Am I frying Flash Drives?

[maxximilian]

Hi,

As I type I am creating my 4th Ubuntu USB flash drive. It's my 4th because the first three failed. What's odd is that they worked fine for a couple weeks each and then started to error out or things quit working (like network connection and software center). I have tried all recent versions of Ubuntu (12.04, 12.10, 11.10 ) and different flash drives (4- 8 GB PNY, Verbatum, Attache). They keep failing. Is it possible that running Ubuntu Live from the USB drive is too much for the drives? Too many writes? I use the drive for about 2 hours a day.

[NickC]

I thought I read somewhere that flash drives are not good for excessive writes as you suspect. External SSDs might be better although they are more expensive. Same with external portable hard drives. If you have one lying around, might be worth a try to see if they work without issues.

[maxximilian]

I don't have any of those devices. Besides, it is the portability of the thumb drive that I like. It just seems odd that I can't get this to work long term. I have a dual boot windows/Ubuntu machine that has had Ubuntu running great for almost two years. Can't see this being software, so I am left wondering about just how many writes and rewrites an OS does in the course of a session. I have noticed that the Ubuntu drive gets a lot warmer than other drives. I admit, I don't buy expensive drives, though. Could that be an issue?

[NickC]

I don't know if more expensive flash drives have better components or something that would allow more writes. I know when I messed with ubuntu on a flash drive, it did get warm too, and the LED activity indicator seemed to be on quite a bit. But couple of weeks does seem short for flash drive failure.

[SpywareDr]

Have you tried a flash drive that has a warranty of 5 years or more?

[maxximilian]

Honestly, I don't know about warranties for any flash drives I have bought. Never paid any attention and didn't know any drive had a warranty for that long. Admittedly, I go for what is on sale for cheap, but never had one fail. However, I never actually "ran" anything from a drive before either...just storage of files.

The current install (still working after 3 days) is Ubuntu 12.10 on a PNY 4 GB. I have turned off most features that log excessively, thinking that might cut down on the writes. We will see how this one goes.

[SpywareDr]

For example, Corsair Warranty Info

...
Corsair Warranty Periods

Effective 31 August, 2011, the following warranty periods apply:
...
Flash Devices

• Flash Voyager®, Flash ReadOut, TurboFlash, Flash Survivor® and Flash Voyager Mini USB flash drive products all have a 10 year warranty
• Flash Voyager USB 3.0 USB flash drive products have a 5 year warranty

...

Hopefully though, your PNY 4GB will prove reliable.

[Train]

PNY seems to have a 1 year warranty.
http://www3.pny.com/4GB-Mini-Attache...-P2574C50.aspx

[maxximilian]

I've done alot of searching and can't find anyone else reporting this issue. So, either I am doing something fundamentally wrong or buying cheap junky drives. If this one fails, I will try a better quality one and see what happens.

One thing....I create all these drives on a 64-bit Win7 machine, but install the 32-bit version of Ubuntu. I do this because the other machines I run Ubuntu are 32-bit. I also set the persistence file size to maximum....usually the entire remaining space on the drive. Not sure if either of those are a factor.

[HAN]

One of the most common problem for flash drives is users unplugging them while the computer is still using them. I have noticed that PNY has almost totally stopped using LEDs on their drives. This could be one possibility.

Another problem is static electricity. But as long as the flash drive you're using doesn't have a metal case, you're probably ok.

IMO, there is a difference in flash drive quality. Differences in speed proves it to me. But you probably don't want to spend a bunch either. So you kind of have to balance cost vs quality with whatever else you need / want.