Is there a reasonably reliable USB flash drive for use as back-up media?

January 20, 2016 1:49 PM

Is there USB flash media < 32GB that is cheap and reliable enough to use as non-critical file back-up for a Windows 10 PC? I have had a ton of problems with USB flash drives failing mysteriously... so I had previously used a cheap usb hard drive, which failed completely (screeech) within about a year and a half. I'm not interested in any "cloud" solutions.
posted by ennui.bz to Computers & Internet (10 answers total)

The SanDisk Extreme sticks are chunky and not too expensive and I trust them more than most. (I've used them for live bootable OSes like FreeNAS.) The Wirecutter likes them too.
posted by holgate at 1:56 PM on January 20, 2016

Hrm, I dunno what to tell you. I've only had one USB drive ever fail on me, and it was an obvious mechanical issue (I stepped on it and something went bust). A quick check of my desk shows me that most of my USB sticks are Sandisk. The oldest one I have is about seven years old, 1 GB and I use it at least weekly for stuff.
posted by Sternmeyer at 1:57 PM on January 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

I think the only realistic thing you can do is get several (three?) of different makes, bought at different times (since they might all come from the same factory) and rotate through them. They probably won't all fail at once.

Also consider that you should periodically buy new and rotate the old ones out and keep them somewhere safe forever, because that helps avoid the situation where you delete (or screw up) some data and then the screwed up data overwrites the good data on all your backups before you notice you screwed it up.
posted by fritley at 2:08 PM on January 20, 2016

Response by poster: I should have mentioned that this is for automated (daily) backups of a couple directories on a PC I don't necessarily (hope not to) see all that often: I take care of it for someone else. I had previously considered spinning disks to be more reliable but now I'm not so sure... I'm open to being told that using flash media is a bad idea. usb 2.0 is fine.
posted by ennui.bz at 2:13 PM on January 20, 2016

Sandisk Extreme is solid (and ridiculously fast, but you probably don't care). Buy from a reputable seller, counterfeits aren't uncommon.
posted by neckro23 at 2:28 PM on January 20, 2016 [1 favorite]

It is possible to set up USB sticks in a RAID array. You could buy 2-3 at the capacity you'd need and a simple USB hub and go with mirroring. It's built into Windows 10. It's meant for fixed disk, so there are a few extra steps with removables. Check this out for a bit of info. (it says Win7, but it's in 10 also).

This may save some of the worry of losing a single USB stick to failure for a bit of upfront money and setup.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 2:34 PM on January 20, 2016

If you have an SD card reader in the computer in question, my anecdotal experience is that I've had far fewer SD card failures than USB drive failures.
posted by Candleman at 3:37 PM on January 20, 2016

Ive had several Kingston datatraveler drives survive a large amount of abuse and keep working. That said, its unusual for USB drives to fail that frequently. It might be worth looking at the quality of the drives you are getting, and how they are handled to see if you can find a reason for their failures:
Are they being stored someplace too hot or too cold?
Are they being disconnected properly when you remove them?
Is anything writing and rewriting data to them a large number of times?
Are they frequently being used in a particular peace of equipment that might be causing the errors?
posted by nalyd at 4:37 PM on January 20, 2016

You might want to think about using an SSD instead of a flash drive. The controller on the SSD will perform wear leveling and some self-monitoring since it's designed with its own (relatively) short life in mind. USB flash drives and SD media generally do not self-monitor or wear-level, so when those little bits start wearing out, you never know until you have to access them someday, and *fart*.
posted by doctorfrog at 5:45 PM on January 20, 2016

I used to work for SanDisk and if an Extreme drive fails the techs will try to recover your data. I was told they do it for the challenge and will really try to do their best just to see if they can. They shouldn't fail though. I've heard stories about them being put in the washing machine and drier and they came out fine and functional.
posted by Che boludo! at 8:38 AM on January 24, 2016 [1 favorite]