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#11
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Is it me or are there many unreliable USB flash drives?
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Rod Speed wrote:
Ant wrote Either I'm having bad luck Or are mistreating them in some way. Maybe. I am trying to figure out why so many failed USB flash drives on my side. Some just stopped working and not detected at all by any computers (desktops and (laptop/notebook)s and OSes (Linux, Mac OS X, and Windows). That is the result I got with the only one that has failed. I haven't even bothered to open it up to check how its failed, whether it is a simple mechanical failure, dry joint/cracked trace etc or what. Their cases are hard to open up! Looking at their USB connectors, they look clean and fine to me. No bad odors like burning smell. The only thing noticeable is their temperatures are hot after long usages. Some are detected but no disk volumes seen and can't even partition and format. Some seen and connected, but can't been fully formatted. What's up? Either bad luck or the way you are treating them static wise. The kids don???t do anything special with them static wise and the houses are all carpeted, 3 different houses. And at least one of them has full aircon used in the winter for heating which can be a static problem. One other has gas heating and I forget what the third one has heating wise. I've only been in there in other than the winter, moving some heavy furniture in there. No carpets here, but a few rugs. Mostly hard floors (never dropped them). Temperatures can be hot (up to 90F degrees in the room during heat waves). The two drives that went bust was during the cold and wet temperatures (60F degrees and light rain outside; 70F degres indoor). lots of physically moving around, etc.? These get plenty of that, usually in cars but not always. Most of the times, the tiny drives are in my wallets to be carried where-ever I go. They don't move around much in the crowded tight wallet in my front pockets. That should be OK, right? I have seen people put them on their keychains and appear to be more abusive since they hit desks. tables, etc. but they still work. Is Lexar brand any good as shown in http://www.salescircular.com/ca/computer/usbstp.shtml web page from the local So(uthern) CA(lifornia) stores (Fry's Electronics, Best Buy, Costco, Walmart, Target, Office Depot, Staples, etc.). Yes, some of the ones I use are Lexars. Hmm, I might try Lexars next. Or maybe well known brands won't metter to me since Sandisk failed for me in the past. :/ Of course they must be returnable if the drives die quickly again within return times. :P Thank you in advance. Still smirking. I will always smirk. -- Quote of the Week: "I really believe I've been a good person. Not perfect - forget about perfect - but just learning by what I was taught and living by my own values. I might have stepped on a few ants - and a few other things as well - but I've never hurt anybody." --Kiri Te Kanawa Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly. /\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.home.dhs.org (Personal Web Site) / /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net | |o o| | \ _ / Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail privately. If credit- ( ) ing, then please kindly use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link. |
#12
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Is it me or are there many unreliable USB flash drives?
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Computer Nerd Kev wrote:
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Your Name wrote: In article , Doc O'Leary wrote: For your reference, records indicate that (Ant) wrote: Either I'm having bad luck or USB flash drives suck even with various sizes (e.g., 512 MB to 32 GB), well known brand names (e.g., SanDisk), and cheap/free ones (SP [a few years] and Patriot [had it since 10/3/2015]). They don't seems like they don't last longer than a year. I keep them in my drawers, wallets, etc. Of course, anyone who remembers how unreliable floppy disks used to be would treasure a one year life span. I can't say I've ever had any real problems with floppy disks. I've still got a huge pile of them (some magazine cover disks, some my own disks). In fact, the biggest issue I've ever had with floppy disks is the drive in my beige G3 dying and I didn't have the time nor equipment to fix it, so I got an external USB one instead. A large part of the issue many people had with floppy disks is due to the way they treated them. Mine were and are always stored in boxes, never simply thrown into bags or pockets alone. I found that frequent erasures and writes of large files killed them fairly fast, with just small writes to text files or the like they served a good life, and for Read-Only use I've found they last very well indeed. Is this still true for USB flash drives? I was copying HUGE files and even installing mac OS Sierra onto these two recent 32 GB USB flash drives. -- Quote of the Week: "I really believe I've been a good person. Not perfect - forget about perfect - but just learning by what I was taught and living by my own values. I might have stepped on a few ants - and a few other things as well - but I've never hurt anybody." --Kiri Te Kanawa Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly. /\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.home.dhs.org (Personal Web Site) / /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net | |o o| | \ _ / Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail privately. If credit- ( ) ing, then please kindly use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link. |
#13
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Is it me or are there many unreliable USB flash drives?
In article , Ant
wrote: I found that frequent erasures and writes of large files killed them fairly fast, with just small writes to text files or the like they served a good life, and for Read-Only use I've found they last very well indeed. Is this still true for USB flash drives? I was copying HUGE files and even installing mac OS Sierra onto these two recent 32 GB USB flash drives. it was never true. |
#14
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Is it me or are there many unreliable USB flash drives?
