Flash drive info needed

[Mist]

Windows XP SP2

Use a flash drive to store important files not quite "worthy" of being
burned to disc constantly. Mostly text, QP, WP, pdf, rtf, jpg.

Discovered a few minutes ago that all of the text files are hosed. Thinking
I may have mis-saved, I ran them all through all possible combinations that
I have on this system. It didn't fly.

Is there something about flash drives I should've known but didn't?

100,000 words, 8 months - suffice that I'm a very unhappy camper. I was
better off with a Remington, paper and pen.



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[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Windows XP SP2

Use a flash drive to store important files not quite "worthy" of being
burned to disc constantly. Mostly text, QP, WP, pdf, rtf, jpg.

Discovered a few minutes ago that all of the text files are hosed.
Thinking
I may have mis-saved, I ran them all through all possible combinations
that
I have on this system. It didn't fly.

Is there something about flash drives I should've known but didn't?

100,000 words, 8 months - suffice that I'm a very unhappy camper. I was
better off with a Remington, paper and pen.

It depends on what exactly you mean with "hosed". Can you give some details?

You ask "Is there something about flash drives I should've known but
didn't?" Probably not but there are a few other things you need to be aware
of:
- Important files must never be stored on a single storage medium.
- When backing up regularly, one must alternate between two
backup media to avoid destroying the only good backup copy
with a corrupted one.
- Backup files must be checked regularly.

Flash disks cost about as much as two reams of paper but store vastly more
information . . .

 

[olfart]

Windows XP SP2

Use a flash drive to store important files not quite "worthy" of being
burned to disc constantly. Mostly text, QP, WP, pdf, rtf, jpg.

Discovered a few minutes ago that all of the text files are hosed.
Thinking
I may have mis-saved, I ran them all through all possible combinations
that
I have on this system. It didn't fly.

Is there something about flash drives I should've known but didn't?

100,000 words, 8 months - suffice that I'm a very unhappy camper. I was
better off with a Remington, paper and pen.

whattya mean "not worthy"
if they were important than they should have been saved on 2 different types
of media...stored in 2 different places.
Flash drives....as well as ANY other type of storage device can and will
fail.
Donate your computer to a worthy charity and go back to your worthy
Remington

 

[Big_Al]

Mist said this on 1/20/2009 5:21 PM:

Windows XP SP2

Use a flash drive to store important files not quite "worthy" of being
burned to disc constantly. Mostly text, QP, WP, pdf, rtf, jpg.

Discovered a few minutes ago that all of the text files are hosed. Thinking
I may have mis-saved, I ran them all through all possible combinations that
I have on this system. It didn't fly.

Is there something about flash drives I should've known but didn't?

100,000 words, 8 months - suffice that I'm a very unhappy camper. I was
better off with a Remington, paper and pen.



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I never used the 'safely remove hardware' icon in the tool tray for
years. But at some point I started having issues removing a SD chip
from my built in reader. Since it happened after SP3, I got support
from MS and they said you should always click the safe to remove before
removing it.

I'm no expert but I've been told it has to do with flushing the buffer?
I follow the practice now reliably. Just for the heck of it since it
sounds like a good idea. But as others have said, I make a copy on the
PC and a copy on the drive and use a program to backup that checks all
copies. I also do image backups of the data onto a USB HD.

At todays prices, 2 thumb drives and a 250Gig external USB are of no
cost compared to you 100,000 words and 8 months.

 

[Bill in Co.]

Hosed? What does that mean, specifically? It's a bit ambigous.
If they potentially got erased or possibly damaged, you should stop using
the drive, and could try to use a good unerase utility to see if you can
recover some of them. The more you write to the drive, the less the chances
of recovery.

 

[Pauli Taglia]

Hosed? What does that mean, specifically? It's a bit ambigous.

Just an informed WAG:

"hosed" = corrupted and/or unable to be opened.

 

[M.I.5¾]

Windows XP SP2

Use a flash drive to store important files not quite "worthy" of being
burned to disc constantly. Mostly text, QP, WP, pdf, rtf, jpg.

Discovered a few minutes ago that all of the text files are hosed.
Thinking
I may have mis-saved, I ran them all through all possible combinations
that
I have on this system. It didn't fly.

Is there something about flash drives I should've known but didn't?

Yes there is. FLASH memory has a limited number of erase/write cycles.
Important files should never be saved to FLASH memory of any type as the
sole repository.

 

[Mist]

Just an informed WAG:

"hosed" = corrupted and/or unable to be opened.

Thanks for the WAG.


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[Mist]

It depends on what exactly you mean with "hosed". Can you give some
details?

You ask "Is there something about flash drives I should've known but
didn't?" Probably not but there are a few other things you need to be
aware of:
- Important files must never be stored on a single storage medium.
- When backing up regularly, one must alternate between two
backup media to avoid destroying the only good backup copy
with a corrupted one.
- Backup files must be checked regularly.

Flash disks cost about as much as two reams of paper but store vastly
more information . . .

Unreadable, unsupported format.

What I think happened is: a Word Perfect corruption and power losses
while the drive was in operation that evaded my power backup.

Thanks to disc backup, base was recovered. Might turn out to be a better
story saith the muse.




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[smlunatick]

Thanks for the WAG.

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Unfortuneately, flash drives are very easy to corrupt. I have seen
static electricity complete render a flask drive "useless." The
partition was wiped. I would never trust most "generic" flash drive
for important info.

 

[Mist]

Mist said this on 1/20/2009 5:21 PM:
I never used the 'safely remove hardware' icon in the tool tray for
years. But at some point I started having issues removing a SD chip
from my built in reader. Since it happened after SP3, I got support
from MS and they said you should always click the safe to remove
before removing it.

I'm no expert but I've been told it has to do with flushing the
buffer?
I follow the practice now reliably. Just for the heck of it since
it
sounds like a good idea. But as others have said, I make a copy on
the PC and a copy on the drive and use a program to backup that checks
all copies. I also do image backups of the data onto a USB HD.

At todays prices, 2 thumb drives and a 250Gig external USB are of no
cost compared to you 100,000 words and 8 months.

Thanks for the info on the use of "safely remove hardware." I've also
just become a devotee.

What I think happened is: a Word Perfect corruption combined with power
losses while the drive was in operation that evaded my power backup.

Thanks to disc backup, base was recovered. Might turn out to be a better
story saith the muse.



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[Mist]

Hosed? What does that mean, specifically? It's a bit ambigous.
If they potentially got erased or possibly damaged, you should stop
using the drive, and could try to use a good unerase utility to see if
you can recover some of them. The more you write to the drive, the
less the chances of recovery.

Unreadable, unsupported formats.

Managed to recover most with WP's wplook. Am also back to splitting files
and nightly burning.




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[Mist]

Yes there is. FLASH memory has a limited number of erase/write cycles.
Important files should never be saved to FLASH memory of any type as the
sole repository.

Inscribed on my memory now. But they were so convenient. Yup.



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[Mist]

Unfortuneately, flash drives are very easy to corrupt. I have seen
static electricity complete render a flask drive "useless." The
partition was wiped. I would never trust most "generic" flash drive
for important info.

Thanks. My opinion just sunk about 50 points - better safe than, ahem,
sorry.



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