Loss of mobility

[scarfman]

My flash/thumb/USB drive (whatever they're called where you are) stopped working last night. Just stopped working, while it was plugged into the laptop. One moment the laptop recognized it was there and the next, no longer. The issue's not the USB port because I tried swapping the drive and the mouse. It's not the laptop because I tried it on the desktop too. There's no data on it that hadn't already been backed up at least once, but its loss is an inconvenience. Anyone know whether these things can be fixed, and by whom? And for future reference, how important is it that you Remove Hardware Safely every time you unplug it?

Comments

[misterbill.livejournal.com]

From what I understand about flash drives, they do have a limited number of write/erase cycles before failure. Typically most flash drive will support several million write/erase cycles before they fail.

The internals of a flash drive are all solid state, so if you have a bad chip I guess you could try to replace it, however I don't think it would be very practical. They are designed to be tossed when they reach the end of their life cycle and a new dive purchased. They don't cost that much. I got one for $20 at Wal-Mart the other day.

[scarfman]

Okay, thanks. I remember this one as being much pricier than that (by which I mean, by a factor of five or six), but then that was a year or two ago and not at Wal-Mart. Sounds like that's what I need to do.

[truthmaker]

They can be even cheaper if you go online (of course then you have to wait for shipping). Quick check found 1GB drives selling for $30-40.

As for the Remove Hardware Safely...
Unless you are dealing with an old USB OS (Win 98/ME) it should not be an issue. That is mostly for USB powered devices which have to go through a shutdown procedure before being disconnected. Your flash drive only draws power when it's being read/written like a good little USB device should.

[scarfman]

I'll go shopping Saturday. I have a Best Buy gift certificate I haven't used since Christmas.

linux

[apokalupsis.livejournal.com]

I heard that sometimes the usb drive can be mounted and read under linux in this kind of situation.

Re: linux

[scarfman]

That exceeds my technical expertise in the subject. But thanks for the suggestion.

[apokalupsis.livejournal.com]

depends on whether XP is caching the drive or not, I think.
If it's caching it, just removing it will cause problems for sure.

[scarfman]

Okay, then how do you know whether it's doing that?

how to tell if XP is write caching or not

[apokalupsis.livejournal.com]

You have to go to Control Panel | System | Hardware | Device Manager.
Select your removable drive (I think it should appear under disk drives), right click and choose properties. Click on Policies and you can see. Optimize for quick removal, means it isn't write caching. Optimize for performance means it is caching the drive (so you can't just disconnect it!).
Hope this helps you..

Re: how to tell if XP is write caching or not

[scarfman]

I'll check it out. Thanks for the tip.