Flash drives are getting cheaper and flash drives are getting bigger. You get to a point and ask yourself, should I archive my valuable information on a large flash drive or a USB hard drive? For example, let’s say you have 10GBs of photos from your phone or camera and you are looking to archive those pictures. Should you do this to a flash drive or a hard drive?
The easiest and most convenient decision would be saving your files to the flash drive. Most everyone has a 16GB USB flash drive these days. It fits in your hand and you can carry it around without trouble. But will it last? Is a USB flash drive where you should put your photos if your computer crashes and you need to restore them? Let’s forget about the possibility you simply misplace the USB flash drive. Is the device archive worthy?
The other option is the USB hard drive. Most people don’t have one, so you’ll need to buy one. Although they are inexpensive, a USB hard drive is not as cheap as a 16GB or 32GB flash drive. To be honest, those 16–32GB sticks probably have enough space to hold your photos. So is it worth the extra time and money to archive to a USB hard drive? This is the question more and more people are asking themselves. The answer is straightforward:
USB hard drive.
Flash drives are great products for quickly moving files from one computer to another. However, they are not the best choice for archive purposes, and here are some reasons why:
The devices are small and will most likely get damaged. Unless you put the USB stick into the back of your desk drawer, a USB flash drive gets banged around a lot, and this abuse lends itself to failed cells in the memory. Over time, the files will get corrupted because the NAND memory gets damaged.
The flash memory used in most USB sticks is typically lower quality. Keep in mind, almost all USB sticks are made as promotional or disposable items. They are not designed for long-term use, but rather as giveaway items that may not last more than a couple of months. Sure, we all have USB sticks that last for years, but the real question is this: do you want to archive photos (or other data) that you absolutely must recover later on?
Flash drives are designed for about 100,000 write cycles. If you plan on using the USB stick for other tasks, you’ll quickly wear down the longevity of the drive. Remember, the 100,000 write cycle is an average. It’s safer to assume a shorter life cycle rather than counting on the longer end.
