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Resolved USB drive failure

Discussion in 'PC Hardware' started by psaulm119, 2018/03/06.

  1. 2018/03/06
    psaulm119 Lifetime Subscription

    psaulm119 Geek Member Thread Starter

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    I use a USB drive to display pics and videos in classrooms. Poking around, I saw today that one file says it was created in 2011, and a few others in 2013. This got me to thinking.... how can I tell that my USB drive is going to fail? Do these things simply stop working, leaving the user high and dry? Or do they simply get slower and slower as the years go by?

    After 5 years at least, it has served its purpose well, and I could easily get a new one, but of course there's no point if it will last 2-3 more years---or, I can see it deteriorate slowly over time. Not ever having tried to use one that has gone bad, what happens when they do? And do they do it slowly, or suddenly?
     
    psaulm119,
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  2. 2018/03/06
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    It depends on what kind of USB drive. There are several types. What brand and model is yours?
     
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  4. 2018/03/06
    psaulm119 Lifetime Subscription

    psaulm119 Geek Member Thread Starter

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    psaulm119,
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  5. 2018/03/07
    TonyT

    TonyT SuperGeek Staff

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    Thanks.
    OK, so it's a thumb drive.
    These normally last quite a long time PROVIDED it is used properly.

    For example, when using on Windows operating systems you should never just unplug it. Always use the Safely Remove Hardware icon in the Notification area next to the clock at lower right of screen, or in its "arrow up" popup box. Sometimes, just unplugging the drive without safely removing it can corrupt the drive and the next time you go to use it Windows will tell you it needs to be formatted and all data on it will be lost.

    Just make sure all the data on the drive is backed up to the computer in case the drive dies. A 16GB thumb drive costs about $7.00 today.
     
    TonyT,
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  6. 2018/03/07
    psaulm119 Lifetime Subscription

    psaulm119 Geek Member Thread Starter

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    Yes, a thumb drive, as opposed to a "normal" hard drive or dvd drive connected via a USB cable. Should have thought of that possibility, but I always call them USB drives.

    OK, so it looks like I might expect it to live for a while yet. All teh files on it actually came from my laptop, so I've got backups.

    I'd say I use the Windows "safely remove this drive" feature about 80% of the time. The other 20%, I log out of my user account before remembering to do that, so then I just pull it out. But I'll try to minimize that as much as possible.

    Thanks for giving me some perspective here.
     
    psaulm119,
    #5

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