Will high-frequency calling file write function damage the hard disk? [closed] - qt

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I want to write the received data from serial port to the hard disk in real time.
So is it appropriate to call the file.write() function at a high frequency(e.g. 100Hz or higher)?
Will it damage the hard disk or reduce my software performance or any other problem?
Can you recommond a good method to save data in real time if my idea is bad?
below is my function to write data to file
int32_t MainWindow::appendDataToFile(QString path, QByteArray &buff)
{
if(path.isEmpty())
return -1;
QFile file(path);
QTextStream stream(&file);
if(file.open(QFile::WriteOnly|QFile::Append)){
stream<<buff;
file.close();
return 0;
}
return -1;
}

Answer 1

So is it appropriate to call the file.write() function at a high
frequency(e.g. 100Hz or higher)?
Yes, you can call the function frequently, because the actual write to disk does not happen on every call.
But calls file.open() and file.close() frequently is definitely a bad idea. Among other things, file.close() will cause a physical write to disk every time in most cases.
Will it damage the hard disk or reduce my software performance or any
other problem?
Frequently calls file.write() itself will not damage hard disk because it buffers data automatically. But note that each hard drive is designed for a certain number of rewriting cycles. Also, different models of hard drives have different hardware cache sizes. For regular recording of large amounts of data, there are special server models of hard drives.
As for any other problems: The writing may freeze you GUI in case you call it in the main thread. Therefore probably you need to move you writing code to additional thread. Read Qt Threading Basics
Can you recommend a good method to save data in real time if my idea
is bad?
We don't know how much data and how long you actually want to write.
But in general:
Use database. For example, Qt SQL module. Databases have special functions for managing hard writing disk policy, for example PRAGMA schema.synchronous for SQLite.
You can use file.write(), but call file.flush() periodically, it will actually write data to the file. See https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qfiledevice.html#flush .
Generally speaking, you can write:
for (int i=0; i<10000; i++)
{
// write on every call
file.write(data);
if (i % 100 == 0)
{
// flush every 100th call only
file.flush();
}
}
If you are facing the problem of keeping your hard drive safe with large data recording amounts, you should use tools specially designed for this, such as databases.