jan 1 09:35 newsservers.dat~
drwxr-xr-x 36 root root 4096 Jan 1 09:35 news.solani.org/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2681 Jan 1 09:36 posting_periods.dat~
drwxr-xr-x 219 root root 4096 Jan 1 09:36 postings/
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 Jan 1 09:36 lockfile
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 87 Jan 1 09:36 kernel_version
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 107930 Jan 1 09:36 fontlist.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 194835 Jan 1 09:36 newsservers.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2681 Jan 1 09:36 posting_periods.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 116 Jan 9 07:12 error_log.txt
raspberrypi: ~/.NewsFleX #

'l' is short for ls -rtl

raspberrypi: ~/.NewsFleX #du
....
1124224

1.1 GB articles and postings :-)

Jan Panteltje schreef: >|-----------------------------------------------------------------------| >|"These are the 4 TB harddisks I use now: |
|[. . .] |
|[. . .] reliable seller." | >|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|

Thanks for details. I searched on that website for the latest good
printer model that I bought but it did not show it to me. This printer
is a Canon PIXMA GM4050 MegaTank printer. It is still on its 1st
bottle of ink. It printed 5693 pages. Good value for money. Unlike
Epson. Cf.
HTTP://Gloucester.Insomnia247.NL/Epson/

I bought my Canon printer on 23rd March 2025.

This Canon model supports Apple iOS and Google Android, but alas no
other Linux distribution. I should contact Canon.

(S. HTTP://Gloucester.Insomnia247.NL/ fuer Kontaktdaten!)

I have an EPSON_Stylus_Photo_R200 color printer, used it to print on CDs.
https://epson.com/Support/Printers/Single-Function-Inkjet-Printers/Epson-Stylus-Series/Epson-Stylus-Photo-R200/s/SPT_C11C546011
Worked very well,
I had huge ink tanks connected to it to print many copies of CDs I burned, It used a Linux driver.
Ink was dried out last time I tried it 5 years ago?
And I have an other BW text only printer.

My Xiaomi smartphone did away with most of it, just take a picture. mail it if needed.
Old Polaroid camera was nice too ;-)

There are countries that have stopped delivering paper to their people:
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/12/30/europe/denmark-postal-service-letters-intl-scli

When electricity breaks down, Solar storms, nukes, whatever...
then back to the smoke signs.
Or drums? Shouting? Kites? Postal pigions? Balloons?





--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

Jan Panteltje schreef: |--------------------------------------------------------------------------| |"I have an EPSON_Stylus_Photo_R200 color printer, used it to print on CDs.| |[. . .] | |Worked very well, | |[. . .]" | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Really? I would had suspected that ink destroys a C.D. but I have
glanced at
HTTPS://WWW.CDRFAQ.org/faq07.html
which reports that you can print onto a CD.

You own good resources and you are insightful. I ask questions in alt.comp.periphs.cdr and comp.publish.cdrom.hardware since November
. . .
Subject: DVDs are worse than CDs
and
Subject: dvdisaster or QuickPar or etc.: do you use them to secure discs?
so far with another thread planned.

Refutations or confirmations or insights or other possible
contributions from you are welcome. Dank u wel!

|--------------------------------------------------------------------------| |"There are countries that have stopped delivering paper to their people: | |[webpage about Denmark . . .]" | |--------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Friends live in Denmark. A withdrawal of a postal service affected us
before I heard that a journalist reported this problem. This
withdrawal shall probably be very bad to persons.

I had not known that a similar withdrawal happened in another country
or other countries. What country is it or what countries are they?

