There are several problems with flash drives as archival storage. First, as noted, they are not physically robust. Second they are built with the least expensive TLC or QLC devices available (roughly 1/3 the cost of equivalent size SSDs) and one reason cheap devices are cheap is because of poor QA and they’re often using the reject devices that have so many defective cells that they’re not usable elsewhere. Third, because of their small size and reduced complexity, the don’t have room or the margins to include the advanced wear leveling and bad cell relocation “housekeeping” functions of an SSD. Fourth, being a NAND flash device, they are subject to data corruption from particles created by cosmic rays, defects that more sophisticated NAND Flash devices such as SSDs are able detect/correct. And finally, they are typically dog slow.

I have a jar full that I sometimes use for moving data between platforms, and like a previous poster, some have data that is still good after years last time I checked, but I’d never trust them for archive. You have to ask yourself why no commercial/enterprise IT organizations use them for archive if they are so reliable and cheap. If you want a reliable archive, for local storage, you can’t do better than MDisks, and for an off site disaster recovery (DR) copy of your data, you can’t do better than the cloud from a major provider such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft or Apple. If you want robust computing (just like you want first rate photography), do what the professionals do, and it isn’t archiving on flash drives.

There are several problems with flash drives as archival storage. First, as noted, they are not physically robust. Second they are built with the least expensive TLC or QLC devices available (roughly 1/3 the cost of equivalent size SSDs) and one reason cheap devices are cheap is because of poor QA and they’re often using the reject devices that have so many defective cells that they’re not usable elsewhere. Third, because of their small size and reduced complexity, the don’t have room or the margins to include the advanced wear leveling and bad cell relocation “housekeeping” functions of an SSD. Fourth, being a NAND flash device, they are subject to data corruption from particles created by cosmic rays, defects that more sophisticated NAND Flash devices such as SSDs are able detect/correct. And finally, they are typically dog slow.

I have a jar full that I sometimes use for moving data between platforms, and like a previous poster, some have data that is still good after years last time I checked, but I’d never trust them for archive. You have to ask yourself why no commercial/enterprise IT organizations use them for archive if they are so reliable and cheap. If you want a reliable archive, for local storage, you can’t do better than MDisks, and for an off site disaster recovery (DR) copy of your data, you can’t do better than the cloud from a major provider such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft or Apple. If you want robust computing (just like you want first rate photography), do what the professionals do, and it isn’t archiving on flash drives.

There are several problems with flash drives as archival storage. First, as noted, they are not physically robust. Second they are built with the least expensive TLC or QLC devices available (roughly 1/3 the cost of equivalent size SSDs) and one reason cheap devices are cheap is because of poor QA and they’re often using the reject devices that have so many defective cells that they’re not usable elsewhere. Third, because of their small size and reduced complexity, the don’t have room or the margins to include the advanced wear leveling and bad cell relocation “housekeeping” functions of an SSD. Fourth, being a NAND flash device, they are subject to data corruption from particles created by cosmic rays, defects that more sophisticated NAND Flash devices such as SSDs are able detect/correct. And finally, they are typically dog slow.

I have a jar full that I sometimes use for moving data between platforms, and like a previous poster, some have data that is still good after years last time I checked, but I’d never trust them for archive. You have to ask yourself why no commercial/enterprise IT organizations use them for archive if they are so reliable and cheap. If you want a reliable archive, for local storage, you can’t do better than MDisks, and for an off site disaster recovery (DR) copy of your data, you can’t do better than the cloud from a major provider such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft or Apple. If you want robust computing (just like you want first rate photography), do what the professionals do, and it isn’t archiving on flash drives.

Sorry, but they are at least as bad in terms of reliability (if a little harder to lose). Over the years, they can degrade. Commercially recoded disks are more robust (and I have three 200 disc changers filled with audio CDs), but home recorded ones (which use a different process) can develop errors or become unreadable over time. And yes, someone will come forward to mention that they have 10 year old DVDs that they recorded and are still good. I do too, but some degrade and some don’t, and from what I can tell, it doesn’t seem to be related to the manufacturer of the disk.And they are just too small for today’s large amounts of data. Instead, get a Blu Ray/MDisk drive and use MDisks. They are a different technology, and have been extensively tested by the DOD for archiving. They come in 100GB size, and are currently the most robust form of archive storage available.

I used to keep my photos in separate categories by using separate USB flash drives as a filing system. They are inexpensive (as someone said) and easy to store. BUT I just spent $1,200 to a firm to get my photos off a "broken" USB flash drive. They told me the inner controller failed (maybe I am not using the correct terminology). The USB flash drive was a well known brand with a good reputation for quality. The firm was successful in retrieving all my photos but it was terrifying (they wouldn't guarantee any success) and a lesson learned. Now I use an external hard drive and DropBox.