|
|
USB thumb drives.
I have many USB2 & USB3 going back 10+ years, and
now some are "socket specific" on my 10 YO computer motherboard (some USB3s will work on some sockets; even USB2 sockets) and not others. Do these thumb drives last forever, or should their contents be transferred to the latest USB drives? |
USB thumb drives.
Peter Jason wrote:
Do these thumb drives last forever No, like anything with flash storage, they have a limited number of writes, and unlike an SSD they tend not to have wear levelling, so 'write hotspots' will wear out faster. |
USB thumb drives.
Peter Jason wrote:
Do these thumb drives last forever *Nothing* lasts forever, especially not computer peripherals. -- This is probably a bad time to bring this up, but I don't actually like you. |
USB thumb drives.
In article , Peter Jason
wrote: I have many USB2 & USB3 going back 10+ years, and now some are "socket specific" on my 10 YO computer motherboard (some USB3s will work on some sockets; even USB2 sockets) and not others. then the logicboard and/or the devices are either defective or not fully compliant. Do these thumb drives last forever, or should their contents be transferred to the latest USB drives? nothing lasts forever, but the good ones should last a very long time. unfortunately, some are not particularly good, possibly counterfeit. |
USB thumb drives.
In article , Andy Burns
wrote: Do these thumb drives last forever No, like anything with flash storage, they have a limited number of writes, and unlike an SSD they tend not to have wear levelling, so 'write hotspots' will wear out faster. other than the crappy ones, it's longer than anyone can realistically reach. you'd have to hammer it hard to burn it out. |
USB thumb drives.
On Wed, 16 May 2018 18:03:17 -0400, nospam
wrote: In article , Peter Jason wrote: I have many USB2 & USB3 going back 10+ years, and now some are "socket specific" on my 10 YO computer motherboard (some USB3s will work on some sockets; even USB2 sockets) and not others. then the logicboard and/or the devices are either defective or not fully compliant. Do these thumb drives last forever, or should their contents be transferred to the latest USB drives? nothing lasts forever, but the good ones should last a very long time. unfortunately, some are not particularly good, possibly counterfeit. Thansk, what are the good ones? What brand and are there "military-grade" superlative ones? |
USB thumb drives.
In article , Peter Jason
wrote: Do these thumb drives last forever, or should their contents be transferred to the latest USB drives? nothing lasts forever, but the good ones should last a very long time. unfortunately, some are not particularly good, possibly counterfeit. Thansk, what are the good ones? What brand and are there "military-grade" superlative ones? https://www.techradar.com/news/best-usb-flash-drives name brands are the safest, but you could get a lemon. noname brands tend to be crap. be careful about counterfeits. many usb 3 sticks are only slightly faster than usb 2, particularly the cheaper ones. make sure it implements superspeed (and even then, speed varies). as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. if the data is important, have *multiple* copies in multiple places. |
USB thumb drives.
nospam wrote:
In article , Andy Burns wrote: Do these thumb drives last forever No, like anything with flash storage, they have a limited number of writes, and unlike an SSD they tend not to have wear levelling, so 'write hotspots' will wear out faster. other than the crappy ones, it's longer than anyone can realistically reach. you'd have to hammer it hard to burn it out. The only ones I've lost, are ones I verified used TLC chips. Both were 32GB sticks. And with only a small amount of writes to them. So if you were measuring "risk factors", at least some of the older ones could last longer. Because they use SLC or MLC. TLC only has about 3000-3500 writes in it. My 32GB sticks died in about a year of usage. There's no sign in the controller datasheet, of any mention of wear leveling. There are patents on wear leveling, which are likely too expensive to license. The controller in mine, has an 8051 microcontroller, so there is certainly sufficient facilities to write "complex" code if the price was right. Paul |
USB thumb drives.
