SDHC as long-term storage?

[Raswan]

As the amount of crap I want to keep grows, and flash memory prices drop, I'm wondering how many people are beginning to use sdhc flash cards as a long-term storage option to replace, say, dvds or external hdds. Easier to keep track of and more durable than dvds (if still significantly more expensive/gb) and fewer moving parts than an external hdd means they are less likely to fail, it seems.

Is there any literature on how long data written to them can reliably be read?

 

[VirtualLarry]

I've seen data-retention lifetimes for SSDs quoted as 5 years.
I expect other flash memory to be similar.

 

[Emulex]

depends. 1 2 or 3 bit ? what kind of scrubbing and error correction does it have?

we use slc usb sticks for vsphere 4.1 esxi - it's the only thing hp will support. they obviously have much higher rates than 2bit mlc. i'd suspect the same flash chips fit in sdhc since hp recommends sdhc as well. hp does't make the flash i think its lexmark . very expensive for slc.

 

[Raswan]

I've seen data-retention lifetimes for SSDs quoted as 5 years.
I expect other flash memory to be similar.

5 years is it? Seems surprisingly low, and if right totally kills the idea of using them, since dvds last way longer.