I’m thinking about getting one for several purposes, primarily for portable software, some certificates and keys, and a few backups. Since it won’t be powered off for more than a few days or weeks and won’t experience heavy writing (although I plan to use Veracrypt and that may cause some stress)
How long can I expect it to last? Obviously there will be backups, but I also don’t want to lose anything on it as much as possible.
Really depends. what manufacturer, price, how often they’re used and type (type A, type C, micro USB, etc). I’ve had some still work after a decade, others have suddenly failed months after I bought them