Hello group, Until now I am wondering if the much vaunted robustness is just a false claim or indeed a reality as its contrary to my experience: I had 5 failed flash drives-4 from Jetflash( Transcend) and 1 from Kingston and never had one from the standard external platter type hard drive ever since. I used the external drives for transferring data from other computers to my PC. Now I would like to ask the opinion from experts here about this particular device Does my experience corroborates with what others have with these particular file storage devices? Now another question, which is easier to recover precious data: from these compact flash drives or from this bulky disc drives? Do you have any DIY procedures for doing data recovery from failed SSDS and HDDs? TIA Roy
<royba...@gmail.com> wrote: >Hello group, Until now I am wondering if the much vaunted robustness >is just a false claim or indeed a reality as its contrary to my >experience: >I had 5 failed flash drives-4 from Jetflash( Transcend) and 1 from >Kingston and never had one from the standard external platter type >hard drive ever since. >I used the external drives for transferring data from other computers >to my PC. >Now I would like to ask the opinion from experts here about this >particular device >Does my experience corroborates with what others have with these >particular file storage devices?
I find USB flash drive to be more durable/robust/etc, so long as you don't leave them in your pants pocket so they get wet in the wash and are plugged in while still wet (though some are now totally waterproof), and so long as the are not bumped while sticking out of a USB socket which can break the solder joints between the PCB and the connector.
I've had fairly good luck with external drives but not as good, keeping in mind that the external needs to have a decent quality power supply instead of the cheap junk PSU that comes with some enclosures, and particularly with full 3.5" sized 7200 or higher RPM drives, that the enclosure has a fan to keep drive temps lower. Even then, in ideal situations there still seems to be a higher % of hard drives that fail, and if used long enough practically all of them will while in a backup scenario it is pretty unlikely you would exceed the write cycle limitations of flash memory.
I perfer flash memory for data sets that are small enough that it's affordable, but it has to be kept in mind that most flash thumbdrives have data retention ratings of roughly 10 years, though you can't expect a hard drive to last that long either so optical media becomes the preferred solution for longest term backups, or magnetic tape storage assuming you'll be able to find or still have a working compatible tape drive many years later.
With flash drives on the other hand you have no moving parts to wear out (except a write lock switch in some models but I prefer to avoid designs that use them), no rubber rollers or grease to harden over time.
>Now another question, which is easier to recover precious data: from >these compact flash drives or from this bulky disc drives?
Depends on what failed. A skilled technician at a data receovery center could transplant a flash chip onto another circuit board if any other part failed, to get data off but that does no good if a power surge fries the memory itself.
A data recovery center also has methods of trying to pull data off the hard drive depending on what failed and if it is only the enclosure rather than the drive itself, any resonably competent end-user can do this themselves.
The key in either scenario is do not keep only one copy of valuable data. For example if you have a small enough amount of data that it will fit on a single USB flash drive, it isn't excessively expensive to buy a 2nd flash drive for a duplicate backup, and/or put it on DVDs or other mediums, though I would be very weary of making duplicate backups on the same brand, even worse the same batch of optical media in case it's a bad batch and all the discs are prone to early failure.
>Do you have any DIY procedures for doing data recovery from failed >SSDS and HDDs? >TIA >Roy
... best to send it off to professionals, other attempts at data retrieval can cause further damage making recovery by a professional impossible.
As for recovery with either type if you have the electronics skills to reverse engineer and the tools to make measurements you can troubleshoot the circuit boards to some extent to see if you can locate a faulty component and potentially repair it or replace the circuit board but that would tend to be a special/unusual situation, since backups should make it unnecessary and if the data is important enough to bother with recovery attempts it is important enough to pay a pro to do it.
Ultimately if I were you I would try to determine what made the flash drives fail. Research whether fellow owners of the same models found them particularly failure prone (though reports of failure on popular models may not indicate much, a certain % of them will fail from myriad reasons), and if not then focus on whether the OS corrupted it, the physical port it plugs into was bad, it was wet or physically damaged, or a power surge came over the AC mains, or the PSU was poor quality or failing.
Having written this much, I reused an old computer for a fileserver, put some mirrored arrays of hard drives in it, and haven't lost data in many years with that being the lone source of much of the data (much of it not valuable data so I made no other backup of that). Depends on how much storage space you need, once I built a HTPC many years ago and started ripping DVDs I found the amount of data unmanageable any other way.
> ... best to send it off to professionals, other attempts at > data retrieval can cause further damage making recovery by a > professional impossible.
> As for recovery with either type if you have the electronics > skills to reverse engineer and the tools to make > measurements you can troubleshoot the circuit boards to some > extent to see if you can locate a faulty component and > potentially repair it or replace the circuit board but that > would tend to be a special/unusual situation, since backups > should make it unnecessary and if the data is important > enough to bother with recovery attempts it is important > enough to pay a pro to do it.