Peter Jason wrote:
On Wed, 16 May 2018 18:03:17 -0400, nospam wrote: In article , Peter Jason wrote: I have many USB2 & USB3 going back 10+ years, and now some are "socket specific" on my 10 YO computer motherboard (some USB3s will work on some sockets; even USB2 sockets) and not others. then the logicboard and/or the devices are either defective or not fully compliant. Do these thumb drives last forever, or should their contents be transferred to the latest USB drives? nothing lasts forever, but the good ones should last a very long time. unfortunately, some are not particularly good, possibly counterfeit. Thansk, what are the good ones? What brand and are there "military-grade" superlative ones? A couple of years ago, a company appeared out of no-where on the Internet, selling SLC sticks. But they've disappeared, as the USB stick market is price-sensitive, and nobody wanted to pay $100 for a USB stick of relatively low capacity. The company looked like a new entrant, and actually advertised. Most of the companies selling stuff like this, are sitting on a small stockpile of chips, and could run out at any time. If you want some items for "show and tell", Digikey shows a few. Some are actually in stock. https://www.digikey.ca/products/en/m...=1&pageSize=25 Do not accept SLC drives at larger than 8GB capacity. The thinking is, an 8GB one is probably dual channel, with two 4GB chips. Anyone offering a 32GB stick, could easily build such a thing using a single 32GB TLC chip (which you don't want). Also, the write rates should not be too fast. A dual channel one for older SLC sticks, will write at around 15MB/sec or so. The 1GB product for $35 or so, has an interesting datasheet. https://media.digikey.com/pdf/Data%2...eries_Spec.pdf "The drives have the extraordinary endurance of 60,000 program/erase cycles, while most MLC-based USB drives on the market have less than 3,000 program/erase cycles. The Industrial Grade USB Drive is ideal for industrial application such as medical, IPC and automation applications." So that shows you, how a USB stick *should* have worked :-) Not how they work today. ******* A good rule of thumb in 2018 is, *don't* use USB sticks for archival storage. They're for point-to-point transfers via sneaker-net. Don't write 20 years worth of bank statements on them, and bury the sticks in the back yard, because when you dig them up, the data will be gone. Paul |
USB thumb drives.
In article , Paul
wrote: A good rule of thumb in 2018 is, *don't* use USB sticks for archival storage. nothing is truly archival. They're for point-to-point transfers via sneaker-net. Don't write 20 years worth of bank statements on them, and bury the sticks in the back yard, because when you dig them up, the data will be gone. not necessarily. i have 15 year old usb sticks that are still readable. they're just too small to be of much use anymore. the takeaway is never have only one copy of anything important, and ideally on different types of media and in multiple locations. storage is cheap. replacing (or recovering) data is not, if it's even possible. |
USB thumb drives.
On Wed, 16 May 2018 21:16:04 -0400, nospam
wrote: In article , Paul wrote: A good rule of thumb in 2018 is, *don't* use USB sticks for archival storage. nothing is truly archival. They're for point-to-point transfers via sneaker-net. Don't write 20 years worth of bank statements on them, and bury the sticks in the back yard, because when you dig them up, the data will be gone. not necessarily. i have 15 year old usb sticks that are still readable. they're just too small to be of much use anymore. the takeaway is never have only one copy of anything important, and ideally on different types of media and in multiple locations. storage is cheap. replacing (or recovering) data is not, if it's even possible. The optical BluRay disks might be an option by copying a VHD (bitlockered) to them. I'll try this. |
USB thumb drives.
On Thu, 17 May 2018 07:49:55 +1000, Peter Jason wrote:
I have many USB2 & USB3 going back 10+ years, and now some are "socket specific" on my 10 YO computer motherboard (some USB3s will work on some sockets; even USB2 sockets) and not others. Do these thumb drives last forever, or should their contents be transferred to the latest USB drives? The number of write cycles determines the life. Many manufacturers specify 10,000. If that's true, the life expectancy is not likely to be exceeded in normal use, like storing files or using it to transfer files from one device to another. That said, the use to which flash memory is put can also determine it's life expectancy. If, for instance, it is used in a data-logger, back-ups, or recording system where the data is re-written or written-over in the course of normal usage. |
USB thumb drives.
On Thu, 17 May 2018 07:49:55 +1000, Peter Jason wrote:
I have many USB2 & USB3 going back 10+ years, and now some are "socket specific" on my 10 YO computer motherboard (some USB3s will work on some sockets; even USB2 sockets) and not others. Do these thumb drives last forever, or should their contents be transferred to the latest USB drives? Theoretically, they should last a long time but a lot can destroy them like moisture and a seemingly miniscule amount of bending. I'd transfer their contents to more recent, faster USB keys. |
USB thumb drives.
On Thu, 17 May 2018 08:20:39 +1000, Peter Jason wrote:
On Wed, 16 May 2018 18:03:17 -0400, nospam wrote: In article , Peter Jason wrote: I have many USB2 & USB3 going back 10+ years, and now some are "socket specific" on my 10 YO computer motherboard (some USB3s will work on some sockets; even USB2 sockets) and not others. then the logicboard and/or the devices are either defective or not fully compliant. Do these thumb drives last forever, or should their contents be transferred to the latest USB drives? nothing lasts forever, but the good ones should last a very long time. unfortunately, some are not particularly good, possibly counterfeit. Thansk, what are the good ones? What brand and are there "military-grade" superlative ones? The best ones I've used so far are the metal Kingston ones. They can survive being on a keychain inside of your pocket without any kind of issue. Using Bitlocker, you can also encrypt them for the additional security you desire. There ARE military-grade ones which come with encryption but you'll pay a lot more for them. |
USB thumb drives.
