USB Flash Drives

[Lucas Reece]

Looking to buy a new flash drive. I don't know too much about them and
which ones are the best.

Can anyone offer some good recommendations as to what to buy please? I
need at least 16GB + decent speed and for general day to day usage.

What's all this U3 stuff too?

Many thanks.

 

[Paul]

Looking to buy a new flash drive. I don't know too much about them and
which ones are the best.

Can anyone offer some good recommendations as to what to buy please? I
need at least 16GB + decent speed and for general day to day usage.

What's all this U3 stuff too?

Many thanks.

First, don't buy USB flash drives from Ebay. There are a lot of
counterfeits on there.

I've got a Rally2 here, and the others are just examples of other
fast ones. The Rally2 Turbo model won't suit you, since it only
goes up to 8GB capacity. 35MB/sec read and 30MB/sec write is
a reasonable upper limit for USB2 performance, so don't expect
USB2 flash to go much faster than that. (There are protocol limits.)
My Rally2 writes at about 18MB/sec (smaller files write slower with
flash, so writing 1000's of 2KB files will go a lot slower). If
you must store 1000's of 2KB files, ZIP them up before storing
on the flash.

http://www.ocztechnology.com/produc...ally2_usb_2_0_dual_channel_flash_memory_drive

http://www.kingston.com/flash/dt_hyperx.asp

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171372

For U3 equipped flash, you can usually get an uninstaller
program, to turn the device back into an ordinary USB flash
again. U3 is a concept used for portable applications.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U3

Last comment - USB flash is suitable for "transport" of a file,
but not as a long term storage solution. You should have
another copy of the file on some computer, and thus the
notion of "transport". There are too many horror stories of
having the only copy of a file on a USB flash, or
"my entire MP3 collection" and then the flash dies.
Don't add to the list of stories.

Paul

 

[Lucas Reece]

First, don't buy USB flash drives from Ebay. There are a lot of
counterfeits on there.

I've got a Rally2 here, and the others are just examples of other
fast ones. The Rally2 Turbo model won't suit you, since it only
goes up to 8GB capacity. 35MB/sec read and 30MB/sec write is
a reasonable upper limit for USB2 performance, so don't expect
USB2 flash to go much faster than that. (There are protocol limits.)
My Rally2 writes at about 18MB/sec (smaller files write slower with
flash, so writing 1000's of 2KB files will go a lot slower). If
you must store 1000's of 2KB files, ZIP them up before storing
on the flash.

http://www.ocztechnology.com/products/flash_drives/ocz_rally2_usb_2_0...

http://www.kingston.com/flash/dt_hyperx.asp

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820171372

For U3 equipped flash, you can usually get an uninstaller
program, to turn the device back into an ordinary USB flash
again. U3 is a concept used for portable applications.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U3

Last comment - USB flash is suitable for "transport" of a file,
but not as a long term storage solution. You should have
another copy of the file on some computer, and thus the
notion of "transport". There are too many horror stories of
having the only copy of a file on a USB flash, or
"my entire MP3 collection" and then the flash dies.
Don't add to the list of stories.

    Paul

Thanks for the info Paul. Now for some research then.

Thank you.

 

[Guest]

First, don't buy USB flash drives from Ebay. There are a lot of
counterfeits on there.

Never buy a used flash drive unless you can test it.
That means filling it up, unplugging it, replugging it
and checking that none of the files are corrupt.
That can take hours, so it's impractical...and sellers
know that.
You cannot tell by looking at the drive or the computer
readout.

Stated another way, what do you do with a counterfeit ebay flash
drive? You sell it on Craigslist.

 

[Guest]

Then you, too, are guilty.

Where's your evidence to support that accusation?

If someone buys such a drive

they should partition it no larger than t he actual
capacity, test that,

Your first problem is determining the actual capacity.
I had to open it up and lookup the numbers on the chip.
My 16GB flash has a 32MB chip.

I've devoted much effort to this issue. What you suggested was
the first thing I tried. Seemed to work for a while, but then
started losing files again. There's all sorts of stuff going on in there.
Bad block replacement, wear leveling, etc. It's unlikely that
those processes know anything about your partitioning.
If the drive doesn't know
its own capacity, it can't do it right.
But what good is a 32MB flash anyway?

and accept their losses instead of

trying to pass the fraudulent buck.

What world do you live in?
I agree with you, but you're being unrealistic.
Look out for yourself; don't depend on the seller
to do it for you.

If everyone just resells it based on a fictional capacity,
where does it end? The ebay seller could claim the same
thing. It has to stop and blame placed as far up the ladder
as possible.

Can I have some of whatever you're somokin'?
Warm thoughts ain't gonna make crime go away.
Get used to it. Protect yourself from it.

 

[Grinder]

Where's your evidence to support that accusation?

If someone buys such a drive

Your first problem is determining the actual capacity.
I had to open it up and lookup the numbers on the chip.
My 16GB flash has a 32MB chip.

I've devoted much effort to this issue. What you suggested was
the first thing I tried. Seemed to work for a while, but then
started losing files again. There's all sorts of stuff going on in there.
Bad block replacement, wear leveling, etc. It's unlikely that
those processes know anything about your partitioning.
If the drive doesn't know
its own capacity, it can't do it right.
But what good is a 32MB flash anyway?

and accept their losses instead of

What world do you live in?
I agree with you, but you're being unrealistic.
Look out for yourself; don't depend on the seller
to do it for you.

Can I have some of whatever you're somokin'?
Warm thoughts ain't gonna make crime go away.
Get used to it. Protect yourself from it.

Hilarious--you make excuses like my nephew when he's caught in a lie.
Maybe your original statement was glib, but if you just pass a
fraudulent thumb drive on, you are a fraud as well. It's just that simple.

 

[Guest]

Hilarious--you make excuses like my nephew when he's caught in a lie.
Maybe your original statement was glib, but if you just pass a
fraudulent thumb drive on, you are a fraud as well. It's just that simple.

This is the whole thread. Show me where I said that "I" sold anything!!
Mentioning that fraud exists doesn't make me a party to it.
Denying that fraud exists makes a person gullible.
Failure to read and
jumping to conclusions
then making unwarranted accusations
makes a person annoying.

What I didn't say, until now, was that I've tried to buy three flash
drives off craigslist.
ALL of them were fake. Maybe things are better in your world.

 

[~misfit~]

This is the whole thread. Show me where I said that "I" sold
anything!!

You should re-read the thread. Nobody claimed that you sold anything.

What people took exception to was your statement above: "Stated another
way, what do you do with a counterfeit ebay flash drive? You sell it on
Craigslist." which seems to urge others to perpetuate fraud.

Kony said: "Then you, too, are guilty." in reply. The use of the word "then"
means that if you do as you state you are guilty. If you personally don't,
/then/ that statement doesn't apply to you.

Mentioning that fraud exists doesn't make me a party to it.
Denying that fraud exists makes a person gullible.
Failure to read and
jumping to conclusions
then making unwarranted accusations
makes a person annoying.

/Then/ you are annoying.