USB Flash Drives - Sudden Death

Even though floppy drives had fallen out of favor a long time ago as file transfers over the Internet became commonplace, I have to admit that I still frequently use USB flash drives. Usually I use them to transfer large files from computer to computer, and sometimes I load videos onto them so I can plug them into the USB port of my HDTV and watch them on a large screen. Another use for my USB flash drives is my Ceiva photo frame. I simply dump my favorite photos onto a USB flash drive and plug it into my Ceiva photo frame for a continuous slideshow.

It is common knowledge that you should never rely on your USB flash drives for long-term storage. In my experience, the risk of "sudden death" is much higher in USB flash drives than traditional hard drives. I've seen many USB flash drives fail without any warning signs, including the one I've used in my Ceiva photo frame which recently stalled on a single photo. Suspecting an issue with my USB flash drive, here's what I saw when I plugged it into my Mac:

After several attempts, I was able to get the USB flash drive to mount so I could attempt to rescue the flash drive using Disk Utility. In that process, I encountered a variety of errors:

Even after I successfully formatted the USB flash drive, I decided it would be safer to just discard the drive altogether. In all fairness, the USB flash drive that failed had been displaying photos on my Ceiva photo frame from 8 AM to 5 PM every day for many years. Given their small size, inexpensive price, and reasonable performance (i.e., as long as you don't expect them to last forever), I will continue to use USB flash drives for a long time to come.