Burning Sandisk Ultra 64 gb as bootable drive will decrease its live span?

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1

Hello,

The usb drive was bought last June.

I have burned (most of the times not with a quick format) Sandisk Ultra 64 gb as a bootable drive, no more than 10 times.

I have used Rufus, except once, when I used Microsoft Media Creation tool. I have installed the OS about the same number of times.

I will format and burn one last time with Microsoft Media Creation Tool, and will install one more time.

If everything goes well I will install the OS every 2 years.

For the proposes mentioned above after how many times, will be risky to repeat the burning process?

Is the usb pen still viable one more last time?

Thank you

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It depends on what format the drive is, what OS you’re putting on it and what you’re using with the OS.

The less writes, the longer the drive will last. exFAT is a good format, no journeling. OS swap files are not good, excessive writes.

Burning an OS to the drive is not a bad thing, it more depends on what you’re using the OS for.

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Hello,

Thank you for your reply.
Is Windows 10, fat32, although I have formatted in ntfs. Hopefully will be used every two years to perform a clean install.
I was told that usb flash drives need to be powered regularly to prevent data loss, because data retention lasts one year if the usb flash drive is not powered.
Was also told to format the drive on a regular basis, but in this case is not possible.
Is these information correct?
Thank you

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NTFS is a journeling file system designed for harddrives. I do not recommend it for USB drives to reduce the number of writes done to the drive. For drives 32GB and smaller use FAT32 and for drives larger than 32GB use exFAT format and the 64GB drive you refer to comes formated as exFAT so there’s nothing you need to do.

I have never heard that USB drives need to be powered regularly. But to plug it into a pc once in a while to let it get some power while the pc is doing other things won’t hurt.

And I certainly have never heard, or do, to format the drive regularly. But to ensure all porn, stolen videos and music is deleted before loaning a USB drive to a friend or relative I can see reformatting the drive.

As for doing a clean install every 2 yrs, the install will be installing old software, software that hasn’t been updated in 2 yrs and needs to be updated before being used, especially the antivirus and firewall apps. I’ve been in libraries that restore their installs every night and their systems are full of viruses within hours after they open because their systems aren’t current.

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Even if one were to assume you burned a full 64GB of data on a TLC flash drive, it would last thousands of times. Things like windows images are only 4~ Gigs or so, making this number much higher. But frankly something on the drive would likely fail regardless in that time.
Worst case scenario qlc flash based drive is 1000 times, of course writes are not directly equivalent as there is amplification, but at minimum hundreds of times. I’m not even sure they make qlc pen drives yet as its super slow without cache.

#SanDiskUserRewards

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Hello,
Thank you everyone for your answers.

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It depends on the drive’s format, the OS you’re installing on it, and the software you’re using with the OS.

The lifespan of the drive increases with less writes. A suitable format without journaling is exFAT. OS swap files should not have so many writes.

It depends more on what you want to use the OS for than if burning it to the disc is good or bad.

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I have never heard that USB drives need to be powered regularly. But to plug it into a pc once in a while to let it get some power while the pc is doing other things won’t hurt..

.

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What does it mean to burn the USB?