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If I store information on a USB Flash drive and hardly ever read or write to it, how long can I expect the information to be retained?

I'm referring to natural de-magnetization and anything similar. Not to "read disturb" etc.

EDIT

Thanks for the link. The question there is indeed similar to mine. But unfortunately the answers there just assume that the answer is: more than other limiting factors. But is that true? This needs some backing, does it not?

ispiro
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1 Answers1

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Around 10 years.

This is based on the numbers for the first NAND flash datasheet that google gave me here which indicates 10,000 write cycles and a data retention of 10 years.

There will be some variation, if nothing else it will depend on which flash chips they used, but this gives you a reasonable ballpark number.

For an exact number you would need to open up the USB drive, find out the exact chips used and look them up.

Andrew
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