How long will a thumb/flash drive retain the Information you stored on it,before it deteriorates?

Can anything else cause the information stored on the drive to lose it's integrity,like a magnet that comes to close to the drive. Can you hold information on the drive for years. Whats the pluses and minuses of the these drives.How long will a thumb/flash drive retain the Information you stored on it,before it deteriorates?Theoretically forever. I don't think a magnet would effect it, either. It's not a hard drive and has no moving parts.



Just don't get it wet or conduct any electricity through it. (So don't go out in the rain and get hit by lightning.)



Plus is that it's small and has no moving parts, and transfers data fast. The minus is that they are so small you can lose them, sit on them, etc..How long will a thumb/flash drive retain the Information you stored on it,before it deteriorates?you can hold information forever and a magnet ruin them?

- Harddrives, Yes

- Floppy Disks, Yes

- CD's, No (Safest Means of Storage, unless it gets scratched.)

- Flashdrives, If they use a RAM-Type chip, then usually No. However, if you use the flashdrives with microharddrives in it, then yes.

benihana