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Vista and USB pen drive data corruption


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#1
linuxwannabee

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:) I recently had to spend £25 on a pen drive data recovery utility following data corruption on my USB flash memory sticks.

I'm religious about stopping USB devices before unplugging them, but I note that even if you follow this proceedure on Vista, the green LED on the flash drive remains on, where on XP stopping the device would turn the LED off.

Following this data corruption, I am now wary about relying on my USB flash drives as part of my back up routine.

Has anyone else experienced similar data loss/corruption - specifically on Vista, even after stopping the devices correctly?

Many thanks

Dave B. - Linuxwannabee :)
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#2
Neil Jones

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All flash media only have an finite life before the solid state memory wears out. Depending on the age of your device and the amount of use it has had, it may have just decided that now was the time to go.

An alternative to stopping USB devices is to shut the machine down totally before you unplug anything.
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#3
linuxwannabee

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:) Actually, the device in question was my most recent purchase (a 4GB) drive bought less than a year ago. So I don't think age is the issue, nor usage - I copied my files by way of back up and it was only when I attempted to copy the files back one time, that I realised corruption had occurred.

As far as shutting down my pc altogether is concerned, yes I'd thought about that too now.

But seems to detract from the so called 'hot swapable' market hype about USB devices.

Never mind - do back up is bullet proof - I've even burnt data CDs before today, which I was later unable to rely on - even though they were fine for a little while. Bottom line it seems to me - 'Don't believe the hype'.

Technology promises a great deal - and delivers some of it - at a price.

How many hours do we spend trying to fix things. If it's a master-slave relationship, I'd say the computers are winning!! :)

Dave B - Linuxwannabee
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