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Summary
A good USB drive can function for 10 years or longer.
USB thumb drives are a convenient and portable means of storing data.
However, how long can flash drives actually keep your data maintained?
Elizabeth Henges / How-To Geek
This feature makes it ideal for portable storage devices like USB thumb drives.
NAND flash memory stores data in memory cells.
These cells use electrons trapped in a “floating gate” to representbinary values(0s and 1s).
SSDs use the same NAND memory technology.
How Long Can USB Thumb Drives Last?
Where does the figure of 10 years come from?
This isn’t a prediction nor an observation of how flash drives based on older technology have fared.
This is taken to be the equivalent of 10 years at 55 degrees Celsius.
Flash drives are best used for file transfers, or to makebootable media.
