Yes... I've had a flash drive go bad.
I torture-tested akingston 2GB USB Flash some time ago,
after 3700 overwrites consistent read errors and, even worse,
no errors reported by the drive!
What brand/model drives seem to be MORE reliable?
Currently the picture is unclear to me. My take
(comments welcome of course!) is as follows:
Seagate seems to have issues with quality control.
Seems quite a few drives are failing immediately and
quite a few within the first year.
WD looks good, but there is a corrosion issue
with silver plated contacts on the PCBs. The general
consensus is that Silver plating has no place in
post-tube area electronics, as it can cause complex
distortions in low voltage signals. (Silver sulfide
seems to be a semi-conductor like substance than can
even cause diode-like properties in contacts.)
There are some reports from people that have had HDDs
failing from this issue.
Samsung has vibration issues, but they are more cosmetic,
unless you mind interference sounds with 2 or more drives.
(I do.)
Hitachi seems to be in the clear at this time. The only
thing I observed with my last 250GB Hitachi was a bit more
heat than with other drives. Not a problem with reasonable
cooling.
Arno