my husband, a high end flash engineer, had this to say about flash & archives in response to a question from my digital photo class. this is the "short" version. the actual version is highly technical & mind-numbingly dull except to those in the industry. this is what you need to know for most practical, consumer uses:
"Regarding long term backup the full answer is complex and depends on how the flash was used and exactly what kind of flash is used inside the card/USB drive as well as the flash management algorithm and the level of error correction and detection that is implemented in the hardware. The short answer is:" "If the flash is stored at room temp (up to a maximum of about 50C) in a relatively dry place, and the flash was not used heavily (i.e. the entire card was filled up and erased less than 10 times) prior to being left in storage, then even the cheapest flash cards or USB drives should provide a minimum of 10 years of storage. The better quality flash should be able to provide up to 100 years of storage. The plastic parts and connectors may not last for 100 years but the bits inside the flash should. While the card is in storage, if it is periodically read, let's say once a year, then that can improve the retention time for the data. If the entire card is read and rewritten once every few years that can also increase the retention time." "Of course, all of this depends on how the flash management algorithm was implemented and on the the type of flash used inside. The big name brand cards (not just SanDisk but others too) use better flash. The really cheap cards that you can get online from all kinds of shady Chinese vendors use flash that may not even last one year." "I hope this helps." --cin Cynthia Barnes (still typing one-handed) [email protected] On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 12:17 PM, Audrey Bergeron-Morin <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> I do have it on a flash drive, and am >> constantly adding more--just trying to get through and scan everything in >> my collection before the next flea market season begins. >> > Please remember that a flash drive is not particularly reliable. It would > be a very good idea to have a backup somewhere... _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list [email protected] http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
