USB Flash Drive Replacement

[kevnich2]

I've had my sandisk 256mb drive for about 2 years and I'm curious about the life cycle of them. I keep all of my documents on this drive for portability and I really don't want to lose the documents simply because the drive has gone past it's life cycle and dies. Anyone have any idea how long a typical usb flash drive lasts and how often one should be replaced? Thanks in advance.

 

[ironcrotch]

I think they are still too new to truly know.

 

[MoPHo]

after the nukes drop, only cockroaches and USB drives will survive.

 

[Deadtrees]

I think it's about a million read/writes.

 

[brxndxn]

I heard anywhere from 1000-10,000,000 write cycles.. So.. um.. somewhere in the next 1 minute - 10,000 years.

 

[BigB10293]

Depending on the type pf flash memory, either 10k or 100k erase cycles PER block. Generally they will last for 5-10 years with daily usage. Data retention is longer if all you're doing is reading stuff thats already been written.

 

[tami]

does sandisk have a good warranty policy? can you try to get a replacement on it?

 

[kevnich2]

I'm considering getting a PNY 1gb disk. It'll be more than enough for all of my files. My drive hasn't died, I just didn't know if I should think about replacing it as it's getting to be a few years old now.

 

[BigB10293]

You should think about getting a new one just to get USB 2.0 support. Your current one is fine and isnt close to end of life, but is prolly dog slow.

 

[So]

Originally posted by: MoPHo
after the nukes drop, only cockroaches and USB drives will survive.

 

[kevnich2]

Originally posted by: kevnich2
I'm considering getting a PNY 1gb disk. It'll be more than enough for all of my files. My drive hasn't died, I just didn't know if I should think about replacing it as it's getting to be a few years old now.

Actually the one I have is the first sandisk USB 2.0 one they came out with. Actually picked it up the day it came out, but it's definately one of the older models. But I do think the newer ones are faster than mine, even if it is USB 2.0

 

[phisrow]

Ideally, you should keep any documents you care about in at least two places(shouldn't be that hard to find a spare 256 megs on your HDD) so even if the drive dies, or as may be more likely, gets lost/crushed/stolen/etc. you'll only lose a day's changes. If you are doing few writes, it should last the 10 years or so that the cells are rated to retain data.