With such a high figure what they are really saying is that there isn't much to break in there, unless you shove it in a fire or run over it with your car. So don't you worry about it.
Usually the MTBF will follow a bell curve (measured) and so there are bound to be a few failures within the warranty period due to manufacturing defects, but they should be small.
If you want to get paranoid about it you could always buy two of them and keep them contents in sync, then at least your MTTR (Mean Time To Repair) will be lower. Note that even with two of them the MTBF remains the same, so either one is still just as likely to fail, but you get time to get a replacement with no down time or loss of data.
When you heat electronic devices they have been proven to fail at a higher rate. The increase in temperature and the increase in failure rate has a known relationship.
Therefore you can heat up the equipment when you test it, and that will simulate it being used for a longer period of time.
So, for example, you can heat up the flash disks by 50 degrees, then test 100 of them over 2 weeks, and then extrapolate from that what the failure rate would be at room temperature. Hence the ability to state values that a very high.
Another way of coming up with an MTBF is based on the MTBF of all the component parts, and how they are connected (with what, in series, in parallel etc), without actually testing the entire flash drive for MTBF.
Usually both are used, and any errors in the calculated MTBF is corrected with the actual from testing, which is then corrected with the actual from out in the field due to returned parts.
Cheers, Ed.
Slashdot Mirror
With such a high figure what they are really saying is that there isn't much to break in there, unless you shove it in a fire or run over it with your car. So don't you worry about it.
Usually the MTBF will follow a bell curve (measured) and so there are bound to be a few failures within the warranty period due to manufacturing defects, but they should be small.
If you want to get paranoid about it you could always buy two of them and keep them contents in sync, then at least your MTTR (Mean Time To Repair) will be lower. Note that even with two of them the MTBF remains the same, so either one is still just as likely to fail, but you get time to get a replacement with no down time or loss of data.
When you heat electronic devices they have been proven to fail at a higher rate. The increase in temperature and the increase in failure rate has a known relationship. Therefore you can heat up the equipment when you test it, and that will simulate it being used for a longer period of time. So, for example, you can heat up the flash disks by 50 degrees, then test 100 of them over 2 weeks, and then extrapolate from that what the failure rate would be at room temperature. Hence the ability to state values that a very high. Another way of coming up with an MTBF is based on the MTBF of all the component parts, and how they are connected (with what, in series, in parallel etc), without actually testing the entire flash drive for MTBF. Usually both are used, and any errors in the calculated MTBF is corrected with the actual from testing, which is then corrected with the actual from out in the field due to returned parts. Cheers, Ed.