(S. HTTP://Gloucester.Insomnia247.NL/ fuer Kontaktdaten!)
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

=?UTF-8?Q?Niocl=C3=A1s_P=C3=B3l_Caile=C3=A1n?= de Ghloucester <thanks-to@Taf.com>wrote:

Jan Panteltje schreef: >|--------------------------------------------------------------------------| >|"I have an EPSON_Stylus_Photo_R200 color printer, used it to print on CDs.| >|[. . .] | >|Worked very well, | >|[. . .]" | >|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Really? I would had suspected that ink destroys a C.D. but I have
glanced at
HTTPS://WWW.CDRFAQ.org/faq07.html
which reports that you can print onto a CD.

Do not print on the signal side but on the white colored side of the discs :-)

You own good resources and you are insightful. I ask questions in >alt.comp.periphs.cdr and comp.publish.cdrom.hardware since November
. . .
Subject: DVDs are worse than CDs
and
Subject: dvdisaster or QuickPar or etc.: do you use them to secure discs?
so far with another thread planned.

What do you man by 'secure disc'?
I do a verify on the CD, DVD, Bluray or M-DISC after burning it, binary compare with the original
From:
https://panteltje.nl/panteltje/dvd/index.html
https://panteltje.nl/panteltje/dvd/dvdimagecmp-0.3.tgz
more stuff on that webpage..
For Linux distros use the MD5 sum as check if they have it.

I have over a thousand burned discs here, thousand in this box:
https://panteltje.nl/pub/CD_box_binnenkant_IXIMG_0549.JPG
https://panteltje.nl/pub/CD_box_IXIMG_0547.JPG

The way to keep the CDs and optical discs intact is :
keep those in the dark.
It is exposure time multiplied by light intensity that will damage those, just like photography and film.
Old CDs I burned decennia ago kept in that box still play great here.

Refutations or confirmations or insights or other possible
contributions from you are welcome. Dank u wel!

|--------------------------------------------------------------------------| >|"There are countries that have stopped delivering paper to their people: | >|[webpage about Denmark . . .]" | >|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Friends live in Denmark. A withdrawal of a postal service affected us
before I heard that a journalist reported this problem. This
withdrawal shall probably be very bad to persons.

I had not known that a similar withdrawal happened in another country
or other countries. What country is it or what countries are they?

I dunno.


--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

Jan Panteltje schreef: |--------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|"Do not print on the signal side but on the white colored side of the discs :-)"|
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

:)

|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| |">>You own good resources and you are insightful. I ask questions in | |>>alt.comp.periphs.cdr and comp.publish.cdrom.hardware since November | |>>. . . | |>>Subject: DVDs are worse than CDs | |>>and | |>>Subject: dvdisaster or QuickPar or etc.: do you use them to secure discs?| |>>so far with another thread planned. |
| | |What do you man by 'secure disc'? | |[. . .]" | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|

E.g. "In addition you should be looking to add parity/recovery data to
your CD-R/DVD-R backup files, which serves two purposes: (a) allows
you to verify that the files are still readable and intact (b) allows
you to recover damaged files if you have enough recovery data. It
allows you to recover from scratches that the underlying ECC was
unable to correct for."

E.g. "I'd like to use QuickPar, or par2cmdline, to protect archives
stored on CD-R and DVD-R media."

E.g. "dvdisaster complements optical media [. . .] with error
correction data in a way that they are fully recoverable even after
some read errors have developed. This enables you to rescue the
complete data to a new medium."

|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| |"I have over a thousand burned discs here, thousand in this box: |
| https://panteltje.nl/pub/CD_box_binnenkant_IXIMG_0549.JPG | |[. . .] |
| | |[. . .] | |Old CDs I burned decennia ago kept in that box still play great here." | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Impressive again! Are DVDs less durable?

