How long will data last stored on a thumb drive.?

I have my computer backed up four or five different places, depending on the importance of the files and time of the month or year. I have an image of the C: drive backed up to a second drive on my computer. I also have it backed up to another computer, to a flash drive, and burned to DVD's. Other smaller files are backed up to the internet.

Since the image backup takes only ten minutes on a fast computer (hard drive to hard drive), I do that weekly. At the first of every month, I do other and different backups of individual files. At the end of the year, I burn DVD's. It's a scheduled maintenance thing.

I use Acronis True Image, or you can use Norton Ghost or some other image software. It backs up your entire hard drive in an image, including Windows and all your other programs, but you have to have another hard drive (internal or external) to do it. If you have to restore, Windows is already installed with all your programs and data and all the settings and colors are just like you left it. There is no superior backup method.

Nothing lasts forever.

As far as flash memory goes, the general consensus is that it will last about ten years. But it's the write cycles that cause them to fail. If you keep the same data on it and never plug it in, then it will last longer than you will live. Here is some additional information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_memory

http://www.cfgear.com/how-long-does-a-flash-drive-...

I extremely have one thumbpersistent that has lasted over ten years - used frequently different situations on a daily basis except Sundays. a number of others are nonetheless in use after ten years - no longer used as frequently.

A good 48 hours.

Until it breaks.