I’m thinking about getting one for several purposes, primarily for portable software, some certificates and keys, and a few backups. Since it won’t be powered off for more than a few days or weeks and won’t experience heavy writing (although I plan to use Veracrypt and that may cause some stress)
How long can I expect it to last? Obviously there will be backups, but I also don’t want to lose anything on it as much as possible.
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How long does a decent USB stick last?
Until you store indecent stuff on it.
4GBThe first usb stick I bought more than 15 years ago, still works.
I have one from ~2004 that still works, a whopping thirty-two megabytes!
I have a 32gb one from 2006. I remember splurging on it because at the time it was definitely like a hundred bucks, maybe a little more. I still have it as well, and it’s been in the washer probably twice and still works. Of course, I now have a few free 128gb 3.1 drives that the store microcenter gives out for free once or twice a year. Using a USB 2.0 feels like ancient tech when transferring 20gb or more.
At least me ZIP drives has 100 megabytes of storage 😎
The very first USB stick I bought was 32MB and I thought that was a lot cause it held way more than a floppy.
Mine was 64 and thought i found gold when I found a lost 256mb. Think I paid about $100 ircc. Had been using 100mb zip drives before usbs.
In 2000 or so a 1GB stick was $999 at Tiger Direct. Who could use a whole gig?!
I had one that looks exactly the same but a green accent color instead of purple! Only 1 gig haha
I have this exact same USB drive, 4GB also bought around 15 years ago it still works like a charm
The secret nerd technique they don’t want you to know is to get a big usb stick housing for a proper m.2 SSD stick. Form wise its a slightly chunkier usb stick. Inside is a proper drive you can buy from a reputable source with terrabytes of storage and 3.0 speeds. A reputable SSD drive will easily last a decade.
As far as store bought regular old sandisk will last a long long time.
Really wish that’s an option since I have m.2 lying around but it’s not really pocket edc material.
https://www.amazon.com/ELUTENG-Enclosure-Protocol-Adapter-External/dp/B08H22BV1N There are dozens like this in all sorts of tech stores. Definitely bigger than a usb driver but not THAT much bigger
you can also get enclosures for 2230 drives. Pretty small at that point.
You mean 3.2g2 speeds
Sure, whatever nerd.
If you don’t understand the difference between 3.0 and 3.2g2, then using an m.2 enclosure is purely meaningless to you as well.
in my experience they last as long as you can keep track of them, and, as long as the storage offered is congruent with your needs. I found a 16mb usb drive the other day. It still functions but I can’t think of what I’d use it for in this age, I have flac songs that are larger than the drive lol
I’ve quite literally never had one fail even under heavy abuse.
I’ve had several USB sticks that have degraded or failed due to heavy wear, but I’m the type of person that sets up a 8x256gb RAID1 setup for fun. Maybe that’s a bit outside of “normal use”.
RAID1 with 8 drives is definitely in the funsies department
As someone who works in IT since 2005 I haven’t seen many die. Then again we barely use them so maybe in my life I’ve handled about 10-15 and seen 2 die. One in spectacular fashion when our department gave us all one since they thought it was a tool that was needed. Every single one of them ended up dying within the year. Just goes to show quality of the product can matter significantly sometimes. Outside that, they are pretty reliable, but I also would trust them the least out of the other options available for storage.
I tried several random cheap sticks recently and they all died within a year.
A funny story: In my second grade at school, I got gifted a 4gb stick for winning something related to IT, it was around 2009. It worked all this time as a distro stick, until my PC couldn’t see it anymore. I thought it died, but I tried it a year after and it magically works again now
Maybe some soldering got loose
It seems to be a huge lottery. I’ve only had one or two fail but that was like 2008. Supposedly there is some sort of data rot or failure rate but I’ve never experienced it. Seems highly random
I’d never trust a USB stick with my only copy of anything I care about. They get dropped, stepped on, accidentally dropped into vats of hydrofluoric acid, etc. Doesn’t matter how long it can theoretically last if its USB jack gets bent and becomes detached from the PCB.
In my experience, they last until you look at the capacity a few years and several changes of use down the line and end up giving to someone for some weird reason with a single MS document filling it up.
Losing space due to write errors can be significant, but that’s only half a drive failure. Usually still can read the data. So if giving the drive away I would assume even “wiping” the drive won’t destroy the data.
My comment was a (half) joking one on the increase in capacity over time due to technology advance - and the bloat in software. As I recall, the early USB sticks that I had were something like 32mb - useless by todays standards. Meanwhile the increasing size of even blank .docx pages has been remarked on over the years.
I still use one I bought in 2007.
Really depends. what manufacturer, price, how often they’re used and type (type A, type C, micro USB, etc). I’ve had some still work after a decade, others have suddenly failed months after I bought them
Can be years, but it’s as much luck and storage conditions as anything else. Luck being that batch of components not having one tiny error, or the box not being dropped by a guy loading the truck.
Get 2 backups from 2 different high end companies. Store them somewhere cool and dark with little to no moisture, in a static bag. So a ziploc with a silica gel packet in a safe in a basement. Or even in a fake soda can in the back of your fridge.
Buy one with square USB on one end, USB-C on the other, then if one fails you still have the other interface. The more reputable companies are better in this market. $17 should get you 128gb here
Not knocking cause I have one of these myself, but if a drive fails, isn’t it more likely because of the flash storage instead of the USB interface?
Depends how much you use it. I work in IT and plug my thumb drive in multiple times per day. In the past, most of my failures have been physical failures where the drive and the USB connection physically separate, or the USB connector just breaks. I have rarely encountered flash storage failures but I don’t just put them in drawers for years, they get used a lot.
Obviously there will be backups, but I also don’t want to lose anything on it as much as possible.
Don’t rely on a USB stick for that, no matter the brand, at least based on my personal experience.
I mean there will be backups of said USB drive. Thanks for the input