> Ultimately if I were you I would try to determine what made > the flash drives fail. Research whether fellow owners of > the same models found them particularly failure prone > (though reports of failure on popular models may not > indicate much, a certain % of them will fail from myriad > reasons), and if not then focus on whether the OS corrupted > it, the physical port it plugs into was bad, it was wet or > physically damaged, or a power surge came over the AC mains, > or the PSU was poor quality or failing.
Thanks for that comprehensive feedback Kony!
I was analyzing the causes of those failed flash drives and they have similar behavior that when plugged into the USB socket in the desktop that is where the drives starts to fail. Is there a difference in voltage with the desktop and Laptop USB slots? Might be thinking about power difference may have been one cause why these drives tend to fail more if used in desktops than in laptops as based on my expereince. One thing that I noticed at the onset of failure wa the flashing light when the drive is plugged into the usb slot just stop and the drive is no longer recognized. If I checked in the my computer for any available drives connected I can still see the removable drives but when I clicked properties there is nothing in it or physically blank. Its likely also that continuous bumping with the USB port may be one reason that I am not discounting but I was expecting that it should be robust. I had 5 2.5inch HDD( housed in a portable enclosure) and neither of them have failed so far and they are already 3-4 years old. I am using the same thing for transferring larger volumes of data that is beyond the capacity of the flash disk I have. Meanwhile the flash drives were just barely a year old! That is why I am starting to suspect that the claims of robustness of this SSD is unwarranted... They might be shockproof but they have delicate connections that a series of bumps to the USB port can ultimately destroy it. Other people I know have the same issue like mine...their flash drives regardless of brands are more susceptible to failure that their portable USB disk type drives....
I am not sure either with my limited electronic hardware skills I am capable of retrieving the precious data from those failed pesky SSD. Nor I would be willing to release funds for data recovery by professionals.(Sigh, those people sometimes may exploit your situation..... and overcharge you for such ) Might have just to reconstruct those saved information again. from the sources ..<sigh>
<royba...@gmail.com> wrote: >I was analyzing the causes of those failed flash drives and they have >similar behavior that when plugged into the USB socket in the desktop >that is where the drives starts to fail. >Is there a difference in voltage with the desktop and Laptop USB >slots?
No, both should be real close, supposed to be exactly 5.0V, but +- 5% still should't kill a flash drive.
>Might be thinking about power difference may have been one >cause why these drives tend to fail more if used in desktops than in >laptops as based on my expereince.
I'd wonder if the desktop USB ports are powered by the 5VSB power rail from the PSU, in some PSU models that is a weakness in either capacity, or in remaining powered when system/fans are shut off so long term the self-generated heat degrades it... just a thought, I can't be sure that's the cause.
>One thing that I noticed at the onset of failure wa the flashing >light when the drive is plugged into the usb slot just stop and the >drive is no longer recognized. >If I checked in the my computer for any available drives connected I >can still see the removable drives but when I clicked properties >there is nothing in it or physically blank. >Its likely also that continuous bumping with the USB port may be one >reason that I am not discounting but I was expecting that it should be >robust.
Depends on the drive design, some are more robust than others. Some would break the USB port before they failed form a bump, others the plastic casing just snaps together and flexes some so much of the stress is placed on the solder joints which are often pads on the PCB instead of through-hole... similar thing happens to the headphone jacks on many portable audio players, power jacks on notebooks, etc... they really don't think much about engineering for worst case stresses on too many products.
>I had 5 2.5inch HDD( housed in a portable enclosure) and neither of >them have failed so far and they are already 3-4 years old. I am using >the same thing for transferring larger volumes of data that is beyond >the capacity of the flash disk I have. >Meanwhile the flash drives were just barely a year old! >That is why I am starting to suspect that the claims of robustness of >this SSD is unwarranted...
Maybe on particular models, but of the several I've owned over the years none of them has failed, though I concede that the oldest ones were rotated out of primary/frequent use due to being lower capacity and slower than their replacements.
Casing durability is one of the primary things I look for in a flash drive though, if I can wiggle the connector even a little bit I demote the drive to infrequent use. That doesn't necessarily mean a large casing either, if it's a hollow plastic shell that still may not be enough, I like the ones with a metal shell like OCZ Rally2 or Supertalent Pico, though the latter has, due to it's tiny size, an inherant max capacity limitation, no LED, and a bit slower write speed than contemporary equivalent price/class alternatives... but I could throw it onto the ground and stomp on it then take it straight from a hot pot of coffee and into a USB port after a quick wipe with a towel and expect it'd still work.
>They might be shockproof but they have delicate connections that a >series of bumps to the USB port can ultimately destroy it. >Other people I know have the same issue like mine...their flash drives >regardless of brands are more susceptible to failure that their >portable USB disk type drives....
A couple times when I had flash drives that weren't very durable I popped open the casing, put a little sliver of tape over the rear of the USB connector so it was blocked off from epoxy seepage, and liberally applied epoxy to that end to strengthen it. These days it seems more trouble than it's worth but it was less trouble than returning the product and arguing it unsuitable because it widdles a little in the casing.
