Two quick points regarding Larry's response:
1. Flash drive memory does degrade after repeated write cycles, resulting in
slower performance over time. Most mid-range ones are rated in the hundreds
of thousands of write cycles.
2. When I bought my 40GB mini-hard disk, it was $99 a year ago. I just saw a
$60 for $55 before rebates this weekend. I have to go get some tax forms,
but while I'm there I'll check and report pricing back. I have purchased 2
GB flash drives for the local AIIM chapter for $35. And for those of you
going to ARMA Houston in April this year, I may have a l'il something
flash-related at the IMERGE booth.
Now, off to the store.
Jesse Wilkins
CDIA+, LIT, ICP, edp, ermm, ecms
IMERGE Consulting
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-----Original Message-----
From: Records Management Program [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf
Of Larry Medina
Sent: Wednesday, January 31, 2007 3:16 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: OT-ish - Flash drive stability and longevity
On 1/31/07, Colgan, Julie J. <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> <Has anyone experience, information or links to share regarding the
> stability and/or longevity of flash drives> snip
>
> This is a timely question for me as I just rec'd my ARMA Conference
> flash drive today (!!!) and hope that, due to the extended delay in
> receiving it, the data on it hasn't already expired!
>
> Seriously though, I do find the question intriguing and trust that
> Larry, at least, will have some good thoughts to share ...
Ahem... Did I hear someone call my name? =)
Okay... interesting you'd bring this up, because as you know, I was one of
the folks who had waited and waited for their flash drive from Conference
and finally received it. And I didn't want to be a party pooper, so I
hadn't bothered to post this, but SEEING AS SOMEONE ASKED (thank you Julie
=) ) I'll speak up.
My flash drive arrived, but apparently damaged in some way. Neither my
Desktop nor Notebook computer can recognize it at all. The light on the
thumb drive comes on when I plug it in, but the device is not recognized at
all. And NO... I'm **NOT** going to bring it to work and connect it here to
see if it works =)
While my testing parameters aren't severely rigid (no comments form the
Peanut Gallery, please!) I have used thumb drives quite a bit over the past
6-7 years and I own them from 8mb up to 1gb in capacity. Most are 64mb and
I use and reuse these a LOT... sending files back and forth to my daughter
in college and "sneaker netting" files between my other daughter's computer
and her buddies. And yes, we do have a wireless network in our house, but
I don't want to degrade the performance while transferring files between
machines... and NO I don't have a dedicated server.
I've had to pitch out 3 or 4 of them because they seemed to either take
longer to load or empty, and I don't know if the "flash memory" degrades
over time from being written to and erased repeatedly, but if you think
about the price of them now (last night I saw a fishbowl of 256mb drives for
$8 each!) it stands to reason that they've got a built in obsolescence.
I recall when they first came out (and still were sort of expensive), I used
to take stuff on a thumb drive AND a CD when I traveled to do presentations,
JUST IN CASE... and I did have one apparently get "zapped" while flying from
SF to KC once. Let's here it for redundancy! WooHoo!!!
So, as a matter of routine practice, after I copy "stuff" (a technical term
I learned from an M$ engineer) to a thumb drive, I always check the
directory, then try to open at least one file, and beyond that' it's a leap
of faith. And I ALWAYS properly "eject" the device, because I actually
think failing to do this CAN result in damaged information.
Next step for me? One of the USB drives with the 1" disk instead of flash
memory. I hear they're a little slower, but you can get them from 1gb up to
40gb now... and while I think trying to store anything over 4gb in this
manner is a bit goofy, it's tough to beat the prices you're seeing.
Not an endorsement of this brand or site
http://www.edgetechcorp.com/storage/mini-hard-drive.asp but $60-$133 for
4-12gb???
Larry
--
Larry Medina
Danville, CA
RIM Professional since 1972
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