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-   -   USB thumb drives. (http://www.pcbanter.net/showthread.php?t=1104176)

Peter Jason May 16th 18 10:49 PM

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?

Andy Burns[_6_] May 16th 18 10:57 PM

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.

Auric__ May 16th 18 11:01 PM

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.

nospam May 16th 18 11:03 PM

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.

nospam May 16th 18 11:03 PM

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.

Peter Jason May 16th 18 11:20 PM

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?

nospam May 16th 18 11:38 PM

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.

Paul[_32_] May 17th 18 12:23 AM

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

Paul[_32_] May 17th 18 12:38 AM

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

nospam May 17th 18 02:16 AM

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.

Peter Jason May 17th 18 05:51 AM

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.

default[_2_] May 17th 18 10:11 AM

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.

Doomsdrzej May 17th 18 02:12 PM

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.

Doomsdrzej May 17th 18 02:17 PM

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.

NY May 17th 18 05:06 PM

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).



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