"Doomsdrzej" wrote in message
... The best ones I've used so far are the metal Kingston ones. They can survive being on a keychain inside of your pocket without any kind of issue. Using Bitlocker, you can also encrypt them for the additional security you desire. There ARE military-grade ones which come with encryption but you'll pay a lot more for them. I've got a fairly cheap 4 GB thumb drive, dating from a time when 4 GB was *huge*. And it still works perfectly although I keep it on my car keyring (so I can never forget it if I visit anyone), so it lives most of the time in my pocket next to all the keys on the keyring. The only modification I had to make was when the mounting broke off soon after I got it and I had to drill a hole through the case to thread the keyring through. That modification, and the memory itself, has lasted probably about 10 years so far. It gets written to and partly erased whenever an installation file for a program gets updated (I carry around me all the free software that I install for people - Firefox, AVG / Avast antvirus etc - to avoid having to download it over their possibly very slow internet connection). |
USB thumb drives.
On Thu, 17 May 2018 17:06:57 +0100, "NY" wrote:
"Doomsdrzej" wrote in message .. . The best ones I've used so far are the metal Kingston ones. They can survive being on a keychain inside of your pocket without any kind of issue. Using Bitlocker, you can also encrypt them for the additional security you desire. There ARE military-grade ones which come with encryption but you'll pay a lot more for them. I've got a fairly cheap 4 GB thumb drive, dating from a time when 4 GB was *huge*. And it still works perfectly although I keep it on my car keyring (so I can never forget it if I visit anyone), so it lives most of the time in my pocket next to all the keys on the keyring. The only modification I had to make was when the mounting broke off soon after I got it and I had to drill a hole through the case to thread the keyring through. That modification, and the memory itself, has lasted probably about 10 years so far. It gets written to and partly erased whenever an installation file for a program gets updated (I carry around me all the free software that I install for people - Firefox, AVG / Avast antvirus etc - to avoid having to download it over their possibly very slow internet connection). Every USB key I've ever owned has had that cheap plastic part which allows you to keep it on a key chain break regardless of whether it was on a key chain or not. Only this new metal Kingston one manages to keep its shape. It's also a good 128GB and fast so I can't complain. I'd recommend it to anyone. |
USB thumb drives.
"Peter Jason" wrote in message
... Do these thumb drives last forever, or should their contents be transferred to the latest USB drives? I've replaced a grand total of '1' since USB thumb drives became available. - the failure rate wasn't age...fell out of my shirt pocket into a can of paint. Did have another one, an ancient Memorex 1GB drive where the drive assembly detached from the plastic casing - a few tiny drops of Gorilla glue applied with a toothpick and tiny C-clamp for a few hours fixed(it). *Still working as a USB for Acronis True Image 2017 Boot Media -- ....w¡ñ§±¤ñ ms mvp windows 2007-2016, insider mvp 2016-2018 |
USB thumb drives.
Doomsdrzej wrote:
On Thu, 17 May 2018 17:06:57 +0100, "NY" wrote: "Doomsdrzej" wrote in message .. . The best ones I've used so far are the metal Kingston ones. They can survive being on a keychain inside of your pocket without any kind of issue. Using Bitlocker, you can also encrypt them for the additional security you desire. There ARE military-grade ones which come with encryption but you'll pay a lot more for them. I've got a fairly cheap 4 GB thumb drive, dating from a time when 4 GB was *huge*. And it still works perfectly although I keep it on my car keyring (so I can never forget it if I visit anyone), so it lives most of the time in my pocket next to all the keys on the keyring. The only modification I had to make was when the mounting broke off soon after I got it and I had to drill a hole through the case to thread the keyring through. That modification, and the memory itself, has lasted probably about 10 years so far. It gets written to and partly erased whenever an installation file for a program gets updated (I carry around me all the free software that I install for people - Firefox, AVG / Avast antvirus etc - to avoid having to download it over their possibly very slow internet connection). Every USB key I've ever owned has had that cheap plastic part which allows you to keep it on a key chain break regardless of whether it was on a key chain or not. Only this new metal Kingston one manages to keep its shape. It's also a good 128GB and fast so I can't complain. I'd recommend it to anyone. Which model is that metal Kingston USB flash drive? I hate it when they put on their cover caps! That's a stupid spot to put if the drive fall out. Who cares about the caps. :P -- Quote of the Week: "The fact that we can't easily foresee clues that would betray an intelligence a million millennia farther down the road suggests that we're like ants trying to discover humans. Ask yourself: Would ants ever recognize houses, cars, or fire hydrants as the work of advanced biology?" --Seth Shostak Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly. /\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.home.dhs.org / /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail privately. If credit- | |o o| | ing, then please kindly use Ant nickname and URL/link. \ _ / ( ) |
USB thumb drives.
|
USB thumb drives.
|
USB thumb drives.