Many of the white things which you show in this picture seem to be too
thin to be jewel cases. I read a suspicion in a different newsgroup
that sleeves might be OK for C.D.s but dangerous for D.V.D.s . . .
Richard Hassinger warns in
Message-ID: <eo4ug0dr523p1bo461a7fna9agjbtqo456@4ax.com>
in
Subject: Re: Media Storage after you burn?
in alt.video.dvdr since
Date: Mon, 02 Aug 2004 23:29:01 -0500
. . .
########################################################################
#"My opinion is that the sleeves are not so good. Even without removing#
#them for a long time, they tend to jostle around and get scuffed up. I#
#have hundreds of CDs from the past five years and when I pull them out#
#of the sleeves I can see that they have gotten scuffed up some. # #Doesn't make a big difference for the CDs, but it might be a big deal #
#for the DVDs. #
# #
#Like the other person said, the holders for the DVDs can put a lot of # #pressure on the disc. I have had some trouble getting DVDs out of some#
#of those locking mechanisms and had to bend the disc quite a bit while# #prying it loose. I have seen at least ten different mechanisms, most #
#of them seem to force me to be rough with the disc. #
# # #Worse, if one of the prongs breaks off, the disc can slip off the # #mechanism and shake around inside the box, with the rest of the # #plastic parts scratching up the disc." # ########################################################################

You do not seem to suffer such a problem.
--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2

From Newsgroup: sci.electronics.design

=?UTF-8?Q?Niocl=C3=A1s_P=C3=B3l_Caile=C3=A1n?= de Ghloucester <thanks-to@Taf.com>wrote:

Jan Panteltje schreef: >|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

|"Do not print on the signal side but on the white colored side of the discs :-)"|
|--------------------------------------------------------------------------------|

:)

|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| >|">>You own good resources and you are insightful. I ask questions in | >|>>alt.comp.periphs.cdr and comp.publish.cdrom.hardware since November | >|>>. . . | >|>>Subject: DVDs are worse than CDs | >|>>and | >|>>Subject: dvdisaster or QuickPar or etc.: do you use them to secure discs?| >|>>so far with another thread planned. | >| | >|What do you man by 'secure disc'? | >|[. . .]" | >|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|

E.g. "In addition you should be looking to add parity/recovery data to
your CD-R/DVD-R backup files, which serves two purposes: (a) allows
you to verify that the files are still readable and intact (b) allows
you to recover damaged files if you have enough recovery data. It
allows you to recover from scratches that the underlying ECC was
unable to correct for."

E.g. "I'd like to use QuickPar, or par2cmdline, to protect archives
stored on CD-R and DVD-R media."

E.g. "dvdisaster complements optical media [. . .] with error
correction data in a way that they are fully recoverable even after
some read errors have developed. This enables you to rescue the
complete data to a new medium."

|---------------------------------------------------------------------------| >|"I have over a thousand burned discs here, thousand in this box: | >| https://panteltje.nl/pub/CD_box_binnenkant_IXIMG_0549.JPG | >|[. . .] | >| | >|[. . .] | >|Old CDs I burned decennia ago kept in that box still play great here." | >|---------------------------------------------------------------------------|

Impressive again! Are DVDs less durable?

Many of the white things which you show in this picture seem to be too
thin to be jewel cases. I read a suspicion in a different newsgroup
that sleeves might be OK for C.D.s but dangerous for D.V.D.s . . .

Blurays and M-Discs, DVDs CDs It is all in that box
and in a similar small one
Each disc has a number, staring wwith 1 in this case up to including 1000,
I keep a text file dvd_list.txt tha tsays what it is and how it was burned, what make disc ist was

Example, some movies I recorded from satellite, disc number first:

997
Mon Jul 8 10:15:12 CEST 2019
BD-R25GB
Mediarange 4x inkjet printable
LG BH10LS38
PLEASE STOP ANY RTL_SDR write data errors observed when that is running!
Make sure you have enough disk space.
dd if=/dev/zero bs=100000000 count=242 > bluray.iso
mke2fs bluray.iso
mount -o loop=/dev/loop0 bluray.iso /mnt/loop
cp ... /mnt/loop/
du /mnt/loop
#umount /dev/loop0
umount /mnt/loop
cd /mnt/sda1/video/satellite
growisofs -speed=4 -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd=bluray.iso
dvdimagecmp -a bluray.iso -b /dev/dvd
# df
/dev/loop0 23261268 21439056 640572 98% /mnt/loop
# l /mnt/loop/
total 21394080
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3402750000 Feb 16 18:29 die_unfassbaren_now_you_see_me_2013__german.ts amovie
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2874900000 Feb 25 19:41 desperado_1995__german.ts amovie
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2531400000 Mar 24 10:48 get_the_gringo__german.ts amovie
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3251400000 May 6 08:40 passengers_german.ts amovie
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 310400000 May 18 08:44 the_boat.ts amovie
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2537800000 May 26 20:48 romancing_the_stone_1984.ts amovie
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3841100000 May 30 22:45 vaiana_2016.ts amovie
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3136350000 Jul 8 10:12 war_dogs_2016_german.ts amovie


998
Tue Oct 8 12:43:07 CEST 2019
BD-R25GB
Mediarange 4x inkjet printable
LG BH10LS38
PLEASE STOP ANY RTL_SDR write data errors observed when that is running!
Make sure you habve enough disk space.
dd if=/dev/zero bs=100000000 count=242 > bluray.iso
mke2fs bluray.iso
mount -o loop=/dev/loop0 bluray.iso /mnt/loop
cp ... /mnt/loop/
du /mnt/loop
#umount /dev/loop0
umount /mnt/loop
cd /mnt/sda1/video/satellite
growisofs -speed=4 -dvd-compat -Z /dev/dvd=bluray.iso
dvdimagecmp -a bluray.iso -b /dev/dvd
# df
/dev/loop0 23261268 21022524 1057104 96% /mnt/loop
# l/mnt/loop/
total 20977548
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 19095 May 7 23:33 xinutop_manual.txt
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4385000000 Jul 1 18:01 freibeuter_des_todes_german.ts amovie
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 58 Jul 11 10:40 xinutop-nav-x86-2.4.img.md5 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 682624000 Jul 11 10:44 xinutop-nav-x86-2.4.img -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4294705152 Sep 8 01:51 stones_havana_NPO_3-20190907213907-.mts amovie
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 627385344 Sep 8 02:28 stones_havana_NPO_3-20190907213907-.mts1 amovie
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3949971456 Sep 8 05:59 stones_havana_NPO_3-20190907235958-.mts amovie
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1993500000 Sep 24 16:53 the_great_wall_2016.ts amovie
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 2354400000 Oct 3 17:05 last_man_standing_1996.ts amovie
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 3172370000 Oct 8 12:39 a_cure_for_wellness_2016__german.ts amovie

Richard Hassinger warns in
Message-ID: <eo4ug0dr523p1bo461a7fna9agjbtqo456@4ax.com>
in
Subject: Re: Media Storage after you burn?
in alt.video.dvdr since
Date: Mon, 02 Aug 2004 23:29:01 -0500
. . . >########################################################################
#"My opinion is that the sleeves are not so good. Even without removing# >#them for a long time, they tend to jostle around and get scuffed up. I# >#have hundreds of CDs from the past five years and when I pull them out#
#of the sleeves I can see that they have gotten scuffed up some. # >#Doesn't make a big difference for the CDs, but it might be a big deal #
#for the DVDs. #
# # >#Like the other person said, the holders for the DVDs can put a lot of # >#pressure on the disc. I have had some trouble getting DVDs out of some#
#of those locking mechanisms and had to bend the disc quite a bit while# >#prying it loose. I have seen at least ten different mechanisms, most #
#of them seem to force me to be rough with the disc. #
# # >#Worse, if one of the prongs breaks off, the disc can slip off the # >#mechanism and shake around inside the box, with the rest of the # >#plastic parts scratching up the disc." # >########################################################################

You do not seem to suffer such a problem.

Indeed, never a problem and I am not even that careful!

--- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2