In article , Ant
wrote: In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Your Name wrote: In article , Doc O'Leary wrote: For your reference, records indicate that (Ant) wrote: Either I'm having bad luck or USB flash drives suck even with various sizes (e.g., 512 MB to 32 GB), well known brand names (e.g., SanDisk), and cheap/free ones (SP [a few years] and Patriot [had it since 10/3/2015]). They don't seems like they don't last longer than a year. I keep them in my drawers, wallets, etc. Of course, anyone who remembers how unreliable floppy disks used to be would treasure a one year life span. I can't say I've ever had any real problems with floppy disks. I've still got a huge pile of them (some magazine cover disks, some my own disks). In fact, the biggest issue I've ever had with floppy disks is the drive in my beige G3 dying and I didn't have the time nor equipment to fix it, so I got an external USB one instead. A large part of the issue many people had with floppy disks is due to the way they treated them. Mine were and are always stored in boxes, never simply thrown into bags or pockets alone. The same goes for USB flash drives. I've seen people treating them extremely badly. Someone told me putting these tiny USB flash drives in my wallets that go into my pants' front pockets are breaking them due to stresses. What do you thnk of that? I see people having them on keychains and they hit tables, desks, etc. hard and loudly a lot! Unlike the physical components of a hard drive, a USB flash drive will take knocks a lot better ... but in some models / badly made ones it could cause to chips being dislodged, bent connectors, etc. There's also the issue of the caps getting lost, and then dust, dirt, etc. can get inside causing issues. Whenever I take a USB flash drive with me (which is a relatively recent thing since I continued to use floppy disks and then CD-RW discs much longer than most other people), I always have it in my shirt pocket, usually by itself. I never ever put anything in the back pocket of my trousers - my wallet, handkerchief, keys pouch, etc. all go in the side pockets. I think, for the industry, flash drives are seen as the new floppy. It doesnıt much matter who you go with, theyıre all built to be essentially disposable. That said, though, they all seem to come with a 2+ year warranty, so youıd be getting some nifty free refreshes if youıre seeing failures every year. Personally, I just buy the MicroCenter store brand in whatever size $10 will get me, and it generally lasts until at least the warranty runs out. Itıs not a huge expense, so I donıt worry too much about it. USB flash drives (thumb drive, keyring drives, pen drives, memory sticks, whatever else you want to call them) and SSDs do have a limited lifespan measured in the number of write cycles ... so using them continuously (e.g. as an OS boot drive with things like virtual memory going) as Ant said can be a bit silly and cause them to "wear out" much sooner than simply using them to store files on for backup or transport. https://www.techwalla.com/articles/l...sb-flash-drive http://www.storagecraft.com/blog/data-storage-lifespan/ http://www.flashbay.co.nz/blog/usb-life-expectancy The weird part is that I was still installing mac OS Sierra v10.12 on these two old USB flash drives. Is that too much already? I only wanted to install and use the OS for quick tests like those bootable read only live discs for OSes. In the past, I used these USB flsah drives to copy all kinds of files (giant sizes too) to use between various computers. I love flash drives for being super tiny and light to stick into my wallet to carry easily! Argh. You can get portable hard drives that are fairly small (some even have built-in USB cables so you can't lose / forget it), although nowhere near as small as a USB flash drive of course, but on the flip side they have far more storage and / or are cheaper than the equivalent storage. |
#15
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Is it me or are there many unreliable USB flash drives?
In article , Ant
wrote: In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Rod Speed wrote: Ant wrote The kids don???t do anything special with them static wise and the houses are all carpeted, 3 different houses. And at least one of them has full aircon used in the winter for heating which can be a static problem. One other has gas heating and I forget what the third one has heating wise. I've only been in there in other than the winter, moving some heavy furniture in there. No carpets here, but a few rugs. Mostly hard floors (never dropped them). Temperatures can be hot (up to 90F degrees in the room during heat waves). The two drives that went bust was during the cold and wet temperatures (60F degrees and light rain outside; 70F degres indoor). One issue is people leaving them in cars ... it gets very hot inside a car, especially during summer (even if parked in the shade). I don't know how things such as SatNav units and even car music systems manage to survive, but I never leave any disks / drives inside the car. |
#16
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Is it me or are there many unreliable USB flash drives?
On 2016-10-18, Ant wrote:
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Rod Speed wrote: Ant wrote Either I'm having bad luck Or are mistreating them in some way. Maybe. I am trying to figure out why so many failed USB flash drives on my side. Maybe stop sitting on them. -- E-mail sent to this address may be devoured by my ravenous SPAM filter. I often ignore posts from Google. Use a real news client instead. JR |
#17
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Is it me or are there many unreliable USB flash drives?