In article ,
Jason wrote: nothing lasts forever, but the good ones should last a very long time. unfortunately, some are not particularly good, possibly counterfeit. A friend and former colleague is a very experienced EE who works independently as a software and circuit designer and also writes technical articles on computer topics for magazines that you and I probably read (and journal articles we probably don't...). I have asked him the same questions about these gadgets. His response: "To a first approximation ALL such devices on eBay are counterfeit." he should stick to designing circuits rather than assuming everything on ebay is fake. it's true that some are, but definitely not all. Be careful. Buy them from places like Newegg or Frys. newegg is ok, but frys is definitely not because they sell returned merchandise as new, among other sleazy tactics. while it might not be counterfeit, it is probably defective, likely why it was returned. |
USB thumb drives.
|
USB thumb drives.
"Jason" wrote in message
... In article , lid says... nothing lasts forever, but the good ones should last a very long time. unfortunately, some are not particularly good, possibly counterfeit. A friend and former colleague is a very experienced EE who works independently as a software and circuit designer and also writes technical articles on computer topics for magazines that you and I probably read (and journal articles we probably don't...). I have asked him the same questions about these gadgets. His response: "To a first approximation ALL such devices on eBay are counterfeit." Be careful. Buy them from places like Newegg or Frys. I have a 1TB thumb drive, bought me as a present at a cost of £10 (13.5$). Considering its price, I was dubious as to its capacity. Windows shows it as 917GB with 489GB used & 428GB free space. The 489GB was the most I could scrape together & took nearly a day to write to the drive. -- Regards wasbit |
USB thumb drives.
"Ant" wrote in message
... Which model is that metal Kingston USB flash drive? I hate it when they put on their cover caps! That's a stupid spot to put if the drive fall out. Who cares about the caps. :P Yes, the part that should be attached to the keyring is the drive itself. The drive should not be "attached" only by the force of the cap which is click-fitted to the drive. I've seen a few drives like than, and it's a very naive design, with such an obvious weak point. My drive doesn't have a cap: the whole circuit board and USB plug retracts inside the outer housing which is attached to the keyring. Even better: you can't lose the cap. |
USB thumb drives.
wasbit wrote:
"Jason" wrote in message ... In article , lid says... nothing lasts forever, but the good ones should last a very long time. unfortunately, some are not particularly good, possibly counterfeit. A friend and former colleague is a very experienced EE who works independently as a software and circuit designer and also writes technical articles on computer topics for magazines that you and I probably read (and journal articles we probably don't...). I have asked him the same questions about these gadgets. His response: "To a first approximation ALL such devices on eBay are counterfeit." Be careful. Buy them from places like Newegg or Frys. I have a 1TB thumb drive, bought me as a present at a cost of £10 (13.5$). Considering its price, I was dubious as to its capacity. Windows shows it as 917GB with 489GB used & 428GB free space. The 489GB was the most I could scrape together & took nearly a day to write to the drive. You can use fsutil to make a test file on your source drive for testing. Now, watch in amazement, how (assuming this fits on the remaining space on C: ), the file takes no time at all to create. If you use the 7ZIP right-click CRC32 hash calculator, you'll be able to read this file off your C: drive at 800MB/sec (even though the storage device might be capable of much less). fsutil file createnew C:\users\wasbit\Downloads\big.bin 900000000000 The source drive should be NTFS for this. Once the file is created on the source drive, *now*, use File Explorer to copy it to the target device, and then the real testing will begin. This allows crafting precisely sized test files. The source file (big.bin) is likely "sparse" and the file is technically filled with zeros. This doesn't matter to the destination drive though, which will have to do the usual amount of work (as Windows isn't smart enough to preserve a sparse file during copy, and expands the fake contents as needed). Sparse files can be made very quickly. Sparse files take the normal amount of time to copy (copy will be limited by the destination write rate). ******* I would be interested in the brand and model number of this mythically large (13.5$) storage devices. Was the brand Godzilla or Mothra ? Did it come from the ocean ? Was it angry ? Paul |
USB thumb drives.
....w¡ñ§±¤ñ wrote:
"Peter Jason" wrote in message ... Do these thumb drives last forever, or should their contents be transferred to the latest USB drives? I've replaced a grand total of '1' since USB thumb drives became available. - the failure rate wasn't age...fell out of my shirt pocket into a can of paint. 0 failures here. Same for memory cards, mostly (Micro)SD, but also some SmartMedia ones. One SD card got - partially - rewritten every day for well over 10 years. got replaced because it became too small (only 1GB). Did have another one, an ancient Memorex 1GB drive where the drive assembly detached from the plastic casing - a few tiny drops of Gorilla glue applied with a toothpick and tiny C-clamp for a few hours fixed(it). *Still working as a USB for Acronis True Image 2017 Boot Media 512MB USB thumb drive as Macrium Reflect (FREE) boot medium. |
USB thumb drives.
