Talk:USB flash drive

eUSB redirects here, although this article currently never mentions it. Apparently this article used to mention embedded USB (eUSB),^[1] but somehow that information was lost?

The article claims:

Some allow up to 100,000 write/erase cycles, depending on the exact type of memory chip used, and are thought to last between 10 and 100 years under normal circumstances (shelf storage time<ref name="wcycles">USB flash drives allow reading, writing, and erasing of data, with some allowing 1 million write/erase cycles in each cell of memory: if there were 100 uses per day, 1 million cycles could span 10,000 days or over 27 years. Some devices level the usage by auto-shifting activity to underused sections of memory.</ref>)

This makes it appear as if the average flash drive has such performance, although that is obviously not true. And readers may confuse shelf life with the actual data retention span. On optical media, for examples, those are similar. But on flash storage, data retention expiring just leads to logical errors, which occurs much earlier than physical defects, but can be postponed by refreshing the data, as described in Flash storage § Archival or long-term storage.

Good details. Thanks. WD Bashford (talk) 20:08, 13 June 2024 (UTC)