(Wan show) USB drives that are not junk? [Note: not USB adapters, NVMe or SD cards]

[sounds]

Linus answers a merch message at 1:08:00 about SSDs but then Linus, Luke and Dan take a brief detour to talk about USB flash drives around 1:10:00.

 

This came up recently on Ars Technica as well, from a report published by a German Data Recovery company, CBL.

 

I wanted to add my two cents - what you buy on amazon is usually deceptive. The actual controller is often Phison. And who knows where they got the flash itself - used flash, rejected flash, etc. The internet usually has info.

 

One other thing to watch out for: it can be a good USB drive, today. Then the manufacturer switches the internals without changing the product number. Silent downgrade.

 

Tips - research the drive to avoid obviously bad ones. Grab a copy of ChipEasy or ChipGenius, it will show what's inside the drive. Maybe return drives as defective if you get one with surprises.

 

Install an antivirus and try some of these lists for example:

 

* https://usbdev.ru/f/index.php?topic=1791.0

* https://www.usbdev.ru/my-device/

 

Anyone else have tips on good USB drives?

[Needfuldoer]

I don't think it's worth the trouble, because USB flash drives are cheap and disposable. (SD cards too, to a degree.) They're usually designed to a price point, and use only as much cheap NAND flash as they absolutely need to hit their advertised capacity, and when they die they die.

 

Do not trust them as an archive of your precious family photos, or as the sole repository for all your homework. Treat them as a means to shuffle files between computers and locations (Sneakernet).

 

If you want a USB drive you know is going to last, put a "real" SSD or a 2.5" hard drive in a USB adapter.

 

And always follow the 3-2-1 rule for backing up any data you care about. (3 copies, on 2 different kinds of media, 1 of which is off-site.)

[sounds]

I mean, sure, there's always the option to go with an SSD. (There are problems with SSDs too...)

 

I'm asking because I don't think anyone should produce something that bad. Soooo many scams going on with USB flash drives. And it's surprisingly non-obvious if there are any USB flash drives that aren't bad.

[Needfuldoer]

2 minutes ago, sounds said:

I'm asking because I don't think anyone should produce something that bad. Soooo many scams going on with USB flash drives.

Don't buy no-name flash drives, or from sketchy sellers, and you should be okay.

 

But don't trust any USB flash drives with the only copy of anything important.

[sounds]

Just now, Needfuldoer said:

Don't buy no-name flash drives, and you should be okay.

 

But don't trust any USB flash drives with the only copy of anything important.

Hot take: It's not that simple. I've found it's bad enough, none of the flash drives, big name and no-name are trustworthy without doing more research.

[jaslion]

3 minutes ago, sounds said:

I mean, sure, there's always the option to go with an SSD. (There are problems with SSDs too...)

 

I'm asking because I don't think anyone should produce something that bad. Soooo many scams going on with USB flash drives. And it's surprisingly non-obvious if there are any USB flash drives that aren't bad.

This has been going on for as long as usb flash drives have been around sadly.

 

I end up just buying the cheapeat known ok stuff and they usually last me a good while till I plug em in and oh dead again.

 

Normally thats either a sandisk value pack or a kingston g3 as they are chwap and good enough

[sounds]

38 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

They ... use only as much cheap NAND flash as they absolutely need to hit their advertised capacity, and when they die they die.

USB flash drives come with used flash scraped off SSDs, or rejected flash from other sources. Symptoms:

• Silent data corruption. Tested by writing a single 100 MB file on a brand new USB flash drive with nothing else on it.

• Wild variance in read speed and latency. Write speed is even worse. Same test setup.

Bad controllers:

• Plug the USB flash drive into a USB 3.0 port and the controller overheats. Controller works fine for a bit until it crashes due to heat. Plugged into a USB 2.0 port, it's fine.

• Then there are the completely broken controllers.

Other scams category:

• The USB flash drive claims to be 32GB, or 64GB, or 128GB, but the actual chip is much smaller and the controller has been programmed to lie. Same scam happens on SSDs - LTT video.
• Make an actually-good USB flash drive. Get good reviews. Swap the product for something much worse after a few years but keep the same part number and packaging.

[wONKEyeYEs]

3 hours ago, sounds said:

Anyone else have tips on good USB drives?

I've had good results with the Patriot Supersonic Rage Prime,phew, series.

https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B095HXK1D1/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1

[Lunar River]

Usb drives should never be used to store anything that matters, put stuff on the drive, plug it into what ever needs the data, then remove it.