How reliable are USB flash drives, “thumb drives”, for backing up computer files?
I use several for computer repairs, and provided the drive is always removed via ‘safely remove hardware’ they are very reliable. Just like CD’s,they do have a limit on the amount of times they can be written to,and they are just as susceptible to damage from bad storage or misuse…but they are a fantastic and convenient tool.I actually have one 16gb one with an entire drive image of my 3 drives mounted on it,which has saved me a lot of grief quite a few times. The main thing that causes ‘corrupt files’ on them is by not waiting until the write has completed or by removing without using the ‘safely remove hardware’ option….particularly on pre-Vista systems. My advice is to use this feature on ALL systems before removing the thumb drive.
