On Fri, 3 Jul 2026 at 21:21, Lennart Sorensen via Talk <talk@lists.gtalug.org> wrote:
I have one 16GB drive I have had for about 10 years now that is really small (it doesn't even have the metal part around the USB port just the inside plastic part of the port to reduce the thickness) which has been surprisingly durable.
"Durability" will differ depending on whether you're talking reading or writing. Drives will specify the estimated or guaranteed number of write cycles, never read cycles. Only writing causes wear on the drive, limited to a maximum number of writes for any given cell. Reads don't cause wear and are essentially infinite, assuming the electronics don't fail in general. Electronics could fail due to abuse, such as extreme higher than recommended temperatures or moisture from "running the drive through the washer and dryer". Even the cheapest, slowest drive could be quite durable if you're mostly reading from it, with only occasional writes, such as one that is used to store and play audio or video files. Data retention time is also a "durability" factor. Bits set to 0 are written by trapping electrons behind an insulator and read by non-destructively sensing the presence of this electronic charge. However, this charge will slowly leak off, eventually causing a cell set to 0 to read as a 1. Operating at a higher temperature can increase the leakage rate and lower the retention time. Retention time is usually expressed in terms of decades and the quality of the drive will affect this. -- Scott