Are you using a pendrive? You’re probably doing it wrong
A pendrive as a data storage is not the best idea, argue experts from CBL. And they explain why.
A pendrive, although technically primitive – after all, it’s just a USB plug, a controller and a flash memory – can play an extremely important role. It all depends on the data we store on it and which, of course, we do not want to lose. However, reliability requires the use of appropriate quality components, and according to CBL experts, there have been major problems with this recently.
Referring to their own observations, representatives of the company dealing with data recovery on a daily basis do not sound optimistic. As they claim, the quality of portable memory is statistically decreasing from year to year and today, even the logo of a renowned brand does not guarantee that the carrier will not disappoint us.
When we dismantled faulty USB drives last year, we found an alarming number of low-quality memory chips with reduced capacity and manufacturer logos erased. It also happens that unidentified microSD cards are soldered to the laminate and controlled using an external system with unknown characteristics.
– we read in the CBL report.
The company assures us that the vast majority of bad pendrives are copies given away as promotional gifts, but this is not the rule. Situations in which media that are actually factory rejects are being sold are becoming more and more common. This is due to the policy of companies such as Samsung or SanDisk, which sell NAND systems that are unable to undergo certification to others at significantly reduced prices.
They produce worse and worse crap
Meanwhile, the memory bones themselves are of lower quality by design – it was assessed. Until relatively recently, memory cells were used that could store only one bit, which meant that the controller needed to distinguish between two voltages.
Today, four-bit cells are commonly used, so there are as many as 16 voltages in the system. As a result the number of maximum possible read and write cycles is reduced. Furthermore, there is an increased risk that the charge differences that are read as bits can no longer be read correctly due to the aging of the insulating layer that holds these charges.
CBL recommends that you do not rely too much on flash memory, whether pen drives or other such devices. According to the company, these are intended devices only for ad hoc data transferand not their long-term storage.
