THIS COMPUTER TIP IS SPONSORED BY:
DISKEEPER CORPORATION - "DEVELOPERS OF NEW DISKEEPER 2007"
LITEON IT - "A LEADER IN OPTICAL STORAGE"

Are you among the many who have converted to using a flash drive rather than a floppy disk or even CDs? If so, you are on the fast track of today's technology. Flash drives have been getting rave reviews ever since they were offered to consumers. What they can do is amazing and anyone who uses one knows that. But, on the other hand, you may have wondered how long a flash drive really can last. Allow me to give you the basics.

Of course, flash drives can only handle so many write, erase and rewrite cycles. (That is, when you save something to your flash drive, you erase it and then save something else). They are strongly built, but just like any other product, they can start to wear down over time. So, how many cycles can your flash drive take? Typically, a flash drive can support several hundred thousand rewrites. The process will start to slow down once your device starts to age, but all in all, it will probably last for quite some time.

Now, all of that does depend on a few factors though. For example, how often you do rewrites, the size of the data you save, how much you use your flash drive for anything else, the speed of your computer, etc. While some things will determine how many cycles you will get out of a flash drive, you have to keep in mind that either way, you will be getting your money's worth. Even 100,000 rewrites would be doing that, let alone several of them. Take it as you will!