Comments on: Can a USB Thumbdrive Wear Out? http://www.friedbeef.com/can-a-usb-thumbdrive-wear-out/ Solving Everyday Problems With Simple Technology - Freeware, Productivity, Useful Tips & More Fri, 19 Mar 2010 11:46:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Vijay - Meditation Techniques Guide http://www.friedbeef.com/can-a-usb-thumbdrive-wear-out/comment-page-1/#comment-612356 Vijay - Meditation Techniques Guide Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:55:21 +0000 http://www.friedbeef.com/?p=34#comment-612356 Nice post! Really useful information on how much usage and data transfer would affect the USB thumbdrive lifespan....Keep up the great work! Nice post! Really useful information on how much usage and data transfer would affect the USB thumbdrive lifespan….Keep up the great work!

]]> By: Scyleung http://www.friedbeef.com/can-a-usb-thumbdrive-wear-out/comment-page-1/#comment-611894 Scyleung Fri, 02 Oct 2009 12:49:39 +0000 http://www.friedbeef.com/?p=34#comment-611894 So if you just be normal data transfer, then a medium quality thumbdrive is going to last longer than you.... So if you just be normal data transfer, then a medium quality thumbdrive is going to last longer than you….

]]> By: Spruceman http://www.friedbeef.com/can-a-usb-thumbdrive-wear-out/comment-page-1/#comment-197711 Spruceman Tue, 04 Mar 2008 19:59:04 +0000 http://www.friedbeef.com/?p=34#comment-197711 The big question arising from the spreadsheet is which drives are of which (low, medium, high) quality. I suspect that price alone is not the main determinant of such, as is the case for many classes of products. Any sources of "mean writes before failure" or whatever for the different brands? If so, I hope the numbers are more realistic than those old MTBFs they used to have in hard drive ads. How good are those el cheapo 8GB flash drives that MicroCenter sells for under $30? The big question arising from the spreadsheet is which drives are of which (low, medium, high) quality. I suspect that price alone is not the main determinant of such, as is the case for many classes of products. Any sources of “mean writes before failure” or whatever for the different brands? If so, I hope the numbers are more realistic than those old MTBFs they used to have in hard drive ads. How good are those el cheapo 8GB flash drives that MicroCenter sells for under $30?

]]> By: robin c http://www.friedbeef.com/can-a-usb-thumbdrive-wear-out/comment-page-1/#comment-60 robin c Mon, 08 May 2006 10:36:00 +0000 http://www.friedbeef.com/?p=34#comment-60 I believe, (Not certain) that when a drive "wears out" it will become unwriteable, but reading from it will still work, so you should be able to retrieve your data and move it to a new drive. Once again, I'm not certain this is correct. I believe, (Not certain) that when a drive “wears out” it will become unwriteable, but reading from it will still work, so you should be able to retrieve your data and move it to a new drive. Once again, I’m not certain this is correct.

]]> By: Kiltak http://www.friedbeef.com/can-a-usb-thumbdrive-wear-out/comment-page-1/#comment-59 Kiltak Mon, 08 May 2006 02:18:00 +0000 http://www.friedbeef.com/?p=34#comment-59 Most portable apps that can be stored on a flash drive aren't mission critical. Most of the time, they are tech tools that can be usefull pretty much anywhere. Who cares if the drive fails? Get another one and copy back that portable app on it! Kiltak <a HREF="http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com" rel="nofollow">[Geeks Are Sexy] Tech. News</A> Most portable apps that can be stored on a flash drive aren’t mission critical. Most of the time, they are tech tools that can be usefull pretty much anywhere. Who cares if the drive fails? Get another one and copy back that portable app on it!

Kiltak
[Geeks Are Sexy] Tech. News

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.friedbeef.com/can-a-usb-thumbdrive-wear-out/comment-page-1/#comment-58 Anonymous Sun, 07 May 2006 23:48:00 +0000 http://www.friedbeef.com/?p=34#comment-58 When flash part lifetimes are specified in terms of write cycles, it's in terms of write cycles <I>per block</I>, not on the flash part as a whole. Different parts can have different write-block sizes; some can be written one byte at a time, others may require 4 bytes or 16 bytes (for example) to be written at a time. Consumer products that use flash memory (like MP3 players, keychain drives, and digital camera memory cards) also include "wear leveling" write-management algorithms that spread writes out across the flash parts. The upshot is that a flash part with a 1M write rating and (say) 1M blocks will actually last for something like (1M x 1M) a trillion block writes. And the previous anon post is correct as well; when a block goes bad, it's not the end of the device's useful life, because consumer-grade flash devices are designed to handle that situation gracefully. The whole idea of "portable apps" is that they are designed to minimize or eliminate the number of times they write to their home directories, which are presumed to be stored in flash. There are portable versions of Firefox and Opera (for example) that in normal operation don't write to their home directories at all. There's nothing wrong with taking care to minimize the writes to a flash storage device, but in practice it's probably not how most keychain drives will die. I bet most keychain drives will get lost, stolen, run through the washing machine, accidentally crushed in a variety of entertaining ways, or simply abandoned due to obsolescence before they go bad. When flash part lifetimes are specified in terms of write cycles, it’s in terms of write cycles per block, not on the flash part as a whole. Different parts can have different write-block sizes; some can be written one byte at a time, others may require 4 bytes or 16 bytes (for example) to be written at a time. Consumer products that use flash memory (like MP3 players, keychain drives, and digital camera memory cards) also include “wear leveling” write-management algorithms that spread writes out across the flash parts. The upshot is that a flash part with a 1M write rating and (say) 1M blocks will actually last for something like (1M x 1M) a trillion block writes.

And the previous anon post is correct as well; when a block goes bad, it’s not the end of the device’s useful life, because consumer-grade flash devices are designed to handle that situation gracefully.

The whole idea of “portable apps” is that they are designed to minimize or eliminate the number of times they write to their home directories, which are presumed to be stored in flash. There are portable versions of Firefox and Opera (for example) that in normal operation don’t write to their home directories at all.

There’s nothing wrong with taking care to minimize the writes to a flash storage device, but in practice it’s probably not how most keychain drives will die. I bet most keychain drives will get lost, stolen, run through the washing machine, accidentally crushed in a variety of entertaining ways, or simply abandoned due to obsolescence before they go bad.

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.friedbeef.com/can-a-usb-thumbdrive-wear-out/comment-page-1/#comment-57 Anonymous Sun, 07 May 2006 20:29:00 +0000 http://www.friedbeef.com/?p=34#comment-57 Any modern flash device should be doing bad block substitution. Thus, your drive should degrade in capacity well before it quits working altogether. Certainly <EM>all</EM> data should exist in multiple independent locations, but flash drives are pretty reliable as storage goes---especially compared to magnetic and optical media with its host of potential problems. Any modern flash device should be doing bad block substitution. Thus, your drive should degrade in capacity well before it quits working altogether. Certainly all data should exist in multiple independent locations, but flash drives are pretty reliable as storage goes—especially compared to magnetic and optical media with its host of potential problems.

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