Did you know flash drives don’t last forever? I didn’t. I’ve been saving pictures from vacations, stories I’d been writing, even tax information on a flash drive for a few years now. Backing it up, you know? Everyone who writes knows to back things up. In multiple locations. And then my flash drive died… So here’s what happened and why I’m now switching over to M-Disc.

So last month my computer started freaking out. I took it in to be serviced and they told me nothing was wrong with it but that I should get a portable hard drive just to be safe. “No problem,” I said. I’ve already got one. Took the computer back home, went back to work, no big whoop.

Then…it happened. There was this huge thunderstorm about a week ago and I had my computer plugged in charging after I went to bed. Next morning I woke up and my computer and my portable hard drive were both fried. Dead. No repair possible.

It’s okay, though. I’m a writer, right? I back everything up, in multiple locations. Hence, the flash drive. So, even though I was in a suck mood for having to replace my computer, I at least knew I’d still be covered because of the flash drive. Back to the computer store I went, picked out my new Mac…a beaut, btw, and headed home to set it up. No big deal. After maybe twenty minutes (doesn’t take long with Mac’s), I plugged in my flash drive, ready to transfer everything over.

Only, it kept reading as an error. What the junk? Back to the computer store…again…this time with my flash drive and a lot more panic. The tech guy looked at it and gave me the bad news, “Flash drives don’t last forever.”

“What?”

“Six, seven years, not forever.”

I’d had mine for seven.

So that’s it. Gone. All. Gone. That’s when I came online looking for something better.

The M-Disc has been around forever, apparently, for corporations, the government, universities, places like that. That’s why I’m just now hearing about it. Coolest thing beyond the fact that my data will outlast me by several lifetimes? It records Blu-Ray, too.

So yeah, I’m a little peeved I didn’t know about this last month. I’d still have all my files, pictures, etc all in one place (I still have most of them, but I have to hunt them down now to resave them). But, you know, life. Thing is, now that I know about M-Disc, I won’t have to do this ever again. Ever. Again.