Reliability of USB drives

[klxdrt]

Hi Guru,

Most reviews only talk about the tech specs & aesthetic beauty of the drive.

Any ideas where I can find/view reliability info about USB drives. I've had 2 WD USB's go bad within 1 yr of purchase,
Was able to recover HD, but data had to be reloaded. Seems simple, run a test program of continuous, random disk access till the drive drops.

Thanks in advance.

cheers,

klxdrt

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[Keatah]

I've had to replace (or recover) a fair number of usb disks because the drives were stuffed into an enclosure with minimal or no ventilation. Some housings can push the temp 50-60`C and more.

[klxdrt]

Keatah,

Thanks for your very quick response, I'm more interested in where I can get some type of "Consumer Reports" on their RELIABILITY that why they fail. Heat & small enclosures are obvious.



cheers,

klxdrt

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[labtech]

Consumer reliability reviews would be very biased as they would heavily be based on "Oh! It is no longer working! Must not be reliable." experience, which is really not an expert reliability analysis of the drive's true reliability aspects.

This is not necessarily the truth. There are many factors involve in a drive's reliability, in particular how it is physically handled or mishandled rather.

Passed that, other factors, such as cabling and USB interface connector type.

Next would be the integrated electronics.

Then the quality of the media.

The the firmware and its peculiarities.

The encryption type, if applicable, and other complexities in relation to this.

Etc.

There are so many combinations of the few factors listed above that it hard to say something with certainty unless one buys a dozen of each kind of model, designs a matrix of categories, and begins environment testing for weeks and months at the time for each type of environment.

One thing is certain though with regard to data recovery. USB interface based drives and more difficult to recover, hence a higher cost for recovery.

[klxdrt]

labtech

Thanks for the quick & thorough reply.

cheers

klxdrt

[labtech]

You are welcome, sorry for the bad grammar. I was in a rush.