In article , Your Name
wrote: Someone told me putting these tiny USB flash drives in my wallets that go into my pants' front pockets are breaking them due to stresses. What do you thnk of that? I see people having them on keychains and they hit tables, desks, etc. hard and loudly a lot! Unlike the physical components of a hard drive, a USB flash drive will take knocks a lot better ... obviously. but in some models / badly made ones it could cause to chips being dislodged, bent connectors, etc. nonsense. There's also the issue of the caps getting lost, and then dust, dirt, etc. can get inside causing issues. that doesn't matter. |
#18
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Is it me or are there many unreliable USB flash drives?
In article , Your Name
wrote: No carpets here, but a few rugs. Mostly hard floors (never dropped them). Temperatures can be hot (up to 90F degrees in the room during heat waves). The two drives that went bust was during the cold and wet temperatures (60F degrees and light rain outside; 70F degres indoor). One issue is people leaving them in cars ... it gets very hot inside a car, especially during summer (even if parked in the shade). I don't know how things such as SatNav units and even car music systems manage to survive, because they're designed to be used in a wide temperature range. but I never leave any disks / drives inside the car. risk of theft would be the only reason. |
#19
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Is it me or are there many unreliable USB flash drives?
In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Jolly Roger wrote:
On 2016-10-18, Ant wrote: In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Rod Speed wrote: Ant wrote Either I'm having bad luck Or are mistreating them in some way. Maybe. I am trying to figure out why so many failed USB flash drives on my side. Maybe stop sitting on them. I don't put them in my rear pockets. They go in my front pockets. -- Quote of the Week: "I really believe I've been a good person. Not perfect - forget about perfect - but just learning by what I was taught and living by my own values. I might have stepped on a few ants - and a few other things as well - but I've never hurt anybody." --Kiri Te Kanawa Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly. /\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://antfarm.home.dhs.org (Personal Web Site) / /\ /\ \ Ant's Quality Foraged Links: http://aqfl.net | |o o| | \ _ / Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail privately. If credit- ( ) ing, then please kindly use Ant nickname and AQFL URL/link. |
#20
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Is it me or are there many unreliable USB flash drives?
"Ant" wrote in message ... In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Your Name wrote: In article , Doc O'Leary wrote: For your reference, records indicate that (Ant) wrote: Either I'm having bad luck or USB flash drives suck even with various sizes (e.g., 512 MB to 32 GB), well known brand names (e.g., SanDisk), and cheap/free ones (SP [a few years] and Patriot [had it since 10/3/2015]). They don't seems like they don't last longer than a year. I keep them in my drawers, wallets, etc. Of course, anyone who remembers how unreliable floppy disks used to be would treasure a one year life span. I can't say I've ever had any real problems with floppy disks. I've still got a huge pile of them (some magazine cover disks, some my own disks). In fact, the biggest issue I've ever had with floppy disks is the drive in my beige G3 dying and I didn't have the time nor equipment to fix it, so I got an external USB one instead. A large part of the issue many people had with floppy disks is due to the way they treated them. Mine were and are always stored in boxes, never simply thrown into bags or pockets alone. The same goes for USB flash drives. I've seen people treating them extremely badly. Someone told me putting these tiny USB flash drives in my wallets that go into my pants' front pockets are breaking them due to stresses. What do you thnk of that? I don't buy that, they are pretty rugged mechanically. I see people having them on keychains and they hit tables, desks, etc. hard and loudly a lot! Yeah, don't buy that claim. I think, for the industry, flash drives are seen as the new floppy. It doesnıt much matter who you go with, theyıre all built to be essentially disposable. That said, though, they all seem to come with a 2+ year warranty, so youıd be getting some nifty free refreshes if youıre seeing failures every year. Personally, I just buy the MicroCenter store brand in whatever size $10 will get me, and it generally lasts until at least the warranty runs out. Itıs not a huge expense, so I donıt worry too much about it. USB flash drives (thumb drive, keyring drives, pen drives, memory sticks, whatever else you want to call them) and SSDs do have a limited lifespan measured in the number of write cycles ... so using them continuously (e.g. as an OS boot drive with things like virtual memory going) as Ant said can be a bit silly and cause them to "wear out" much sooner than simply using them to store files on for backup or transport. https://www.techwalla.com/articles/l...sb-flash-drive http://www.storagecraft.com/blog/data-storage-lifespan/ http://www.flashbay.co.nz/blog/usb-life-expectancy The weird part is that I was still installing mac OS Sierra v10.12 on these two old USB flash drives. Is that too much already? Yeah, much more likely that it was that that killed them. I only wanted to install and use the OS for quick tests like those bootable read only live discs for OSes. In the past, I used these USB flsah drives to copy all kinds of files (giant sizes too) to use between various computers. I love flash drives for being super tiny and light to stick into my wallet to carry easily! Argh. Yeah, very convenient for some situations like that and moving movies around like I do. |
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