Science & Tech · Gadgets & EVs · 6 hrs ago

Older USB thumb drives can fail, so back up important files

USB thumb drives are less common now, but people may still use them to keep old or important files.

These small drives can be lost or damaged, and their components can fail.

Flash memory also has a limited number of write cycles, and data can become corrupted over time.

The risk is greater if you regularly copy files to a drive, though even stored data is not guaranteed to last indefinitely.

To protect important files, the advice is to keep at least three copies: on two local drives and in the cloud.

Keeping one copy in a separate location can help protect against events such as fires or floods.

A backup plan should not depend only on cloud storage, which can be affected by outages or service failures.

Sources

Engadget · 6 hrs ago