Over the past year or so, I have had an alarmingly high number of USB flash drives fail into "read only" mode. Something like six or more. These varied from cheap Chinese eBay stuff to name brands pretty much equally. So, I got to thinking: How many have failed on me over the last decade or so. Practically none that I can recall. What has changed in manufacture or design that might account for this or is it just coincidental.
I did a search using Startpage, and Duck Duck Go, and didn't find anything that might validate my observations. Please tell me, am I imagining this or is it a real phenomenon? Have any of you noticed increased failure rates of USB flash drives.
There is a motivation to try to get users to migrate from external storage to the cloud. I'm not comfortable with that. I'm strictly VFR. No clouds, low, and slow.
Thanks for any insights you might choose to offer.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday January 31 2019, @04:27PM
I would be surprised, if the fail rate has increased to an alarming number across the board. More likely is that you're abusing them in some fashion or you've just got a few lemons. That being said, you didn't mention how old the flash drives were when they died. A flash drive that dies after a couple years of heavy use, wouldn't be terribly surprising. Assuming you're making heavy use of a flash drive, it would be in your best interest to spread that use out over multiple flash drives and / or replace it/them yearly. Assuming, casual use, I wouldn't expect that sucker to die for years.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"