On 5/18/2018 8:52 AM, Wolf K wrote:
On 2018-05-17 22:59, Jason wrote: In article , lid says... Â* it's true that some are, but definitely not all. "to a first approximation" That's two significant figures... -Â* sure, some isn't but why take the chance? Precisely (er, um, not ;-) ) I think depending completely on thumbdrives for back up is foolish, however using a thumb drive as a temporary back up would be acceptable. When considering the cost of a thumbdrive, the cost of a disk, and the value of the data, there is no cost difference. I have two computers and an external drive. The data on the two computers is synced so both computers have the same information. In addition the one computer is backed up using the Windows 10 File History to an external disk. When Travelling where I collecting a lot of data, I maintain back the data up to an Card or thumbdrive. If I really have a lot of data, I will back up the data to my computer, a thumbdrive and to a card. -- 2018: The year we learn to play the great game of Euchre |
USB thumb drives.
On Thu, 17 May 2018 09:12:54 -0400, Doomsdrzej wrote:
On Thu, 17 May 2018 07:49:55 +1000, Peter Jason wrote: I have many USB2 & USB3 going back 10+ years, and now some are "socket specific" on my 10 YO computer motherboard (some USB3s will work on some sockets; even USB2 sockets) and not others. Do these thumb drives last forever, or should their contents be transferred to the latest USB drives? Theoretically, they should last a long time but a lot can destroy them like moisture and a seemingly miniscule amount of bending. I'd transfer their contents to more recent, faster USB keys. I have had two fail on me. If you store them in your pocket, make sure that they are capped and that the cap can not easily come off. Pocket lint and bits do not treat them well. That seems to be have nailed one. If you want to be very careful with them, try a pill bottle. I have used the plastic, childproof-top variety to very good effect. Attaching a lanyard to the bottle and a beltloop is also useful. Sincerely, Gene Wirchenko |
USB thumb drives.
Doomsdrzej wrote:
On Thu, 17 May 2018 07:49:55 +1000, Peter Jason wrote: I have many USB2 & USB3 going back 10+ years, and now some are "socket specific" on my 10 YO computer motherboard (some USB3s will work on some sockets; even USB2 sockets) and not others. Do these thumb drives last forever, or should their contents be transferred to the latest USB drives? Theoretically, they should last a long time but a lot can destroy them like moisture and a seemingly miniscule amount of bending. I'd transfer their contents to more recent, faster USB keys. They make USB devices for every occasion. https://www.everythingusb.com/rugged-drives.html https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Flash.../dp/B0136H5YUE Paul |
USB thumb drives.
The best ones I've used so far are the metal Kingston ones. They can
survive being on a keychain inside of your pocket without any kind of issue. Using Bitlocker, you can also encrypt them for the additional security you desire. There ARE military-grade ones which come with encryption but you'll pay a lot more for them. I've got a fairly cheap 4 GB thumb drive, dating from a time when 4 GB was *huge*. And it still works perfectly although I keep it on my car keyring (so I can never forget it if I visit anyone), so it lives most of the time in my pocket next to all the keys on the keyring. The only modification I had to make was when the mounting broke off soon after I got it and I had to drill a hole through the case to thread the keyring through. That modification, and the memory itself, has lasted probably about 10 years so far. It gets written to and partly erased whenever an installation file for a program gets updated (I carry around me all the free software that I install for people - Firefox, AVG / Avast antvirus etc - to avoid having to download it over their possibly very slow internet connection). Every USB key I've ever owned has had that cheap plastic part which allows you to keep it on a key chain break regardless of whether it was on a key chain or not. Only this new metal Kingston one manages to keep its shape. It's also a good 128GB and fast so I can't complain. I'd recommend it to anyone. Which model is that metal Kingston USB flash drive? I hate it when they put on their cover caps! That's a stupid spot to put if the drive fall out. Who cares about the caps. :P I don't know the model but its face says DTSE9 G2. Of course, the writing is barely visible. It's a Kingston and it's a metal casing. Ah, https://www.kingston.com/us/usb/pers...siness/dtse9g2 ... I had a similiar one from SP brand like this https://www.silicon-power.com/web/product-Mobile_C80 but a smaller size. They got hot. :( Does Kingston get hot too after long usage? -- Quote of the Week: "The fact that we can't easily foresee clues that would betray an intelligence a million millennia farther down the road suggests that we're like ants trying to discover humans. Ask yourself: Would ants ever recognize houses, cars, or fire hydrants as the work of advanced biology?" --Seth Shostak Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly. /\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.home.dhs.org / /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail privately. If credit- | |o o| | ing, then please kindly use Ant nickname and URL/link. \ _ / ( ) |
USB thumb drives.
