Comments for Can a USB thumbdrive "wear out"?

Comment from Nicholas on 2008-10-20

2008-10-20T22:45:10Z

Comment and questions. Well, everything dies eventually. For flash drives, other factors may present risks, too. I have lost all info few times just because I did not have patience to wait until XP would allow to EJECT/ disconnect USB drive from USB port. That I believe would be the major cause for failure - but drives would work after re-formatting; some recovery software would even let me save some files. I carry my drives with my keys in the pocket of my pants - such a location where they are exposed to mechanical impacts, heat, cold, moisture, electric and magnetic fields from different, at times very powerful sources; you bet this can be damaging, too. [And I've found that data can be lost even from recorded CD-R(W)s or DVD-R(W)s, if the media is not very high quality or not fully compatible; if recording speed or conditions are not good...]
Any technology is imperfect; I try to backup my USB drive onto an external USB or eSATA drive and on recordable/rewritable media, mostly DVD+-R as they are cheap now. And I try to be wise, prepared and "anxious for nothing".
MY QUESTION WOULD BE – what about SD cards, how do they measure up, compared to flash drives? Why they are called “Secure Digital” cards? Are they any better than flash drives etc, reliability wise? What removable media is the best in this sense? And how to know what they sell, how many rewrites that media will sustain? Shouldn’t they inform customers about all that? Thanks and best wishes = Nicholas

SD cards are flash cards. They use flash memory just like any other form factor. Secure I believe means that they support some sort of Digital Rights Management, but I could be mistaken on that.

- Leo
21-Oct-2008

]]>

A comment on: Can a USB thumbdrive "wear out"?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from blahbleh on 2008-04-12

2008-04-12T07:03:59Z

A quick search reveals that SLC flash has 100000 and MLC flash has 10000.

There is almost NO need to worry about wearing modern flash memory out.

If I format and rewrite the ENTIRE flash disk twice a day, it'll last for more than 13 years with a cheap (read, common) MLC USB flash disk.

In any case, USB flash disks ensure that the wear is even, not concentrated. So it's not 10,000 writes; it's much, much less dramatic.

Use your USB as much as you like; it will be obselete before it is ruined.

]]>

A comment on: Can a USB thumbdrive "wear out"?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from J. P. Gilliver on 2008-03-06

2008-03-06T20:16:12Z

1. The person who could write to subdirectories but not the root - maybe your root directory is full; try (moving everything out of and then) deleting a directory. There's a finite number of entries allowed in the root in many filing systems.

2. Hard disc bits fail too! It would be interesting to hear some how-many-writes figures for them (and maybe other technologies - ISTR CDRWs aren't very high), to companre with the 10k-100k that seems to be being bandied about for flash.

]]>

A comment on: Can a USB thumbdrive "wear out"?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Leo A. Notenboom on 2008-03-05

2008-03-05T16:57:15Z

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Everyone uses ReadyBoost as some kind of counter example,
and it's not.

Regardless of the terminology used, ReadyBoost is NOT,
repeat NOT a paging file in the traditional sense. It's much
more like a dynamically tuned pre-load cache, where Windows
can *read* things from quickly as much as it needs to.
Readyboost does NOT *write* to fash ram excessively - it
only updates that pre-load cache on a kind of as-needed
basis.

I've heard of one person actually putting their real Windows
swapfile onto flash memory. It lasted about two days before
the flash drive died. And yes, died as in throw it away
dead.

I stand by my statement: flash memory wears out. It's
getting better, lifespans are increasing, technologies are
being developed to avoid wearing it out any sooner than it
has to, but the bottom line is that writing to flash memory
wears it out. The more you write, the shorter the lifespan,
as simple as that.

Leo

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.7 (MingW32)

iD8DBQFHztDECMEe9B/8oqERAudWAJ99wwJMEjGNVaSSJTcGdlXjtk/HhwCeJYzB
k6ggrwYXHIzavGMTRgEOU9g=
=l9YV
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

]]>

A comment on: Can a USB thumbdrive "wear out"?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Tom Garcia on 2008-03-04

2008-03-04T22:56:05Z

Twice I have killed thumb drives when using them to move data from a MAC to a PC. MAC USB devices are not hot-swappable and if you forget to "eject" the device it can not only destroy data but render the device forever unusable. Neither the MAC or the PC now recognizes the existence of the drive(s).

]]>

A comment on: Can a USB thumbdrive "wear out"?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Graham Sivill on 2008-03-04

2008-03-04T22:20:06Z

Like the previous poster Vista's ready boost system has always worried me from the point of view of wearing out the USB flash drive. I always believed that USB memory sticks had a limited read-write duty cycle and presumably using readyboost means that data is being written to and from the drive at a very high frequency?

We really need to get someone from the flash drive industry to comment on this as increasingly we seem to be heading for solid state disk drives like the optional one in the Mac Air. If these drives are comprised of the same flash memory as USB sticks then presumably they have a limited life span that may be much less than the equivalent hard disk.

Don't get me wrong I want solid state technology as it peeeves me that in the year 2008 we are still using storage that has to spin at 7500 rpm or faster and they are the cause of so much noise, heat and power consumption. Flash drives are better in every respect ... except perhaps one??

