Posts Tagged ‘unseen levels’
December 6th, 2008 | 
Author: USB Flash Memory storage devices are a practical and highly portable method of storing and moving data between places. Flash Memory is highly practical for this task as it has no moving parts, supports fairly large storage and if used properly has very little chance of failing in any serious manner.
Recently though the reliability of these devices has come under a lot of scrutiny as the failure rate of what is normally very reliable technology has escalated to previously unseen levels. Data recovery companies around the world are fielding increasing number s of enquiries and have geared their operations to cope. So what is the problem here?
USB memory sticks are dropping in price all the time as with any technology as it ages and gains mass market adoption, and year on year growth in shipment of these devices has a run rate of around 100% meaning by the end of this year unit sales are expected to be in the region of a staggering 300 million.
With the higher number of units in the market place it goes without saying that that the actual physical numbers of failures of portable storage devices will increase, double the units = double the failures. However along side the number of failing units of more concern is the increase in the ratio of failed units that is being seen.
Given the previous reliability of USB storage media why then is there an increase in the ratio of failures? Investigations tend to have a common theme and a common result. In a majority of reported cases the actual flash memory in the device has not failed at all and is in perfect working order.
The failures are normally attributed to poor manufacture quality by mushroom companies in Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and China. These devices often make their way on to the market as unbranded devices, however there are huge problems with fake devices.
These fake devices are intended to appeal to the greed emotion that is prevalent in all but a few consumers , but just because it is cheaper does not mean it is better. The manufacturing process may be cheaper in different world economies but the other factor that is immeasurable by the consumer is the quality of the components.Lower standard components are cheaper but just don’t last the distance in a lot of cases.
The best advice that anyone can give you here is to buy branded devices if the cost is affordable (which it generally is). And also ask your self this question, is the risk of losing all my data really worth risk of saving a relatively small amount of money?
About the author: Mike White is a technology journalist specialising in business computing, Raid Data Recovery, Raid Recovery consumer electronics and design and technology trends.
Article Source: Fake Pen Drive – How Can You Spot Them?
