RadioLogger HDD write usage

Hello Dmitry,

Our long term RadioLogger box has had a spinning HDD failure today after about 4.5 years of reliable service.  I have another box ready to go but I am concerned about the number of write cycles and data written figures for the audio files.

I have another Raspberry Pi audio logger that uses software called Rotter that I use for an Amateur Radio project.  The way it seems to work is that it grabs 3 seconds of audio and appends and saves that to the current audio file.

I'm guessing that means 1,200 saves from zero seconds to 3,600 seconds during the creation of a 1 hour audio logger file.

Does RadioBOSS RadioLogger work in much the same way ?

If so I will have to add an extra spinning HDD to the new box to store the audio files.  The new box uses an SSD to run the OS and the SSD will be incapable of storing the audio files if the data write duty is as I have explained above.


I'm looking forward to your reply.


Thanks,  Jamie C.
 
RadioLogger writes data in chunks - it depends on recording format you use and encoder. It doesn't do any unnecessary write operations, it just appends the file (and does not rewrite anything that's already written). Windows caches write operations so actual disk writing occurs even rare.

HDDs are not sensitive to the amount of write operations. They fail for mechanical reasons, the older the drive, the higher is the chance for it to fail, especially if it's working 24x7.

SSDs are OK for audio logging purpose, too: they are sensitive when you frequently write data to the same physical location on the disk, but it's hardly possible because SSD controller will not let that happen by reassigning the cells. Anyway, this is not the case when you use RL as it writes continuously and doesn't rewrite already written data. Please also note that it's not the number of software write operations that matter - writing 1MB in one go, or writing it 10 times by 100KB is essentially the same from the drive's perspective (both will produce the same number of hardware writes).
 
There are very interesting information here.
I have the PC of the transmitting plant with RadioBOSS and sometimes by a power cut damaged profile.
I've tried with a UPS, but sometimes when he revisits the current UPS is shutdown and the pc will not turn on. It's nothing reliable.

Now I'm thinking freezar the Windows partition with Deep Freeze. The PC has a SSD. I read some comments saying that it is not recommended in these discs since it forces windows to work in an area of the disk. And solid discs have a lifespan of limited writing.

It is also true that almost nothing will be written to disk.
There is no antivirus updates to Windows are disabled, etc.
Only two programs on the PC. StereoTool and 3 intances from RadioBOSS.
To where is none performs operations of writings usually


The only thing I'm wondering is what happens with the streaming that reproduces RadioBOSS. Is it stored on disk until the playback ends?
Any opinion about the operating system frozen in a SSD is thankful.
 
nelson c said:
There are very interesting information here.
I have the PC of the transmitting plant with RadioBOSS and sometimes by a power cut damaged profile.
I've tried with a UPS, but sometimes when he revisits the current UPS is shutdown and the pc will not turn on. It's nothing reliable.
For this case you need to use Smart UPS - it will correctly shut down the PC when UPS battery is low. It can also turn it back on when the power is restored.

nelson c said:
The only thing I'm wondering is what happens with the streaming that reproduces RadioBOSS. Is it stored on disk until the playback ends?
I'm not sure if I understood the question... Network streaming is done in memory and is never written to a disk.
 
Dmitry, Nelson C,

I have been using SSDs for about 6-8 years and they have improved dramatically.  In the early days there was not much information about how long they would last due to their write limitations.

Generally SSDs have unlimited read cycles and limited write cycles.  On modern SSDs the write limitation is a very high number and managed by software.

For example a SAMSUNG 850 PRO 512GB SSD has:  Unlimited read cycles, and Limited write cycles - typically 150 TB during it's life.

This PC I am using is 40 months old and I use it every day and for long periods each day.  The SAMSUNG Magician software keeps track of the SSD health and also shows how much data has been written on the SSD.

Currently Total Bytes Written (TBW) is 5.32 TB over 40 months.

That suggests at the current usage rate the write life will be 93 years.

There are applications that write and overwrite data on SSDs regularly.  I suspect audio logging software is one of them.


Thanks,  Jamie C.
 
radiodungog said:
There are applications that write and overwrite data on SSDs regularly.  I suspect audio logging software is one of them.
While RadioLogger writes constantly, it doesn't write a lot: if you record at 64 kbps then it's about 64 kilobit (8KB) being written per second, roughly 700MB per day. It will take about 1 year to fill the 240GB drive - and it's only one write operation per one drive cell, then the data gets overwritten and second write cycle will start. It will take tens (or maybe hundreds) of years to wear the drive off at this rate...
 
Very useful testimonies. Only if someone serves you: freeze two days ago the ssd disk and so far everything perfect behaves. (Included RadioBOSS)
 
Dmitry,

Okay, so is it possible to append data to an existing file without having to write the whole file again ?

So assuming an hour long file recorded at 64kbps is 28,124 KB in file size.

After 30 minutes of recording the file size should be 28,124 KB / 2 = 14,062 KB

To append the next audio grab of say 3 seconds don't you have to open the previous file of 14,062 KB and append the 3 seconds to the end of it then save the lot again ?


Thanks,  Jamie C.
 
radiodungog said:
Okay, so is it possible to append data to an existing file without having to write the whole file again ?
It already works this way.
 
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