USB PEN DRIVE

Will i be preserving the life and longetivity of any brand USB Pen Drive plug-in if i only use it to store programs such as security apps, texts, and such as opposed if i continuously run the programs on it?

I like to make it last as long as possible and given it's miniature size it seems a valid concern since it is not a Hard Drive or CD/DVD.

Thanks Plenty for your experiences you might like to share about this. Thats always been in the back of my mind ever since i lost one from running apps like you would on a HD once before, so now i just use it to paste or remove apps from it only.

EASTER

 

Easter,

There would be wear if you run pen drives continuously but then in today's perspective, drives are so cheap that you really don't care if they die, just be sure to back them up when you get the symptoms of a dying pen drive. I have seen Kingston 30GB advertised for US$19 on Newegg so now we don't have to worry about the cost factor.

 

By the time they die it would have become very very cheap. Also u can claim lifetime warranty if u have.

 

I likely run right past that Corsair Guarantee Link but thanks for posting it again. I have several different brands from PNY, Kingston, and the U2 brand i always change to become a single Pen instead of the double trouble one as default.

Thanks again and before i go running apps from them i'll use my trusty DriveSnapshot to keep backup copies just in case my pants or shirt pocket gets wet when caught out in a heavy rainstorm and drown it;s circuitry or whatever like dropping something on it.

Many thanks fellas.

EASTER

 

No worries. There have been very recent studies that compare the new one million read/write cycles of newer flash drives with MTBF of regular hard drives and they showed that calculated out with similar usage, your hard drive's going to go before your flash drive. SSD hard drives will soon become more commonplace and the old hard drives will one day, not too far off, be another computer memory.

Use your flash drive till your heart's content.

 

You just know the huge boost in confidence your statements just made for me. If they are that well designed, and with today's minaturizing technological electronics nearly to a pen head, the possibilities in the future are going to be endless.

Now if they can just inject a life long anti-virus to keep us from ever catching a cold, flu, or worse, then we're definitely moving in the right direction. LoL

 

I have never had a USB flash drive go bad on me yet. Of course, I have bought scads of them over the last few years and have migrated my stuff to the newer ones as I acquired them. I am currently carrying a 16GB Sony Click as my go to drive (it's about half full.)

The number of reads/writes that one can expect has indeed grown over time. I agree that if reasonably cared for, a current good quality flash drive will last a very long time, even for the hardest of users. That said, where does a 4 year old drive fit into the picture of "how long"? Certainly not as long as good quality one purchased today. But if you are careful with it (don't repeatedly drop it, make sure that you protect it from static electricity, properly disconnect it from the PC (make sure that Windows tells you it's ok to disconnect it or unplug it after powering down the PC), etc.) it should still last quite a while.

The comment above that recommends backups is an important one. Once I started carrying a drive on a daily basis, I also started backing it up on a daily basis (I use GoodSync.) That way, nothing is ever lost. (My backup is a 16 GB SanDisk Cruzer Contour (with the U3 removed (I HATE U3!))

 

Really.
They can be found @ < $1.75 / GB.
Anecdote:
These things are pretty robust.
Mine went through the wash recently. Let it dry out.
Working fine!

 

I've used heaps of the past few years, from sandisk, sandisk micro, sandisk titanium (A++), kingston, buffalo, and all are going strong.

One tip for you though, only one that went bad was from a number of years ago, my very first one, from a poor connection - due to the many keys (house, car, work) I had hanging from the drive when it was plugged in. The thing must have bent slightly, and I lost all my data.

So always take your keys off your USB drive before plugging it in.

 

They aren't delicate either. There are no moving parts at all. It's just like dropping a flash card from your camera, it's not going to disturb the data. Different websites and magazines have put these things through all kinds of destruction tests and they've all found it takes a lot to actually make data unreadable.

Most flash drives go bad because it was bad hardware from the beginning. I like the idea of using every single bit of space by writing data until it's full and then moving it and making sure it's all reading and writing ok before being certain your flash drive is in good working order. It should last a long, time time if it's fine from the start.

 

What about plugg out? Does it matter - when we are talking about life-time usb drives - if I do safe remove my USB drive or just plugg out them from usb port w/o any removal methods (i mean right mouse click in tray on Safety remove)

 

I never just pull a flash drive out without going thru the Safely Remove process. Depending on the setting of the PC you are using it in, it could be using read/write caching between itself and the PC. Unplugging it if it's not dormant could end with bad results. So IMO, skipping the Safely Remove step is a habit you should avoid!

BTW, instead of right clicking to Safely Remove, try left clicking the tray icon once and then directly choose your drive. It will save you some steps...

 

Creer, you'll find by pulling the USB straight out without safely removing it can cause problems on some systems where you insert another USB. You won't be able to see the USB.

Then you may have to go through the process of inserting the one you ripped out quickly, and uninstalling all the drivers, which takes a minute or so.

Best to safely remove it. If it says, 'files are in use', that means you might even have a windows explorer window open to view the contents of the USB, so that must be shut down too.

 

Thank you guys for clarification. Sometimes (when i didn't have time for it) i didn't safely remove my usb drive because i had got notification about 'files are in use' and i didn't know which files this was really frustrating for me