USB Flash Failure :( In just over 60 days...

[PilotReelMedia]

 I was hoping that some of the reviews about short term flash drive failures were just a few people using dated hardware. My new UNRaid server with just over 60 days of operating time gave a notification the the USB drive was no longer read/write capable and had failed. (A brand new thumb drive!) This now has me very concerned because the hook is one replacement per year. I hope my next lasts the remaining 10 months. I hope you wizards of code at unraid are flexible if someone has a bad run of luck with drives. If anyone else has experienced short life issue with their USB OS, I would be very interested to hear your story and or how UNRaid dealt with you if you needed and 3rd replacement.

 

Update:

 

I got a notification on the web GUI yesterday that the flash drive had failed and was no longer read and write enabled.  I immediately backed up the flash before attempting to reboot the system to see if the thumb drive in-fact had failed which and it had, and the system failed to boot on restart. Thinking I had my bases covered I pulled the OS thumb drive to verify it's state. I could view the the files but cannot write to the original thumb drive, nor can I run check disk to see if windows can repair the files. I then attempted to restore the back up to a new thumb drive but I can't get past the limetech boot screen without it restarting the system. I have attempted to launch unraid in all possible options to know avail, it just keeps restarting. MEMTEST86 did function and the system passed. I'm at a loss. Did the corruption of the flash create errors on the back I'm attempting to restore? If so can I restore the system some other way!?! I have attached both system log file to be reviewed by those who are far more experienced to look at if anyone can help. Just noticed that the  (bzroot file is empty on back-up) This seems to be the issue with the original flash drive. There appears to be data in the original file but I can't access or repair the file. Any suggestions?  OK Jon @ UNRaid very quickly responded to request for assistance with this issue. the solution that got me up and running again was as follows: Problem (As drive failed base files in the root folder became corrupt) Solution (Replace all files in the root directory using the manual OS download files while leaving original configuration and all folders from the back up.) I'm back up.. Thank's Jon

Edited May 10, 2019 by PilotReelMedia
Issue Resolution

[trurl]

Flash failures aren't as common as you might think with Unraid because it is used very little by the OS. It is mostly just read at boot to get the OS loaded into RAM. Settings are also saved there to be read at boot, but it all runs in RAM.

 

Of course, any hardware can fail, but just wanted to explain how it works since new users often think the OS is running from the Flash. 

[bonienl]

Don't know if it gives any relieve, but I have three USB sticks ranging from 10 to 4 years old and all still running fine with Unraid.

 

[wgstarks]

3 hours ago, PilotReelMedia said:

 I was hoping that some of the reviews about short term flash drive failures were just a few people using dated hardware. My new UNRaid server with just over 60 days of operating time gave a notification the the USB drive was no longer read/write capable and had failed. (A brand new thumb drive!) This now has me very concerned because the hook is one replacement per year. I hope my next lasts the remaining 10 months. I hope you wizards of code at unraid are flexible if someone has a bad run of luck with drives. If anyone else has experienced short life issue with their USB OS, I would be very interested to hear your story and or how UNRaid dealt with you if you needed and 3rd replacement.

I had a run of bad luck with flash drives a few years ago. I had used a “used” drive to replace one that failed, and of course it only lasted a couple of months. You are correct that the automated system will only provide a new license once a year, but I was able to get a second replacement by contacting LT directly.

[email protected]

[trurl]

45 minutes ago, bonienl said:

Don't know if it gives any relieve, but I have three USB sticks ranging from 10 to 4 years old and all still running fine with Unraid.

My experience is similar. I had one "failure" due to physical damage years ago, but the 2 I have now have been going for 5 years, one of those flash has been 24/7.

[Michael_P]

Another bit of anecdotal evidence:

I've been absolutely torturing a 128GB SanDisk USB stick in my car since September of 2015, I live in Florida so it gets CRAZY hot. Still works fine.