Is it harmful if a USB Drive gets extremely hot?

[gumbob3]

Can it be harmful to the USB drive itself, or an Xbox 360 that it is plugged into? I bought the SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0 Flash Drive. If I am using this to store my Xbox games on, is it harmful if it heats up and the flash drive gets hot? THANKS

 

[Robert Cook]

well I doubt the manufacture would let it over heat. how hot are we talking? warm, or hot as in you cannot put your hand on it?

 

[gumbob3]

well I doubt the manufacture would let it over heat. how hot are we talking? warm, or hot as in you cannot put your hand on it?

I have read reviews of people not being able to hold their hand on it. I had it plugged into my laptop for about 5 minutes, not even reading/writing to it, and it is pretty hot. I can hold my hand on it, but too much hotter and i wouldn't be able to.

 

[Robert Cook]

hmm somehow that does not seem like great product development. I would have a backup just in case, Flash chips can take some heat, but this way just in case something does go awry, you have a backup file on a PC or another USB.

 

[gumbob3]

hmm somehow that does not seem like great product development. I would have a backup just in case, Flash chips can take some heat, but this way just in case something does go awry, you have a backup file on a PC or another USB.

Is there any real possibility that it could harm the Xbox?

 

[Barty1884]

Unlikely that it could harm the xBox itself but, depending on the temps it's reaching it could feasibly damage the plastic of the USB port. That wouldn't be the end of the world, the xBox would still be functional, but you'd potentially be down a USB port.

The recommendation to back up your files is a good one - I wouldn't bank on a flash drive that's too hot to touch lasting very long.

Sounds like a design flaw from what I read - sounds like it's an entirely metal housing (not housed in plastic like the majority of USB drives) with no cutouts for heat to escape.

If you can return it, I would. If you can't return it to the store, then I'd contact SanDisk and get a replacement (likely of another model if you're returning due to heat issues)

 

[cdabc123]

another option is get a cheap usb extension to move it away from the xbox abit. however a drive shouldn't heat up that much

 

[Solandri]

The SanDisk Ultra Fits do get very hot when you write a lot of data to them at once. That's probably the biggest complaint about it. Every time you write data to flash memory, it heats up a little. So the faster the flash drive can write, the hotter it tends to get.

I have the 64GB version. It gets hot enough that it's uncomfortable to touch, but not so hot that it burns my finger. Other flash devices can get hot enough to boil water.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hhdWwvh5kI

I keep the Fit because of its great performance for its tiny size. But I can understand the heat being an undesirable feature for some people. I haven't had problems with it in over a year of use (I dumped some games onto it, before I upgrade from a 128GB SSD to a 500GB), so the temperature does not seem to affect its reliability.

 

[gumbob3]

The SanDisk Ultra Fits do get very hot when you write a lot of data to them at once. That's probably the biggest complaint about it. Every time you write data to flash memory, it heats up a little. So the faster the flash drive can write, the hotter it tends to get.

I have the 64GB version. It gets hot enough that it's uncomfortable to touch, but not so hot that it burns my finger. Other flash devices can get hot enough to boil water.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hhdWwvh5kI

I keep the Fit because of its great performance for its tiny size. But I can understand the heat being an undesirable feature for some people. I haven't had problems with it in over a year of use (I dumped some games onto it, before I upgrade from a 128GB SSD to a 500GB), so the temperature does not seem to affect its reliability.

Should it get very hot if I have my game files installed on it, and I am playing them? Or is writing to it the only thing that makes it really hot?

 

[ettanktech]

I bought a new cheap USB U drive from china, I had it plugged into my new computer and started smelling wires burning. It was the USB shorting out. It was so hot I got burned (it had a medal case) . It fried my wiring to my USB and speaker hub on my brand new computer. I call the manufacturer of the computer case and they are going to send me the new part. I was on here looking to see if anyone ever put a fuse between the USB ports and the motherboard. Maybe we didn't need to until now, with these super cheap USB drives coming from China. I know most computer parts do come from over there, but with US companies calling the shots on quality.