"Rising Concerns Over Declining Quality of USB Memory Sticks"
German data recovery specialist CBL Data Recovery confirms that USB memory sticks are becoming less reliable due to inferior memory chips and the move to storing multiple bits per flash cell. The company suspects that flash chips from manufacturers such as SK hynix, Sandisk, or Samsung that fail quality control checks are being resold into the market with lower memory capacities. The adoption of multi-level cell architectures exacerbates the situation, leading to decreased endurance and storage capacity. Users are advised to use high-quality storage hardware, keep it cool, access it annually, and leave unallocated space to maintain reliability.