Flash data retention.....

[Mr. Cucumber]

We all know that ssd, usb flash drives, sd cards all have a finite read and write cycles and also a data retention lifetime... which greatly decreases with use and storage conditions.... 
So my question is ... If I take a brand new SD card,  flash drive or an ssd... and (apparently I have no idea what I am about to say) if I write data to it and store it... occasionally plugging it in... will it increase the lifespan of data (I know about m-disc and I have used it ...the technology is amazing and depressing at the same time anyway...)

Thanks in advance

[Olaf6541]

It only degrades if you're writing to the nand cells, forcing the electrons to move to create a different electric potential. If you let the drive idle (instead of turning it off) there won't be much degradation.

[BrinkGG]

22 minutes ago, Mr. Cucumber said:

We all know that ssd, usb flash drives, sd cards all have a finite read and write cycles and also a data retention lifetime... which greatly decreases with use and storage conditions.... 
So my question is ... If I take a brand new SD card,  flash drive or an ssd... and (apparently I have no idea what I am about to say) if I write data to it and store it... occasionally plugging it in... will it increase the lifespan of data (I know about m-disc and I have used it ...the technology is amazing and depressing at the same time anyway...)

Thanks in advance

As far as I'm aware, Flash storage is actually better at cold storage (sitting without power) then spinning storage. It's the price per amount that forces most high capacity storage to remain on spinning disks. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

I've heard plugging it in once in a while, maybe doing a scan for errors is enough to stave off cold-storage data loss. But it's good to do that anyway just to make sure your data is still viable.