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Flash storage has many obvious advantages:

  • zero random access latency
  • portability and robustness
  • highest speed possible
  • most diverse form factors and sizes possible (ranging from MicroSD to RAID SSD)

But flash storage's weakness is data retention, and flash storage with higher density (e.g. multi-layer cell technology, 128 GB on a MicroSD card, thus physically very small sectors) because of the way flash storage works: storing electrical charges using transistors.

These extremely small transistors in flash storage lose their electrical charge over time, which is recoverable to some degree thanks to error correction code of each sector that the storage controller of the flash storage handles on the next read of the sector by refreshing the electrical charge. Some flash storage (and I guess pretty much all SSD's, but rarely SD cards) also do that automatically when idle (plugged in but not in use).

But I already have occasionally lost data years ago because I relied a little too much on flash storage and created backups too little aggressively.

Also, flash storage is the most vulnerable in case of power surges and faulty adapters (e.g. SD-to-USB adapters, USB hubs), where failed write accesses could lead to file system header corruption.

Flash storage has the best portability, is a very practical way of file transportation and maybe for redundant backups, but should better not be solely relied upon.

Also read:

Flash storage has many obvious advantages: * zero random access latency * portability and robustness * highest speed possible * most diverse form factors and sizes possible (ranging from MicroSD to RAID SSD) But flash storage's weakness is data retention, and flash storage with higher density (e.g. *multi-layer cell* technology, 128 GB on a MicroSD card, thus physically very small sectors) because of the way flash storage works: storing electrical charges using transistors. These extremely small transistors in flash storage lose their electrical charge over time, which is recoverable to some degree thanks to error correction code of each sector that the storage controller of the flash storage handles on the next read of the sector by refreshing the electrical charge. Some flash storage (and I guess pretty much all SSD's, but rarely SD cards) also do that automatically when idle (plugged in but not in use). But I already have occasionally lost data years ago because I relied a little too much on flash storage and created backups too little aggressively. Also, flash storage is the most vulnerable in case of power surges and faulty adapters (e.g. SD-to-USB adapters, USB hubs), where failed write accesses could lead to file system header corruption. ---- Flash storage has the best portability, is a very practical way of file transportation and maybe for **redundant** backups, but should better not be **solely** relied upon. Also read: [Optical media is heavily underrated — little known advantages.](https://poal.co/s/TellPoal/148944)

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[–] • 1 pt

I was a sysadmin for years. I have more than a few stories of "My flash drive isn't working, can you help me?" and not a single one of them ended well. They are great for convenient temporary storage and that was the problem: Users liked that convenience so much that they relied on flash drives for all of their off-line storage needs. I've not had a single flash drive survive more than 3 years of use, and many have failed in less than 6 months. Yet user after user had spent their precious money on a flash drive that at the time was large and expensive and it became their not only the most useful thing they owned but their hugest single point of fail.

To most of the users that lost data it was just a minor inconvenience, a couple were serious but we eventually came up with a suitable work around. But one girl who was doing her GPA part time while working had ALL of the data from a crucial to her graduating project that she'd been working on for 6 months on a single flash drive. She came to see me when it stopped working. The thing was literally just the USB plug and the circuitry; all of the cover had been broken off. "How long has it been like this?" I asked "<shrugs> Oh a little while, I don't know".

Anyhow the thing was toast and she was royally screwed. End of story.

[–] • 0 pt

Thank you for the quality comment.

[–] • 0 pt

I've not had a single flash drive survive more than 3 years of use, and many have failed in less than 6 months.

I have flash drives and SD cards from my childhood (older than 10 years) that still work, and a few (especially by the brand Hama, which I can't trust accordingly) where files went corrupt after a few months.

[–] • 1 pt

Yeah IDK why my failure rate with flash drive seems higher than the norm. But I've met people who have had even worse luck with them so my take away is that they are wildly variable.

SD cards however have been pretty solid for me. Regardless I treat them the same, ie. they are for temporary or non-critical storage only.

FWIW I've had some luck bringing bad flash drives back to life with a program called SD Card Formatter. The data is gone of course, but in perhaps 1/4 of the cases the drive is usable again.

[–] • 0 pt

File system reformatting can only make the device completely useable again if there is no actual hardware damage.

[–] • 0 pt

If you're using them a lot, lots of R-W cycles, you're probably killing them. Flash drives have a very limited write cycle life. My employer found that out when they tried to use no-name cheapies in data collection devices that wrote once a minute. Average life was a couple of months.