USB Flash Drive Call-Out Thread

[MotionMan]

What kind and how big is your USB Flash Drive? Support your choice.

(I use to get them for free periodically, but nothing I have is over 1/2 GB. I am planning on buying a new larger one, but I am not sure which one and how big to get.)

MotionMan

 

[Locut0s]

Aside from a few speciality drives the vast majority of them are identical, except for capacity. Just get whatever looks coolest to you and fits the capacity you want.

 

[Locut0s]

You can get cheap 16GB sticks down to about $15-$16 if you get them on sale. Just don't use them for mission critical stuff.

 

[bolomite]

I've got an OCZ Diesel 16 GB, really don't think I'll ever need anything larger

 

[MotionMan]

You can get cheap 16GB sticks down to about $15-$16 if you get them on sale. Just don't use them for mission critical stuff.

I am looking for drives that can be used for "mission critical" stuff.

MotionMan

 

[Locut0s]

I am looking for drives that can be used for "mission critical" stuff.

MotionMan

Well I would never trust any USB stick to mission critical stuff for backup. You only use them for transport. Kingston is a well respected brand but I really don't think any one manufacturer is much better than another really. Like I said I wouldn't trust any USB stick for really important data. And hence I'd be happy with just about anything.

 

[Leros]

256MB. I've never needed more room. I paid 80 bucks for it back in the day.

 

[MotionMan]

Well I would never trust any USB stick to mission critical stuff for backup. You only use them for transport. Kingston is a well respected brand but I really don't think any one manufacturer is much better than another really. Like I said I wouldn't trust any USB stick for really important data. And hence I'd be happy with just about anything.

I was interpreting your statement to mean there are USB drives that are much more reliable than others. I know to keep real backups on other drives. I just do not want a flaky drive.

MotionMan

 

[Locut0s]

256MB. I've never needed more room. I paid 80 bucks for it back in the day.

Lot's of things need more room. Video, Audio, pictures, heck even documents are often larger than that nowadays.

 

[MotionMan]

256MB. I've never needed more room. I paid 80 bucks for it back in the day.

Well, for one thing, I am going to need one drive that is at least 1 gb for an OSX Lion restore disk.

MotionMan

 

[Leros]

Lot's of things need more room. Video, Audio, pictures, heck even documents are often larger than that nowadays.

I obviously don't need a flash drive for anything like that. If I'm transferring large files, I'll do it over a network. I don't need pocket portability of media.

 

[Locut0s]

I was interpreting your statement to mean there are USB drives that are much more reliable than others. I know to keep real backups on other drives. I just do not want a flaky drive.

MotionMan

Well I'm sure there are some that are better than others but in the year or so I worked at NCIX selling lots of USB sticks none of them really stood out as more or less flaky than any other. We would sometimes see bad batches of one manufacturer or another. Again I'd say Kingston if you had to pick a brand.

 

[Nebor]

You can get USB 3.0 16gb sticks for $30 if you watch for the deals. I have a 16gb Corsair.

 

[Locut0s]

You can get USB 3.0 16gb sticks for $30 if you watch for the deals. I have a 16gb Corsair.

I'm sure those are faster than the average USB 2 ones but I don't think most of them will be blazingly fast as they probably haven't changed the flash RAM or tweaked them.

 

[SampSon]

I technically own one. It's 512mb and I have no idea where it is physically located at this point.

After I left the whole IT monkey business I never found flash drives to be all that useful.
Fast networks and now nice phones make flash drives relatively obsolete in my world.

 

[esquared]

I'm sure those are faster than the average USB 2 ones but I don't think most of them will be blazingly fast as they probably haven't changed the flash RAM or tweaked them.

I have a 16GB Patriot RAGE 2.0 that writes at nearly 25MB/sec on a USB 2.0 port

I think the speed is due to RAID-type function of the memory

There is a Patriot Supersonic that supposedly writes at 70 MB/sec and reads at 100mb/sec
with USB 3.0
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220552

I would like one but first I need a USB 3.0 board/card

 

[coldmeat]

I have a 4gb SanDisk Gator. If I was to buy another I would make sure I got one with a couple more gb because sometimes I like to use it to carry movies, and most of my HD movies are ~4.5gb.

 

[Locut0s]

I have a 16GB Patriot RAGE 2.0 that writes at nearly 25MB/sec on a USB 2.0 port

I think the speed is due to RAID-type function of the memory

There is a Patriot Supersonic that supposedly writes at 70 MB/sec and reads at 100mb/sec
with USB 3.0
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220552

I would like one but first I need a USB 3.0 board/card

Thone patriot rage drives are nice had a coworker with one and we sold a lot of them too.

 

[esquared]

I just found one that reads 200 MB/sec and writes at 120 MB/sec

A bit pricey.
64GB - 180.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220584


128GB - 290.00
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220585

 

[sandorski]

2 4gb, 1 Kingston Data Traveller, the other is a Sony(IIRC). Only used them a few times total.

 

[paperfist]

64GB Mushkin. What did I win?

Well I would never trust any USB stick to mission critical stuff for backup. You only use them for transport. Kingston is a well respected brand but I really don't think any one manufacturer is much better than another really. Like I said I wouldn't trust any USB stick for really important data. And hence I'd be happy with just about anything.

Are you basing your not really trusting USB sticks to a data loss experience? Personally I like them way better then CDs, and haven't had an issue with one yet. I'm curious to know what would fail first on a USB stick as they seem like pretty simple devices.

 

[Locut0s]

64GB Mushkin. What did I win?



Are you basing your not really trusting USB sticks to a data loss experience? Personally I like them way better then CDs, and haven't had an issue with one yet. I'm curious to know what would fail first on a USB stick as they seem like pretty simple devices.

We had whole batches of cheap OCZ 4GB sticks die on us. We also sold quite a few batches of refurbished ones so obviously they can die. I just wouldn't trust them in general as a backup source. I have nothing against using them for data transfer.

 

[paperfist]

We had whole batches of cheap OCZ 4GB sticks die on us. We also sold quite a few batches of refurbished ones so obviously they can die. I just wouldn't trust them in general as a backup source. I have nothing against using them for data transfer.

Yeah I guess if a USB stick goes your SOL, not like you can fix the scratches or put it in another system

 

[Wordplay]

A 4GB Memorex that has survived a wash and dry cycle... along with other abuse over 3 years.

 

[lxskllr]

I'm running a Debian sid install on a 8gb OCZ Rally2. Not the fastest thing, but it works good. I'm tenatively with Locut0s. For reliability, all of them have worked well for me. For speed, and technical specs, you have to read reviews, and data sheets. In general, I like Sandisk for flash media.