Question on USB Memory Sticks..

[SE14man]

Hi there,

I have never really known how stable USB memory sticks are for using them as storage.

they have dropped so much in price now too...

I was wondering if they'd be a lot less likely to get data corruption like hard drives as hard drives have moving parts.

am i right that usb memory sticks don't?

Was wondering what cna cause data corruption on a usb memory stick and if formatting would fix it and make me able to put more data back onto it and it will all be ok?

I am asking this because i want to buy a 64GB memory stick and was wondering what a good brand is to go for?

I would imagine they're a lot less liely to get data corruption than hard drives due to the fact they dont have moving parts..

Please correct me if im wrong though!

Thanks ppl

[Hoser Rob]

Sorry, but you're quite mistaken. USB drives are not nearly as reliable as HDDs. Do not use them as an archive medium.

[edDV]

Although no moving parts, flash memory suffers "wear" after a repeated record-erase cycles. Eventually they slow down and lose data. Maintain a backup.

[Bjs]

Just repeat "one flash and your ash" ... at least hard drives are serviceable to a point ... flash drives aren't.

[betwixt]

...and NEVER format them. If you need to clean them out, just delete everything. In order to spread the load on the cell matrix the manufacturers format deliberately distributes data so each area gets as near as possible to equal usage. If you format them using a conventional format program you will revert them to working like a hard disk and some addresses will die from overuse while others never get touched.

Brian.

[jman98]

I strongly disagree with some of the advice above. As with anything, your mileage may vary.

I've got a variety of USB drives ranging from 512 MB up to 128 GB. I've NEVER had an issue with any of them. Yes, eventually what edDV says will happen is certainly true, but if you just dump stuff on a USB stick, remove it and put it in storage, you're not going to find out 5 years later that it's suddenly unreadable.

Here's the key to USB sticks. 1) Buy only from reliable manufacturers. I only buy from Patriot. Theirs work reliably. 2) Be sure to properly eject the drive before you remove it. Do those 2 things and you'll be fine. We get a lot of bitching here all the time from people crying about how they got screwed because they had issues with some USB stick but I've never had an issue. See my 2 rules. Follow them. You'll be fine.

[SE14man]

Fantastic guys uve answered me questions!
If i have hard drives (mainly Western Digital Blac Edition) stores not use forl ike 5 years. Can they deteriorate on their own and suddenly become unreadable or make data corrupt when i next plug it into a pc in like 5 years time or whatever?

Thanks very much.

[Hoser Rob]

Sorry jman but you're in the minority. Every tech support person I know would never use USB sticks for archival storage.

Plus everything you said about being careful about flash drives applies just as well to HDs.

[Moontrash]

I have to agree here. The majority in this thread and around everywhere else will say that USB flash is just not a reliable or safe way to keep stuff for long periods. Reason why is most don't last. I do agree however on what jman98 mentions about quality. I think that has lot to do with it. I've had compact flash cards last a few weeks and dead. I think is gotta do with the brand. Kingston..Patriot etc...stick with the brands that cost a hair more. If not you'll regret it in the end.

Got 2 Patriot 16gb's still goin after about a year and a few Adata's still kickin. Got a Kingston thats slowin down but still goin after 2 years I believe. This batch has been the best luck I've had with these thumbs in a long time.

[jman98]

The internal lubricant on hard drives can wear out. Most here who use hard drives for storage replace them every 5 years or so. And note that these are drives that are not accessed regularly.

I'm not suggesting per se that flash drives be used for archival storage above other means, but it depends on what exactly is going on with the stored device. Do I believe that if I dump a video file to a flash drive and properly remove it and store it that I can bring it out of storage 5-10 years from now and expect the file to play perfectly? Yes I do.

[AaronDude]

I do think flash drives and memory cards are just as good or better than any other storage. I've never had a memory card or flash drive fail or slow down. It takes probably thousands of writes and erases in the same spot to kill a flash drive. hard drives are limited in this way too it just takes more writes/erases to kill the area.. I've had much more problems with hard drives failing or not working properly. The thing is flash memory is still actually not that cheap although it's getting cheaper. It's also slow to transfer files to and from, at least for me.

[edDV]

The internal lubricant on hard drives can wear out. Most here who use hard drives for storage replace them every 5 years or so. And note that these are drives that are not accessed regularly.

This was first discovered by broadcasters (mid 2000s) that archived to hard disks. If you fill a drive and put it on the shelf, the dry lubricants deteriorate causing difficult retrieval years later. The data isn't lost but recovery may mean a clean room drive disassembly. The lubricant design assumed continuous use.

The recommended practice was to spin up the archive drives periodically to keep the lubricants functional.

I haven't heard whether this problem has been corrected on newer drives.

[Constant Gardener]

I see nothing in the original post about archival storage. For casual use, flash is just fine, and unlike a hard drive, it can take a lot of abuse. I usually buy Kingston products; occasionally a device becomes ornery and needs reformatting, but I've had no outright failures. I have also revived many USB sticks that others have claimed defective - and they all work fine, too. I do have an elderly mp3 player that has lost a 16 MB block of memory, but the remaining 240 MB works correctly.

As for long life - put a hard drive, a USB stick, an SD card, and a burned DVD in a box and leave for fifty years. Which ones will still work? Perhaps one of our younger contributors could do the experiment.

[edDV]

... I usually buy Kingston products; occasionally a device becomes ornery and needs reformatting, but I've had no outright failures. I have also revived many USB sticks that others have claimed defective - and they all work fine, too.
...

Those are all failures. Just because you can "revive it" doesn't mean the data is recovered.

[Constant Gardener]

Let me rephrase that. Outside of users who pull out the USB stick before writing has completed, and software that goes beserk, I have never seen a flash failure. Perhaps I've been lucky.

[SE14man]

If i do have a memory stick / hard drive and its close to failing.
Would i be doing the right thing to quickly recover all data from it to a fresh hard drive. So my main hard drive is then empty (the corrupt one) then would i be able to use a piece of software which fixes the hard drive and makes sure that any data put onto it avoids those sectors which have occured the damage?

This is a question ive been wanting to ask for quite some time and would love an answer.

I do have a hard drive which keeps tleling me 'Delayed Write Fail' tells me its dying. What should i od in order to make sure my data is all recovered intact and (if posible) actually repair the drive myself with some software so its usable again?

Thanks so much guys for your help.

[AaronDude]

There isn't really any software that is going to fix a hardware related problem. You should always have two copies of things on whatever devices you use like a flash drive, memory card or harddrive. Two copies in other words on at least two different devices. You have to prepare before it happens because when it happens it's too late.

[TBoneit]

I have had to repair USB sticks that were in everyday use in the past for myself and others.

One repair failed, bad electronics most likely from static electricity
The others were repaired by opening them up and resoldering the USB plug contacts back onto the circuit board.

Although a bit more money rather than a flash drive I might get a SSD drive. However what I have done is burn anything I want to keep to Verbatim BluRay blanks and keep a copy on a external drive or two.

Since I Power down the EHDs when I'm not using them I expect them to hold up too.

YMMV
Cheers

BTW a failing hard drive is a waste of time and space to try and repair for permanent usage. I would never trust it again.