....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.