>I am not sure either with my limited electronic hardware skills I am >capable of retrieving the precious data from those failed pesky SSD. >Nor I would be willing to release funds for data recovery by >professionals.(Sigh, those people sometimes may exploit your >situation..... and overcharge you for such ) >Might have just to reconstruct those saved information again. from >the sources ..<sigh>
>Regards >Roy
If I were desperate I could probably swap the flash chip from one to another of same model in an attempt to get the data off, but don't really think much about it or expect that I'd ever end up doing it since I accept that anything I don't have backed up in multiple locations is something I must not consider valuable enough to spend the time or money on storage to do so... but I'm loving that you can now get 1.5TB HDDs for around $100 on sale, greatly reducing the amount of data I feel the need to put on the more expensive/GB flash drives.
> <royba...@gmail.com> wrote: > >Hello group, Until now I am wondering if the much vaunted robustness > >is just a false claim or indeed a reality as its contrary to my > >experience: > >I had 5 failedflashdrives-4 from Jetflash( Transcend) and 1 from > >Kingston and never had one from the standard external platter type > >harddriveever since. > >I used the external drives for transferring data from other computers > >to my PC. > >Now I would like to ask the opinion from experts here about this > >particular device > >Does my experience corroborates with what others have with these > >particular file storage devices?
> I findUSBflashdriveto be more durable/robust/etc, so > long as you don't leave them in your pants pocket so they > get wet in the wash and are plugged in while still wet > (though some are now totally waterproof), and so long as the > are not bumped while sticking out of aUSBsocket which can > break the solder joints between the PCB and the connector.
> I've had fairly good luck with external drives but not as > good, keeping in mind that the external needs to have a > decent quality power supply instead of the cheap junk PSU > that comes with some enclosures, and particularly with full > 3.5" sized 7200 or higher RPM drives, that the enclosure has > a fan to keepdrivetemps lower. Even then, in ideal > situations there still seems to be a higher % of hard drives > that fail, and if used long enough practically all of them > will while in a backup scenario it is pretty unlikely you > would exceed the write cycle limitations offlashmemory.
> I perferflashmemory for data sets that are small enough > that it's affordable, but it has to be kept in mind that > mostflashthumbdrives have data retention ratings of > roughly 10 years, though you can't expect a harddriveto > last that long either so optical media becomes the preferred > solution for longest term backups, or magnetic tape storage > assuming you'll be able to find or still have a working > compatible tapedrivemany years later.
> Withflashdrives on the other hand you have no moving parts > to wear out (except a write lock switch in some models but I > prefer to avoid designs that use them), no rubber rollers or > grease to harden over time.
> >Now another question, which is easier to recover precious data: from > >these compactflashdrives or from this bulky disc drives?
> Depends on what failed. A skilled technician at a data > receovery center could transplant aflashchip onto another > circuit board if any other part failed, to get data off but > that does no good if a power surge fries the memory itself.
> A data recovery center also has methods of trying to pull > data off the harddrivedepending on what failed and if it > is only the enclosure rather than thedriveitself, any > resonably competent end-user can do this themselves.
> The key in either scenario is do not keep only one copy of > valuable data. For example if you have a small enough > amount of data that it will fit on a singleUSBflashdrive, > it isn't excessively expensive to buy a 2ndflashdrivefor > a duplicate backup, and/or put it on DVDs or other mediums, > though I would be very weary of making duplicate backups on > the same brand, even worse the same batch of optical media > in case it's a bad batch and all the discs are prone to > early failure.
> >Do you have any DIY procedures for doing data recovery from failed > >SSDS and HDDs? > >TIA > >Roy
> ... best to send it off to professionals, other attempts at > data retrieval can cause further damage making recovery by a > professional impossible.
> As for recovery with either type if you have the electronics > skills to reverse engineer and the tools to make > measurements you can troubleshoot the circuit boards to some > extent to see if you can locate a faulty component and > potentially repair it or replace the circuit board but that > would tend to be a special/unusual situation, since backups > should make it unnecessary and if the data is important > enough to bother with recovery attempts it is important > enough to pay a pro to do it.
> Ultimately if I were you I would try to determine what made > theflashdrives fail. Research whether fellow owners of > the same models found them particularly failure prone > (though reports of failure on popular models may not > indicate much, a certain % of them will fail from myriad > reasons), and if not then focus on whether the OS corrupted > it, the physical port it plugs into was bad, it was wet or > physically damaged, or a power surge came over the AC mains, > or the PSU was poor quality or failing.
> Having written this much, I reused an old computer for a > fileserver, put some mirrored arrays of hard drives in it, > and haven't lost data in many years with that being the lone > source of much of the data (much of it not valuable data so > I made no other backup of that). Depends on how much > storage space you need, once I built a HTPC many years ago > and started ripping DVDs I found the amount of data > unmanageable any other way.
I placed my USB jump drive in a metal candle holder with a strong magnet in the center, how do I un-magnetize my usb jump drive?
<joel.schul...@gmail.com> wrote: >I placed my USB jump drive in a metal candle holder with a strong >magnet in the center, how do I un-magnetize my usb jump drive?
With a reverse polarity magnet of equal or greater strength (at greater distance)... but do you really need to un-magnetize it?
|