Paul wrote:
Doomsdrzej wrote: On Thu, 17 May 2018 07:49:55 +1000, Peter Jason wrote: I have many USB2 & USB3 going back 10+ years, and now some are "socket specific" on my 10 YO computer motherboard (some USB3s will work on some sockets; even USB2 sockets) and not others. Do these thumb drives last forever, or should their contents be transferred to the latest USB drives? Theoretically, they should last a long time but a lot can destroy them like moisture and a seemingly miniscule amount of bending. I'd transfer their contents to more recent, faster USB keys. They make USB devices for every occasion. https://www.everythingusb.com/rugged-drives.html "403 Forbidden nginx" https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Flash.../dp/B0136H5YUE That reminds me of these https://www.amazon.com/Clocky-Origin.../dp/B000TAS9XQ ... ;) -- Quote of the Week: "The fact that we can't easily foresee clues that would betray an intelligence a million millennia farther down the road suggests that we're like ants trying to discover humans. Ask yourself: Would ants ever recognize houses, cars, or fire hydrants as the work of advanced biology?" --Seth Shostak Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly. /\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.home.dhs.org / /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail privately. If credit- | |o o| | ing, then please kindly use Ant nickname and URL/link. \ _ / ( ) |
USB thumb drives.
Frank Slootweg wrote:
...w¡ñ§±¤ñ wrote: "Peter Jason" wrote in message ... Do these thumb drives last forever, or should their contents be transferred to the latest USB drives? I've replaced a grand total of '1' since USB thumb drives became available. - the failure rate wasn't age...fell out of my shirt pocket into a can of paint. 0 failures here. Same for memory cards, mostly (Micro)SD, but also some SmartMedia ones. I must have bad luck. I have had SanDisk 1 GB, tiny PNY, and a SP USB flash drives died on me. The last two were killed when I was trying to install Mac OS into them. They got very hot. I was told that was a very bad idea. :( However, my very old USB flash drives (no brand 64 MB and 128 MB) and SanDisk 256 MB still work though! -- Quote of the Week: "The fact that we can't easily foresee clues that would betray an intelligence a million millennia farther down the road suggests that we're like ants trying to discover humans. Ask yourself: Would ants ever recognize houses, cars, or fire hydrants as the work of advanced biology?" --Seth Shostak Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly. /\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.home.dhs.org / /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail privately. If credit- | |o o| | ing, then please kindly use Ant nickname and URL/link. \ _ / ( ) |
USB thumb drives.
Ant wrote:
Paul wrote: Doomsdrzej wrote: On Thu, 17 May 2018 07:49:55 +1000, Peter Jason wrote: I have many USB2 & USB3 going back 10+ years, and now some are "socket specific" on my 10 YO computer motherboard (some USB3s will work on some sockets; even USB2 sockets) and not others. Do these thumb drives last forever, or should their contents be transferred to the latest USB drives? Theoretically, they should last a long time but a lot can destroy them like moisture and a seemingly miniscule amount of bending. I'd transfer their contents to more recent, faster USB keys. They make USB devices for every occasion. https://www.everythingusb.com/rugged-drives.html "403 Forbidden nginx" https://www.amazon.com/Corsair-Flash.../dp/B0136H5YUE That reminds me of these https://www.amazon.com/Clocky-Origin.../dp/B000TAS9XQ ... ;) Nginx does that, when a client isn't capable of completing https protocol properly. A poster boy for this, is dslreports, which should throw a 403 for you as well. Some sites, if you attempt to use http, they switch to https and try and reload the page. http://www.dslreports.com/faq/15439 ******* If you use a slightly better browser, this will work. https://www.everythingusb.com/rugged-drives.html And a part of this behavior, is ensuring your web browser is modern enough, to play all the advertising flawlessly. Profit. Paul |
USB thumb drives.
