Bob from FL writes:
I use a flash drive to back up all my data and I leave it plugged in all the time. Does leaving it plugged in all the time wear it out quicker, or should I be plugging it in only when I need to copy something to it?
This is great question, Bob – especially since we’ve all been conditioned from the days of mechanical hard drives that the longer a mechanical device is running, the shorter its remaining lifespan is. The good news is this isn’t true for flash drives, as the wear and tear comes from when data is being written to or read off of the device, not sitting idle.
One reason that it might be a good idea to disconnect the drive is in the event of electrical surge. If a surge is powerful enough to damage the components inside of your computer, it may also damage anything connected to the computer at the time. If your hard drive is fried in a lightning strike and your flash drive goes with it, you may have no backup left.
~Tim
Tags: flash drive, lightning, surge, usb flash, usb memory
Hi Tim,
What about the booting issue if the the system is switched on with flash drive?
Does that hold true for USB connected external hard drives?
This is an epic post, I’ll definitely be sure to add this site to my bookmarks!
Your antivirus may be scanning your flashdrive each day, causing extra wear.
The LEDs on my Flash Drives frequently blink indicating a read or a write even when I’m not accessing it. I would think that may shorten its life.
Please comment.
Thanks
Don
Your anti-virus scanning you flash drive will not wear it out. These devices can be read forever it is writting to them that wears them out, anti-virus will only do any writting if it finds a virus.