[NMLUG] disk testing suite

[imp at bsdimp.com (Warner Losh)]

> At 4/4/2005 03:53 PM -0600, jody aka havoc wrote:
> >Is there a disk surface testing suite for Linux? I can't remember the name 
> >of the old DOS util I used to use, but I have a compact flash card that 
> >needs to be tested.

dd if=/dev/blah of=/dev/null bs=1M

is the best surface testing suite that you can get :-)

> The information in this white-paper may lend some insight:
> http://www.sandisk.com/pdf/oem/WPaperWearLevelv1.0.pdf
> 
> I gather this "wear leveling" feature is typical in the flash memory 
> marketplace, especially among higher-end devices.  Unfortunately, I've 
> never found retail packaging that specifically lists wear leveling as a 
> feature.

Nearly all CF cards that you are likely to encounter have it.  Only
some really onld 4MB and smaller cards are known to lack this feature.

Warner