Don't you hate that, too ?!

[Vosla]

Who does not use USB sticks for carrying around your working stuff ?

Well, my Data Traveller by Kingston decided to nearly give me a heart attack as the lousy souldered plug simply stuck to an USB connector, leaving me going wholly ape with the main part of the stick in my sweaty palms. It seems that the connector is shoddily attached by two microscopic soldering points on the PCB. This model has a retractable connector, so no extra support for it aside the PCB itself. I thought Kingston was quality stuff... meh.

There were several GB of current data on it - most of it processed imagery for my work and my working schedule with my hours for the last 2 weeks. Last backup is two weeks old - way too old.

Got my old soldering iron out (definately not made for electronic repairs) and tinkered away...

It's not about the USB stick itself. Yes, it wasn't cheap but it was the data; stuff worth ca. 200 man hours.

To my amazement, I got my data off the stick - without any data loss.
I guess this depleted my luck to the rest of this year...

Anyone else with catastrophic lessons learned from failing USB memory sticks ?
Any recommandations for nearly indistructable ones ?

[Analog-X64]

My tip is don't use a coffee warmer to read/write data from a USB Drive....... Just kidding.

Ok here are my real tips.

1. Buy good brands stay away from cheap no name brands. Kingston, Imation are good.

2. Always backup the contents of your USB sticks to a hard drive or burn them to a CD/DVD. There are no warning
signs when a USB drive fails.

3. USB sticks dont do well with multiple writes even new ones. So If I have to add a lot of data back to the stick, make a backup
format the stick and copy the data back + the new data. Formatting the USB once on a regular basis instead of deleting files to make
room for more data ensures its longevity. <--- this tip also applies to SD and CF cards.

[Vosla]

Thanks for the comment.
It was not a cheap no name brand. It was a Kingston
I usually back up the stick 2 times a week but I keep forgetting it once in a while.

[Commie_User]

The quality of many things has dropped though value for money has still remained steady. You get more bang for your buck with something these days but it may not last as long. You can buy two to get the life span back and still save money.

I swear by Chinese sweat shops myself. I wanted to buy ethically but mice, SD reader-writers, MIDI-USB or PS2-USB converters are so damn cheap you just buy 'em. Apart from the oppression and mass-murder, I don't suppose communists are all bad!

Who can argue with a MIDI plugin for £2 or optical mouse (with lights and scroller) for just 99p and free postage?