Flash’s failure mode is generally better than spinning disk, in that complete drive failure (from head crash) is rarer and bad sectors, while technically “more

Flash’s failure mode is generally better than spinning disk, in that complete drive failure (from head crash) is rarer and bad sectors, while technically “more common” on flash, are immensely predictable (X writes, +/- a few %) whereas on hard drives they’re fairly random. The real trick is that the forced exercise catches data errors (1 copy is missing/bad) long before they become corruptions (multiple copies are missing/bad). The bandwidth to read all of your flash disk in the space of a week is also much easier to come by, because flash has a much “better” ratio of bandwidth:storage size. The advice is very much rooted in being a “one size fits all” for both spinning rush and solid state - Spinning rust needs the checksums, flash can simply afford the waste.