Failure of flash drive

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Have read many times that Flash drives do not last forever and to be aware they need replacing. Got that.

Are there any sure clues that one is starting to fail? :o:

BJ

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it does not work. Either you can’t read it or write to it. I have never seen a forewarning on a flash drive. That’s why it is not a good idea to have the only copy of anything on a flash drive.

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Most of these devices that fall under ther category of solid state storage drives are notoriously unpredictable when they fail, meaning that, you may have
little or no warning whatsoever.

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That is what I thought. I have one that I use for transporting Quick Books backups between my desktop and my desktop at the office, that has become squirrely. I bought a couple new ones this morning to replace with. Not going to use the questionable one any longer. It has served well. But just wondered if there were any signs that I might have missed.

Thanks.
BJ

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That is what I thought. I have one that I use for transporting Quick Books backups between my desktop and my desktop at the office, that has become squirrely. I bought a couple new ones this morning to replace with. Not going to use the questionable one any longer. It has served well. But just wondered if there were any signs that I might have missed.

Thanks.
BJ

Have you ever considered using a file sharing service, such as Sky Drive or DropBox for this? Surely easier and probably more reliable.

Skydrive, for example, allows you to have up to 7 GB free. You can simply use the new SkyDrive app, copy the files you want and you will now they will be synchronized in all your computers. It’s pretty seamless, if you have internet access from the several computers where you need the files.

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Have you ever considered using a file sharing service, such as Sky Drive or DropBox for this? Surely easier and probably more reliable.

Sounds like either one would work for what I need. A portable harddrive such as RG mentions is an overkill, but Clint’s gizmo seems workable too. If you get this Clint, please let us know how you like it. I will look into SkyDrive, I think, meanwhile will use one of the new flash drives I bought!!

BJ

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BJ,

I’m not sure how often you transport data back and forth but if it is often you might be better served by a USB HD like a WD Passport essential. Yes, it is bigger than a flash drive but it also has a much higher R/W cycle value and you can use one of many utilities to check it’s health. IMJS :cheers:

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Thought I responded to this a couple days ago. My MIND is like the flash drive…. not remembering so well!!

I do this data transfer several times a week and the flash drive is so easy to stick in my purse or briefcase….. will look into your suggestion.

Thanks.

BJ

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I’m looking into getting one of these, it might prove usefull to you.

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I recently purchased a Centon 64GB flash drive. I was trying to copy all my data from a smaller 8 Gb drive to the new one using SyncToy. I scheduled it to run as I was leaving my office. The next morning, I had hundreds of error messages basically saying the file copy on each one of them had failed. Now, I can’t access any of the files on the new Centon drive. I tried to reformat, and I got a “Drive is write-protected” message. There’s no physical way to write protect this drive that I know of. My drive is essentiall hosed. Anyone have any ideas on how I can get it to work again? It’s formatted as NTFS.

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See if this helps:
http://www.centon.com/support/resources/product-forum/2-faq/21-usb-drives-being-reported-as-write-protected

Jerry

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You should be fine with a USB flash drive if all your doing is transfering data from one system to another.

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Agreed. This went a bit astray from the first post. I had already bought a couple new 8G flash drives but my original question was is there any warning of flash drive failure. I think we beat it to death but I do want to hear more about the gizmo you mentioned for other purposes, if you get it.

BJ

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Agreed. I think we beat it to death but I do want to hear more about the gizmo you mentioned for other purposes, if you get it.

BJ

midnight,
Hello… Let me add this one more idea that i use … When you said ..” put it in your purse”…. I have several of these and they are small enough, and come with a protective case and a Dual power USB connector .. You can also find them on E Bay .. They come in various GB size… :cheers: Regards Fred

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midnight,
When you said ..” put it in your purse”…. I have several of these and they are small enough, and come with a protective case and a Dual power USB connector Regards Fred

You’ve never seen my purse. But it does look like a good tool, however the cost is prohibitive for my single purpose usage. I’ll keep it in mind for other projects.

—————

There were suggestions of using SkyDrive and Drop Box. I have resisted the cloud up to now but tried Sky drive first….. too invasive. Set up Drop Box yesterday and I think that may be useful.

BJ

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If you get this Clint, please let us know how you like it.

I just recieved the USB transfer adapter and will be testing it out soon.
31906-12-224-029-04
GWC AN2641 6 ft. USB Data Transfer Cable (PC-Mac)

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I had a small 1Gb one that began to cause BSODs if the machine was booted with it plugged in which I binned.

I had a newer one which I used for my day-to-day “toolkit” (LiberKey apps, NirSoft Apps, my “essential” PC freeware library, eBook reference material etc) which suddenly decided to corrupt all the files in one of its folders. I reformatted it and now use it for occasional high volume transfers and bought a new 32Gb to use for my toolkit (which I had backed up on to a regular HD). Once something dodgy goes on I reckon it’s best to replace them even if you can get them working again, and just use the old one for some other less important role. These things get quite a bit of hammer in daily use and transportation not least of which is frequent trips through airport scanners so treat them as you would an old 3.5-inch floppy that suddenly started misbehaving, demote them to a less important role and get a new one for daily use.

Just my 2c-worth….

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