"Paul" wrote in message
... wasbit wrote: "Jason" wrote in message ... In article , lid says... nothing lasts forever, but the good ones should last a very long time. unfortunately, some are not particularly good, possibly counterfeit. A friend and former colleague is a very experienced EE who works independently as a software and circuit designer and also writes technical articles on computer topics for magazines that you and I probably read (and journal articles we probably don't...). I have asked him the same questions about these gadgets. His response: "To a first approximation ALL such devices on eBay are counterfeit." Be careful. Buy them from places like Newegg or Frys. I have a 1TB thumb drive, bought me as a present at a cost of £10 (13.5$). Considering its price, I was dubious as to its capacity. Windows shows it as 917GB with 489GB used & 428GB free space. The 489GB was the most I could scrape together & took nearly a day to write to the drive. You can use fsutil to make a test file on your source drive for testing. Now, watch in amazement, how (assuming this fits on the remaining space on C: ), the file takes no time at all to create. If you use the 7ZIP right-click CRC32 hash calculator, you'll be able to read this file off your C: drive at 800MB/sec (even though the storage device might be capable of much less). fsutil file createnew C:\users\wasbit\Downloads\big.bin 900000000000 The source drive should be NTFS for this. Once the file is created on the source drive, *now*, use File Explorer to copy it to the target device, and then the real testing will begin. This allows crafting precisely sized test files. The source file (big.bin) is likely "sparse" and the file is technically filled with zeros. This doesn't matter to the destination drive though, which will have to do the usual amount of work (as Windows isn't smart enough to preserve a sparse file during copy, and expands the fake contents as needed). Sparse files can be made very quickly. Sparse files take the normal amount of time to copy (copy will be limited by the destination write rate). ******* I would be interested in the brand and model number of this mythically large (13.5$) storage devices. Was the brand Godzilla or Mothra ? Did it come from the ocean ? Was it angry ? I've requested info on the flash drive. Its similar to this one - https://www.ebay.com/itm/2TB-1TB-Swi....c100009.m1982 Device Manager shows: Generic Flash Disk USB Device USBSTOR\DiskGeneric_Flash_Disk______8.00 USBSTOR\DiskGeneric_Flash_Disk______ USBSTOR\DiskGeneric_ USBSTOR\Generic_Flash_Disk______8 Generic_Flash_Disk______8 USBSTOR\GenDisk GenDisk Event Info 2017.03.20 Device USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Generic&Prod_Flash_Disk&Rev_8.00\ EB541BB0&0 was configured. Driver Name: disk.inf Class Guid: {4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} Driver Date: 06/21/2006 Driver Version: 6.3.9600.18203 Driver Provider: Microsoft Driver Section: disk_install.NT Driver Rank: 0xFF0006 Matching Device Id: GenDisk Outranked Drivers: disk.inf:GenDisk:00FF2002 Device Updated: false Could only create a 37GB bin file on C:\ but managed to create a 372GB bin file on D:\ 37GB bin file would take an estimated 90 minutes to copy so at that rate it should take 15 hours for the larger file. 7Zip calculated checksum at 1373-1379 MB/sec. Thanks Paul. Don't know what I've done but enjoyed playing. -- Regards wasbit |
USB thumb drives.
wasbit wrote:
"Paul" wrote in message ... wasbit wrote: "Jason" wrote in message ... In article , lid says... nothing lasts forever, but the good ones should last a very long time. unfortunately, some are not particularly good, possibly counterfeit. A friend and former colleague is a very experienced EE who works independently as a software and circuit designer and also writes technical articles on computer topics for magazines that you and I probably read (and journal articles we probably don't...). I have asked him the same questions about these gadgets. His response: "To a first approximation ALL such devices on eBay are counterfeit." Be careful. Buy them from places like Newegg or Frys. I have a 1TB thumb drive, bought me as a present at a cost of £10 (13.5$). Considering its price, I was dubious as to its capacity. Windows shows it as 917GB with 489GB used & 428GB free space. The 489GB was the most I could scrape together & took nearly a day to write to the drive. You can use fsutil to make a test file on your source drive for testing. Now, watch in amazement, how (assuming this fits on the remaining space on C: ), the file takes no time at all to create. If you use the 7ZIP right-click CRC32 hash calculator, you'll be able to read this file off your C: drive at 800MB/sec (even though the storage device might be capable of much less). fsutil file createnew C:\users\wasbit\Downloads\big.bin 900000000000 The source drive should be NTFS for this. Once the file is created on the source drive, *now*, use File Explorer to copy it to the target device, and then the real testing will begin. This allows crafting precisely sized test files. The source file (big.bin) is likely "sparse" and the file is technically filled with zeros. This doesn't matter to the destination drive though, which will have to do the usual amount of work (as Windows isn't smart enough to preserve a sparse