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Is it a good idea to store the archives on a USB Flash Drive for at least 5 years? Will data be removed with the passage of time?

Use Case:-

  1. I'll keep adding data in the USB with the passage of time.
  2. As the USB drive will be full I'll put it in archives.
  3. In the future I'll just copy or view the data on the USB drive.

Will my data be safe for next 5 years? If no then what's the maximum timespan of lossless data storage.

Omar Tariq
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1 Answers1

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I have USB flash drives that are 5 years old that still work.

I have old 32MB and 64MB micro-SD cards that still work. I also have some that do not. A very old 128MB SmartMedia card (likely purchased around the year 2000 or so) I have also still works.

I will update this if I can find a source (or someone else can comment) but the memory cells in NAND are pretty much like a battery, and will lose their "charge" over time. So no NAND-based flash memory is going to last forever - not sure if the "shelf-life" is something like 10 years or 100 years.

EDIT: An article I cited while answering this question says typical times are 100 years, but I think this is for SLC flash. As stated in my other question I think it'd be less for MLC and TLC types of flash, which since it's cheaper is more likely what your flash drive has.

A good wear leveling algorithm should be copying and rewriting very old blocks - of course there's no way to tell what the microcontrollers in flash drives actually do.

Any good backup strategy is going to take into account "media refresh." Ideally you'd be copying your old backups, if you still need them, to new media on a regular basis. This is a good idea no matter what the media type.

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LawrenceC
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