Author Topic: I hate thumb drives! (Read 2697 times)

shardian · « **on:** February 20, 2007, 07:54:09 pm »

Tonight marks the third thumb drive I have had die on me. The first was in college - I was working on a powerpoint presentation that I was about to give. Right before me and my partner were to go up and present, the file corrupted on the drive. That sucked.
The second had a SM chip fall of the board which I noticed after taking the case off.
This last one just died as I plugged it into my laptop to do some work!
I did some research online and some flash drives are only designed for 10,000 read/writes!!!!! That is totally unacceptible!

I was able to use a recovery tool to get most of the stuff off the drive luckily.

So how do the rest of you guys fare with thumb drives?

crashwg · « **Reply #1 on:** February 20, 2007, 08:16:03 pm »

Are you using the "safely remove hardware" feature before disconnecting the drive?
I heard that it was important although I don't have any personal experience to say one way or the other.

Samstag · « **Reply #2 on:** February 20, 2007, 08:46:56 pm »

Some operating systems will definitely eat your data if you don't "safely remove" it. Windows 98/2000 in particular will corrupt your data if you aren't careful. I think various flavors of Linux may do the same if you don't unmount or sync the drive before removing it. It's not just thumb drives. Any USB drive is subject to corruption if you pull it before the OS is done with it, and sometimes the OS isn't done with it even if it appears to be.

FrizzleFried · « **Reply #3 on:** February 20, 2007, 08:49:27 pm »

I've had once thumb drive for the last 6 years or more...

...of course i've probably written/read from it less than 100 times total.

shardian · « **Reply #4 on:** February 20, 2007, 11:23:28 pm »

I always use safely remove thumb drive. That bad boy isn't touched until the light goes off. I also don't keep active files on the drive - I offload to edit, then load it back on when time to transport as is the recommended procedure. I take mine with me everywhere. Into my work computer in the morning, into my laptop in the evening.

FrizzleFried · « **Reply #5 on:** February 21, 2007, 12:29:17 am »

Have you looked in to those little tiny-HDs? Not sure if they are any better though.

missioncontrol · « **Reply #6 on:** February 21, 2007, 06:26:31 am »

I use one of my thumbdrives daily on multiple PC's and have never had a problem with it. I did lose the data I had on a 256 PNY stick a few semesters ago when I bumped the drive while putting in another one, but was able to reformat it with a program the PNY tech sent me. I carry 3 different drives with me daily... My 2 gig has several portable apps I use at different machines, my 1 gig that carries my System Project, and the good ol' 256K drive which is primarily used on computers I am working on and repairing.

ChadTower · « **Reply #7 on:** February 21, 2007, 09:33:22 am »

Heh, so familiar. When I was in college it was Zip drives everyone complained about. Seemed every semester I'd have 2-3 zip disks go dead on me for no reason and complicate getting projects in on time. Some classes required us to save our lab work on zip disk and if we didn't have a PC at home to back up on, or if it corrupted too soon, we'd just lose our project and have to start over. I remember losing a texture mapping project I'd put like 15 hours into and having to recreate it in a 30 hour straight lab session that almost put me in the hospital with a caffeine overdose.

shmokes · « **Reply #8 on:** February 21, 2007, 11:13:33 am »

I've never had a problem with a thumb drive and I use them all the time and I treat them terribly -- absolutely never use the safely remove option. I just pull them out when I'm finished. I mean, I don't pull them in the middle of a file transfer, but I don't eject them properly before pulling either. Just lucky so far, I suppose.

Kaytrim · « **Reply #9 on:** February 21, 2007, 11:14:46 am »

I have 6 or 7 of these bad boys floating around from 32M to 1G in size. I use them quite a bit for various things including a portable mame system. Never had a speck of trouble except when I had one pluged in while formating a computer. I mistakenly formated the thumb drive instead of the hard drive. Now instead of a 128M thumb drive it holds 120M.