file during copy, and expands the fake contents as needed). Sparse files can be made very quickly. Sparse files take the normal amount of time to copy (copy will be limited by the destination write rate). ******* I would be interested in the brand and model number of this mythically large (13.5$) storage devices. Was the brand Godzilla or Mothra ? Did it come from the ocean ? Was it angry ? I've requested info on the flash drive. Its similar to this one - https://www.ebay.com/itm/2TB-1TB-Swi....c100009.m1982 Device Manager shows: Generic Flash Disk USB Device USBSTOR\DiskGeneric_Flash_Disk______8.00 USBSTOR\DiskGeneric_Flash_Disk______ USBSTOR\DiskGeneric_ USBSTOR\Generic_Flash_Disk______8 Generic_Flash_Disk______8 USBSTOR\GenDisk GenDisk Event Info 2017.03.20 Device USBSTOR\Disk&Ven_Generic&Prod_Flash_Disk&Rev_8.00\ EB541BB0&0 was configured. Driver Name: disk.inf Class Guid: {4D36E967-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318} Driver Date: 06/21/2006 Driver Version: 6.3.9600.18203 Driver Provider: Microsoft Driver Section: disk_install.NT Driver Rank: 0xFF0006 Matching Device Id: GenDisk Outranked Drivers: disk.inf:GenDisk:00FF2002 Device Updated: false Could only create a 37GB bin file on C:\ but managed to create a 372GB bin file on D:\ 37GB bin file would take an estimated 90 minutes to copy so at that rate it should take 15 hours for the larger file. 7Zip calculated checksum at 1373-1379 MB/sec. Thanks Paul. Don't know what I've done but enjoyed playing. Check out the reviews here. Quite variable results. https://www.amazon.ca/Flash-Drive-Me...ews/B01KOFOUCO The seller might be selling "two terabit" sticks, but so far, nobody has demonstrated operation at that size either (i.e. it's a 256GB stick). Time to collect some of these. The objective of these, is to detect aliasing automatically, without wasting a lot of your time. One tool actually tries to read the flash chip ID, which I think is pretty cool. https://www.raymond.cc/blog/test-and...-with-h2testw/ Paul |
USB thumb drives.
|
USB thumb drives.
"wasbit" wrote:
I have a 1TB thumb drive, bought me as a present at a cost of £10 (13.5$). Considering its price, I was dubious as to its capacity. Windows shows it as 917GB Geez, I didn't know they came that big! 1TB would be in decimal figures (10**12), 917GB would be in binary (2** 30 is one GB (1,073,741,824), times 917 is somewhere around 1 trillion. Just like hard drives. -- Tim Slattery tim at risingdove dot com |
USB thumb drives.
Ken Blake wrote:
On Fri, 18 May 2018 14:45:42 -0700, wrote: I have several HP 8gb devices, metal cases, and NO keyring hole at all. I also have a Lexar 128 GB USB3 device that is the size of a USB Mouse receiver, so clearly also NO keyring hole. Hell, IT is barely big enough to grab hold of when trying to remove it! I have one even smaller. It's completely flat, perhaps 1/16 of an inch thick, and about the size of a small postage stamp. If I remember correctly, it's 64KB. I got it as a distribution of a piece of software. 64 KB?!?! -- Quote of the Week: "The fact that we can't easily foresee clues that would betray an intelligence a million millennia farther down the road suggests that we're like ants trying to discover humans. Ask yourself: Would ants ever recognize houses, cars, or fire hydrants as the work of advanced biology?" --Seth Shostak Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly. /\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.home.dhs.org / /\ /\ \ Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail privately. If credit- | |o o| | ing, then please kindly use Ant nickname and URL/link. \ _ / ( ) |
USB thumb drives.
Tim Slattery wrote:
"wasbit" wrote: I have a 1TB thumb drive, bought me as a present at a cost of £10 (13.5$). Considering its price, I was dubious as to its capacity. Windows shows it as 917GB Geez, I didn't know they came that big! 1TB would be in decimal figures (10**12), 917GB would be in binary (2** 30 is one GB (1,073,741,824), times 917 is somewhere around 1 trillion. Just like hard drives. It's not the big, it's the cheap that matters. A 2TB drive here, is $650.00, versus the $13 for the proposed USB stick. A factor of fifty in price. And according to the article text, these chips only go into vertically oriented designs, with the Samsung name on the packaging (not in third-party USB sticks). https://www.anandtech.com/show/12408...2tb-ssd-review In that example, strings of bits are arranged in vertical strings defined by the layer count. The die is full of holes, plated up, to make a three-dimensional storage device. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_...#Vertical_NAND That Samsung chip uses 64 layer dies (512gbit total), with 16 dies stacked on top of one another to give a 1TByte chip. Those chips would not fit inside a USB stick, neither would there be room for much else in there. And the stick would likely overheat on read/write :-) (The power on one of the write tests, was up around 10-11W.) That 2TB M.2 is actually single sided. I couldn't believe it. The 4TB one is probably a double-sided design. Paul |
| All times are GMT +1. The time now is 05:47 AM. |
Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.6.4
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.
Copyright © 2004 - 2006 PCbanter
Comments are property of their posters