USB Flash Drive How reliable are they?

[Pghpooh]

HI
Just curious
How reliable are the usb flash drives?
I am thinking about buying a few 128 gig drives to use for backups, etc.
Are they reliable enough to be use as backup media?
I would probably buy 2 drives and alternate them for backing up my laptop, etc.
What are your thoughts and opinions

 

[VirtualLarry]

I think a portable external HDD would be more reliable (well, aside from dropping it). They also make USB3.0 external portable SSDs.

I've used a 128GB USB2.0 flash drive for backups a few times, and it takes like literally 5 hours or so to do the backup. Not really worth the time to bother.

 

[HOSED]

I use a 4 GB PNY and 2 GB Sandisk Cruiser for all my incremental backups. (So effectively I have at least 2 copies of every file that is important to me). I also backup all data to an external HDD as Virtual Larry suggests (a third copy).
I backup my OS's monthly on the external hard drive as well. I do not trust flash media at all and hate reinstalling Operating Systems.

 

[Coup27]

I've only ever experienced one USB drive actually fail, although I wouldn't advocate them for backup purposes. Depending on your requirements, I am sure there are better alternatives.

 

[videogames101]

They will not last many many years, it's not a solution for long-term back-up.

 

[Pghpooh]

HI
Thanks for the info!
What got my curiosity going was I updated 2 laptops for family members. One a Toshiba and the other a HP.
Both gave the option of creating the recovery discs using dvd's or usb flash drives. I chose the dvd's.
I do my backups to a external hdd. But as I said,,, my curiosity got the best of me. I also had the thought that using the usb drive could be faster. But,,,, I'll stay with the ole hdd.
Thanks

 

[hackmole]

If the backup is really important, I would use two backups for insurance. I have had a USB drive go bad because I constantly use it and plug it in and out 10 to 20 times per day. I think I wore out the connection socket tabs. This is something that is not much talked about but I believe that eventually the connection socket will wear out in usb drives.

If you don't plug it in and out constantly then it probably won't be a problem. But I would absolutely not deal with the slower USB 2 when USB 3 is available and supposedly at least 10 times faster. Of course, you will have to install a USB 3 card in your computer as well if it doesn't already have one.