Path: csiph.com!feeder.erje.net!2.us.feeder.erje.net!news.glorb.com!peer03.iad!feed-me.highwinds-media.com!news.highwinds-media.com!border1.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!buffer1.nntp.dca1.giganews.com!nntp.earthlink.com!news.earthlink.com.POSTED!not-for-mail NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2016 17:50:37 -0500 From: ANTant@zimage.com (Ant) Subject: Re: Is it me or are there many unreliable USB flash drives? Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.hardware.storage,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage References: <191020160913063207%YourName@YourISP.com> User-Agent: tin/2.4.0-20160823 ("Octomore") (UNIX) (Linux/4.7.5-100.fc23.x86_64 (x86_64)) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Message-ID: Date: Wed, 19 Oct 2016 17:50:37 -0500 Lines: 59 X-Usenet-Provider: http://www.giganews.com NNTP-Posting-Host: 71.103.224.66 X-Trace: sv3-30Dv/KaJpogI0GVBVzt1ySr8TvAznQTI+XX1xyx2YkunHoyWg0D3GZfiFRIxMBEyAsdf7E4LbOpf8eZ!GBrQA3GGQzRFmq7Hphe9oGfvrFMzzLTRV/1MiDpYaiDV0ECYyZLNlytcoxKKzF1SuQMZ77xFmM+0!rK362KlL5q/gxdATMgmc1KzeQjjmIhs= X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Please be sure to forward a copy of ALL headers X-Abuse-and-DMCA-Info: Otherwise we will be unable to process your complaint properly X-Postfilter: 1.3.40 X-Original-Bytes: 4221 X-Received-Bytes: 4312 X-Received-Body-CRC: 4131410320 Xref: csiph.com comp.sys.mac.hardware.storage:1324 comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage:7162 In comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage Rod Speed wrote: > >> > 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/life-expectancy-of-a-usb-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. Too much writing from it? It didn't even finish installing and booting! I know those USB flash drives were hot to touch. :/ > > 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. That is what I wanted to and yet they die on me. Argh!!!!! -- 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.