ChadTower · « **Reply #10 on:** February 21, 2007, 11:15:26 am »

I haven't had any die yet but I've had a few that just didn't like certain machines or certain usb hubs.

xmenxmen · « **Reply #11 on:** February 21, 2007, 02:15:34 pm »

In the past I have had a few die on me. The batches I have gotten in the last 2 years or recently seems to last longer and still going...

Try buying something newer and smaller (aka parts are snag tight).

JeepMonkey · « **Reply #12 on:** February 21, 2007, 02:16:29 pm »

I have been using the same Dell jump drive for the last 3-4 years. Lots of reads and writes, never "removed safely", and it has been through the washer and dryer twice.

Still works as good as the day I got it.

boykster · « **Reply #13 on:** February 21, 2007, 02:35:02 pm »

Heck, I've washed a copule and they still work fine....

Zero_Hour · « **Reply #14 on:** February 21, 2007, 02:38:36 pm »

Quote from: ChadTower on February 21, 2007, 09:33:22 am

Heh, so familiar. When I was in college it was Zip drives everyone complained about. Seemed every semester I'd have 2-3 zip disks go dead on me for no reason and complicate getting projects in on time.

It was always the dreaded "Click of Death" with Zip disk problems I encountered. The drive heads would actually crash into the platter and physically damage the disk, and then, in a worst case scenario, that damaged disk would be put into a functional drive and damage it. Wonderful stuff, and ultimately why I stopped buying Iomega products.

As for flash drives, I've never had one fail, but I apparently can't keep track of them, losing 4 of them over the last few years. I switched to a very portable (pocket sized really) USB HDD. The few failures I've seen when doing tech support were usually due to removal when reading or writing data, or excessive dirt in the USB connector. Maybe I should have suggested that they throw them in the laundry like boykster.

ChadTower · « **Reply #15 on:** February 21, 2007, 02:40:37 pm »

Quote from: Zero_Hour on February 21, 2007, 02:38:36 pm

It was always the dreaded "Click of Death" with Zip disk problems I encountered. The drive heads would actually crash into the platter and physically damage the disk, and then, in a worst case scenario, that damaged disk would be put into a functional drive and damage it. Wonderful stuff, and ultimately why I stopped buying Iomega products.

Yep. After so much lost Grad work, I eventually got a $20 check from Iomega and a bunch of coupons towards future purchases as part of their class action lawsuit. Yeah, that made up for all the stuff I lost because of their products.

boykster · « **Reply #16 on:** February 21, 2007, 02:44:06 pm »

Quote from: Zero_Hour on February 21, 2007, 02:38:36 pm

Maybe I should have suggested that they throw them in the laundry like boykster.

Just a note....the laundry machine is NOT the recommended method of cleaning the USB connector

Pretty much any portable data solution is going to have a risk of failure. When I was at university I lost numerous reports / papers due to floppy drive failure. At the UW computer labs we were not allowed to save data on teh hard drive and had to rely on floppies. We all know how reliable floppies are, right?

Iomega zip drives, yep, lost tons of work data to the click of death

Removable hard drives are great, but I've had one of those go south on me from being lugged around all the time. The smaller ones like Zero_Hour has are better, because you can keep em in your pocket or somewhere more safe than just in the bottom of your briefcase.

whoknowswho · « **Reply #17 on:** February 23, 2007, 05:50:23 pm »

You mean things like this?
http://www.instructables.com/id/EH0Q7NYIG4EY95SU9L/

Tailgunner · « **Reply #18 on:** February 23, 2007, 10:24:13 pm »

I've a 512 meg and a 1 gig I've used for a couple of years now, never had a problem with them. I see them as a transit solution, not a storage solution, and wouldn't lose anything if either of them died as I always leave a copy of whatever on the computer I'm copying from.

delta88 · « **Reply #19 on:** February 26, 2007, 10:03:28 pm »

Quote from: FrizzleFried on February 20, 2007, 08:49:27 pm

I've had once thumb drive for the last 6 years or more...

...of course i've probably written/read from it less than 100 times total.

......Isn't that about how old these drives are at the long end of the spectrum!!???............... $:-\$


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