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Known "Good USB Sticks" for USB OS installs?

MichaelD

MichaelD

Lifer
Anyone who has tried to install an operating system from a USB stick knows that not all USB sticks are created equal. Some work great for transporting files from one place to another, but will fail or give errors when trying to install an OS from them.

Are there "Known good USB sticks" that are just better than others/higher quality for OS installs? I used to think "flash memory is flash memory" but now I'm not so sure. Thanks.
 
All I have to say is that I would have USB 3.0 as the first requirement. I installed Win 8 on a USB 2.0 stick recently, it is painfully slow to install (several hours) and using it is a bit hiccupy.
 
MichaelD said:
Anyone who has tried to install an operating system from a USB stick knows that not all USB sticks are created equal. Some work great for transporting files from one place to another, but will fail or give errors when trying to install an OS from them.

Are there "Known good USB sticks" that are just better than others/higher quality for OS installs? I used to think "flash memory is flash memory" but now I'm not so sure. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Having just gone through similar lists for MicroSD cards (CM10 on a Nook Color) and finding some interesting data on various cards\classes out there I'm going to keep an eye on this thread.
 
MichaelD said:
Anyone who has tried to install an operating system from a USB stick knows that not all USB sticks are created equal. Some work great for transporting files from one place to another, but will fail or give errors when trying to install an OS from them.

Are there "Known good USB sticks" that are just better than others/higher quality for OS installs? I used to think "flash memory is flash memory" but now I'm not so sure. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Just curious as to what benefit you would find by installing an OS to a USB flash stick?


Oh and check this link out for the fastest USB 3.0 sticks on the market. Once you settle on a few contenders then you can do some research as to how reliable they are to suit your needs.

http://www.whoratesit.com/Best-Flash-Drive/Comparison/1
 
I think the OP is looking to install from a usb drive rather than install to one. I haven't had any trouble with the regular Kingston data travelers for Windows 7. For installing to a usb drive many have bad random write speed which makes them a no go.
 
Benefits to installing OS from a USB stick:

1. Don't need to have a CD Rom drive (some laptops and all netbooks don't have one)
2. Don't need to have CDs/DVDs on hand or waste one
3. Install is considerably faster...IME, about 1/3rd the time vs. installing from a disc. Installing from a USB stick to a SSD is just stupidly fast. :biggrin:

*edit*

And yes; I mean installing an operating system FROM a USB stick ONTO a hard drive/SSD. Not "running the OS" from the USB stick.
 
Last edited:
I wouldn't want to run off of a USB stick - even a relatively premium USB drive will be much slower than even an HD.

But I only use USB drives for OS installs. Even a cheap-o one is faster than a DVD, and they don't much care if they get scratched.
 
Maybe jsut purchase a Portable DVD Drive. So do you just create an image or are all the install files copied to the hard drive?
 
Now, now, vailr, the proper way to post that would have been to create a thread in Hot Deals (if there isn't one already), and link directly to the deal at Newegg, and then link that thread in this thread. Lazy much?

(Didn't SD used to be a banned site on this forum before anyways?)
 
The main thing you "should" need is decent read speed, primarily sequential but that would depend on the exact install. As far as I can tell, for windows, lots of large archive files are first copied onto the fixed drive and then subsequently expanded and used for the install. Write speed should not factor into the equation at all because the install packages are designed to be run from CD's which are read only.

So thats the theory ...

A few weeks ago I tried to install Win8 onto my revo L80 from both a Sandisk Extreme and a Jumpdrive triton but both installs failed because the motherboard/Bios didn't recognise the drives correctly! I ended up using my old Datatraveler G2 which worked just fine and only took about 30 mins to do the install. (once windows was installed, the L80 had no issues with either of the two flash drives)

The G2 is rated at 120MB/s sequential read and ~8MB/s 4K random read:
http://www.whoratesit.com/Kingston-DataTraveler-Ultimate-USB-30-16GB/Rating/1271

Assuming compatibility I would go for the Sandisk Extreme which won the previously linked comparison hands down.
http://www.whoratesit.com/SanDisk-Extreme-USB-30-16GB/Rating/1301
 
I wouldn't use a USB 3.0 stick to install the OS because most OS pre-install environments (except for very new Linux kernels) don't have USB 3.0 chipset support. You could of course plug the USB 3.0 stick into a USB 2.0 port and it'd work, but what's the point?
 
mfenn said:
I wouldn't use a USB 3.0 stick to install the OS because most OS pre-install environments (except for very new Linux kernels) don't have USB 3.0 chipset support. You could of course plug the USB 3.0 stick into a USB 2.0 port and it'd work, but what's the point?
Click to expand...

USB 3.0 is fully backwards compatible, so if you are going to go out and purchase a new USB stick for whatever reason, you would do well to make sure it's USB 3.0.
 
SpeedDemon3 said:
USB 3.0 is fully backwards compatible, so if you are going to go out and purchase a new USB stick for whatever reason, you would do well to make sure it's USB 3.0.
Click to expand...

Indeed. If you only use it to install but not run Windows, you can install it once, then repurpose it for other uses. If you need to install Windows again, you've already got the image and whatever else you need ready, it's a few minute job to make it bootable
 
I bought a couple of the AData sticks linked to above. I got a kick out of a "Hot Deals" post in the GH forum and appreciate the linkage. I don't have any USB 3.0 devices, but since 2 of my 3 systems have USB 3.0-equipped motherboards, I figured "it's time."

Lively discussion here and it's all interesting. Please continue. 😀
 
lehtv said:
All I have to say is that I would have USB 3.0 as the first requirement. I installed Win 8 on a USB 2.0 stick recently, it is painfully slow to install (several hours) and using it is a bit hiccupy.
Click to expand...

That is not the fault of a USB 2.0 stick. I have the same Patriot Xporter since 2008 and it only takes a few minutes to get the install files onto the computer for it to expand. All in all, Win7 and 8 take around 15 minutes.
 
What do you mean to get the install files onto the computer? I installed the OS onto the USB stick, not from it.
 
SpeedDemon3 said:
USB 3.0 is fully backwards compatible, so if you are going to go out and purchase a new USB stick for whatever reason, you would do well to make sure it's USB 3.0.
Click to expand...

Cheap USB 3.0 flash drives that are comparable in price to USB 2.0 drives don't have enough flash or smart enough controllers to actually benefit from USB 3.0.
 
mfenn said:
I wouldn't use a USB 3.0 stick to install the OS because most OS pre-install environments (except for very new Linux kernels) don't have USB 3.0 chipset support. You could of course plug the USB 3.0 stick into a USB 2.0 port and it'd work, but what's the point?
Click to expand...

For part of my work, I occasionally back up and re-image drives. Copying to and from a USB 3.0 stick and USB 2.0 stick is just a huge difference even on a USB 2.0 port. That's assuming you don't get the crappiest USB 3.0 stick you can find of course. It's about 30% to 40% faster using my ADATA USB 3.0 stick vs a Corsair Survivor USB 2.0 stick when backing up a HD.
 
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