Re: Do bootable USB sticks have a date of expiry?
Dale <[email protected]>
| Newsgroups | gmane.linux.gentoo.user |
|---|---|
| Message-ID | <[email protected]> |
On 8/17/26 10:29 AM, David Bryant wrote: > On 8/17/26 10:12 AM, Dr Rainer Woitok wrote: >> Greetings, >> >> less than a year back I updated my bootable USB stick with the then cur- >> rent ISO image. However, a few weeks back I wanted to use it, and it >> did NOT boot. I had to first copy a new ISO image onto the USB stick >> using another computer. Is this normal? >> >> Sincerely, >> Rainer >> > It's not necessarily normal. But it's not unusual. A USB stick uses > quantum effects in semiconducting material to create regions of trapped > electrical charge that represent ones and zeroes. Over time the trapped > charge leaks out / gets shorted to ground. A good quality USB stick > should be readable for several years. A cheap one might start > "forgetting" things in six or eight months. YMMV. > > -- > D. Bryant > Canyon Lake, Texas > > Questions. What should a person do to prevent this from happening? Plug the USB stick in on occasion for a few minutes, so it can 'recharge'?? Should one do something else to prevent this? Should one mount the file system? Do something to the files to make them rewrite? The reason I ask, I store backup data on m.2 sticks, USB sticks and such so that if I have a system crash, they would be much needed and quickly. I store them in a fire safe. I usually only plug them up when I need to update them. Since I store things like the world file, passwords that I rarely change, they are not plugged up very often. That said, I also use USB sticks for bootable ISOs as well, like the OP does to it seems. Those can sit untouched for a while. Just curious if there is a way to prevent this. Dale :-) :-)