]]>

A comment on: Can a USB thumbdrive "wear out"?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Reg on 2008-03-04

2008-03-04T21:21:37Z

I would think that in normal operation users would be more apt to lose their data in a laundry cycle than write as many times as needed. Backing up these devices is sage advice, but there isn't a need to throw them out (unless it is with the wash!)
Heck, Microsoft even encourages the use of USB Flash memory as extended RAM/pagefile in Vista.
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/windowsvista/features/details/readyboost.mspx

]]>

A comment on: Can a USB thumbdrive "wear out"?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Patrick on 2007-10-25

2007-10-25T22:52:10Z

Yap...it can be quite headache with Thumb drive. I can see my files in the USB drive,but when I try to open or copy them out to another drive, it could not.
I could not even defrag it. any solution?

]]>

A comment on: Can a USB thumbdrive "wear out"?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Tri Dinh on 2007-05-21

2007-05-21T23:21:23Z

I have a USB thumb drive problem. Just bought a new one 3 weeks ago. I cannot move files to it any longer, the message comes up as "the directory or file cannot be created." I can move the file into a subfolder already on the drive but cannot move it into the drive itself without putting into a subfolder. Also, I cannot rename a subfolder in the drive. I had the same problem on a previous USB drive, bought a new one and all was OK for about 3 weeks, then it happened to the new drive also.
thanks, Tri

]]>

A comment on: Can a USB thumbdrive "wear out"?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Leo Notenboom on 2007-02-26

2007-02-27T01:00:52Z

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Not that I'm aware of. You could try CHKDSK /R on it, perhaps.

Leo
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (MingW32)

iD8DBQFF44KyCMEe9B/8oqERAnMoAJ4qwLk+s3Tdj4lUMNTpjmCAydFM8gCeN8hk
TjelzGXS2LfI0L3AeM8e1TM=
=EQch
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

]]>

A comment on: Can a USB thumbdrive "wear out"?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from doug on 2007-02-26

2007-02-27T00:54:42Z

Is there any software that will test a thumb drive for remaining life / failing cells / etc?

]]>

A comment on: Can a USB thumbdrive "wear out"?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from vera on 2006-09-04

2006-09-04T09:49:28Z

my thumbdrive cannot be detected by the usb port. i cannot access my files. all my school projects saved in it are totally inaccessible now. pls help. i need them urgently.

]]>

A comment on: Can a USB thumbdrive "wear out"?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Cec on 2006-08-18

2006-08-18T22:56:17Z

If you are able to format your USB drive with NTFS (not all systems support this), data on the stick will be "safer". Note I said safer; safer then FAT or FAT32 storage.

Hardware failure cannot be circumvented; however good care of the USB stick will assist in "increasing" it's life span.

Ordinary USB stick drives will "crash" sooner then an average hard drive. A backup copy, or rather copies, on various media is or are essential.

Personally, I backup critical managable data onto 2 different computer drives (on different computers), also to DVD and items small enough also get zipped and emailed to myself.

]]>

A comment on: Can a USB thumbdrive "wear out"?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Annie on 2006-08-07

2006-08-07T14:16:46Z

Hi,

I am new to the world of portable applications on USBs.So I need a little guidance.I am exploring of developing a portable application on a thumbdrive, which can be connected to a computer and can transfer data to a server database. It would be a standalone application probably developed in java.

Now, I have been going through a lot of articles on the internet. They talk about thumb drive, U3, Ceedo. What would be the best option?can you tell em teh pros and cons of all these options available and what would be the best for my kind of application.

Thanks

Annie

]]>

A comment on: Can a USB thumbdrive "wear out"?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Leo Notenboom on 2006-08-03

2006-08-04T02:10:51Z

What you're suggesting isn't that difficult. Just minimize writes to the USB drive. I'm not sure what other pointers you might be looking for.

]]>

A comment on: Can a USB thumbdrive "wear out"?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Annie on 2006-08-03

2006-08-04T01:56:14Z

Hi,

I need some guidance and introduction into using USBs for carrying my application. The application that I am developing would be loaded on a thumb drive without actually having to upload anything on the host computer. With an internet connection, all the data written to the thumb drive should be transferred to a server database.. Any help will be appreciated.

]]>

A comment on: Can a USB thumbdrive "wear out"?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from James on 2006-05-07

2006-05-08T01:31:02Z

I recently blogged about this and had a good amount of feedback from readers regarding the debatable lifespans of flashdrives with some of them saying that most modern USB drives had algorithms which were intelligent enough to spread out the usage patterns, and also separate bad sectors to minimise the chances of the flashdrive completely dying anytime too soon. Check it out here:

http://friedbeef.blogspot.com/2006/05/can-usb-thumbdrive-wear-out.html

]]>

A comment on: Can a USB thumbdrive "wear out"?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.

Comment from Robert on 2006-04-17

2006-04-17T20:10:57Z

One other issue with USB thumb drives. The connector on the end is a high stress point. There are reported cases where it breaks internally. When that happens, your data is inaccessible!

]]>

A comment on: Can a USB thumbdrive "wear out"?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
Leo's Answers Newsletter - Ask Leo! in your inbox every week.