Salvage

[bjarvis]

As I posted last night, my 512 MB flash USB drive died suddenly, just as I was wrapping up a large project.

The good news is that I had a backup from February 22 and very little had changed since then. As near as I can tell at the moment, I've entirely reconstructed the data onto a 1 GB USB drive cuyahogarvr gave me for xmas. The file I had been working on was a total loss but since I had a recent hard copy, I was able to rebuild the entire thing in about 90 minutes (it took about 4 hours of work to make the original). I'm a happy camper once again. I'm making a fresh backup of the reconstructed data as I type this.

For laughs, I tried to reformat the failed USB drive and copy the reconstructed data back to it. Perhaps it was a burp of the OS or transient power issue that toasted a FAT block or the like. It formatted well, but errors were reported when I tried to copy data. The USB drive experiencing a hardware fault and is no longer reliable so I will have to toss it.

kent4str was looking for 1 GB USB drives last night for his own work; prices vary dramatically from $30 to $80 for 1 GB versions. I have no explanation for the price variance but I'll wait a while to obtain a replacement in the hope prices will stabilize.

Comments

[tennisnutzo.livejournal.com]

I completely understand where you're coming from! In January, I was getting into full swing in a new semester, and my 1 GB SanDisk Cruzer decided to die. I was somewhat irritated, since I had some stuff I had been working on. Luckily, I had sent a number of those documents to our print shop at work, so I had e-mailed copies of the documents.

Fast forward to this past weekend. I was at Office Max in Harrisburg, where I bought a new 2.0 GB SanDisk Cruzer for $29.99 w/o rebate. So the prices are definitely coming down!

check this out... 4GB micro USB

[justetthon.livejournal.com]

check this out: www.buy.com Seems like a good deal to me.


SanDisk 4GB Cruzer Micro USB 2.0 Flash Drive
SAVE $72.22
FREE BUDGET SHIPPING
Buy.com price: $47.77 (expires 3/11/07)
List price: $119.99

[heypyro.livejournal.com]

I've got a 512mb cruzer micro on my keychain. At work I use any one of 5 computers during the day, and am constantly grabbing things off of people's laptops, etc. Well, last Friday I fished my keys out of a pair of jeans from the washing machine, after going through the hot cycle. I was kinda bummed, thinking the little guy would be FUBAR. Lo and Behold, it still works! We'll see how much longer it lasts, but its been a work horse for a long time now.

[urbear]

Prices on flash drives are in a tailspin. I can walk into a Micro Center computer store (a smallish chain based in Ohio) and walk out with a 1Gb flash drive for under $10, or a 2Gb drive for $16, no rebates or coupons required. They have a location in Fairfax... perhaps you should pay them a visit? Or I could pick up some drives for you at the Cambridge store and deliver them when I'm in Alexandria the week after next (hint, hint)...

[g8rcub.livejournal.com]

A large part in the variance in prices on the flash drives is the speed at which data will transfer onto and off the device. A lot of the drives are being classed at 1, 2, 3, etc. So far, there is a 1:1 speed...class 1 drives are 1MB/Sec, 2 are 2MB/Sec, etc. Of course, since this is (as far as I can tell) an arbitrary system, that correlation might not stay true.