Are flash drives good yet?

[daniielrp]

So in an effort to reduce the what I need to carry with me, I want to swap my 2.5" drive in a caddy for a flash drive. 

128GB should be fine, and it's gonna be be used for some general storage and running VMs from.

 

Now my experience with flash drives has been a bit mixed. I've had many cheap and better ones fail, but not really looked at them for a while. 

 

Some of the ones I've looked at come with a 5 year warranty, which gives me confidence in them, but are they good yet? 

 

I'm thinking of either:

 

https://goo.gl/o3Jv55

 

or this

 

https://goo.gl/Eu29Rm

[Scruffy90]

It's still a mixed bag in my recent experience (which is why I ditched them all together). Why not get something like a Samsung T3 (an insanely small portable ssd)?

[RileyTheFox]

2 minutes ago, daniielrp said:

So in an effort to reduce the what I need to carry with me, I want to swap my 2.5" drive in a caddy for a flash drive. 

128GB should be fine, and it's gonna be be used for some general storage and running VMs from.

 

Now my experience with flash drives has been a bit mixed. I've had many cheap and better ones fail, but not really looked at them for a while. 

 

Some of the ones I've looked at come with a 5 year warranty, which gives me confidence in them, but are they good yet? 

 

I'm thinking of either:

 

https://goo.gl/o3Jv55

 

or this

 

https://goo.gl/Eu29Rm

 

Go with the SanDisk, it has password protection (I guess it's a nice feature) and that also lists the speeds it can read/write. The Samsung doesn't

[PenPoint]

Sandisk Z80 will be a good choice. But it seems like they(PCWorld) don't have one.

[daniielrp]

1 minute ago, Scruffy90 said:

It's still a mixed bag in my recent experience (which is why I ditched them all together). Why not get something like a Samsung T3 (an insanely small portable ssd)?

They are tempting, but I don't need that much storage, and for the use I can't justify the cost.

[daniielrp]

2 minutes ago, PenPoint said:

Sandisk Z80 will be a good choice. But it seems like they(PCWorld) don't have one.

Looks good, can't seem to find them on sale anywhere in UK though.

[michaelocarroll007]

10 minutes ago, daniielrp said:

So in an effort to reduce the what I need to carry with me, I want to swap my 2.5" drive in a caddy for a flash drive. 

128GB should be fine, and it's gonna be be used for some general storage and running VMs from.

 

Now my experience with flash drives has been a bit mixed. I've had many cheap and better ones fail, but not really looked at them for a while. 

 

Some of the ones I've looked at come with a 5 year warranty, which gives me confidence in them, but are they good yet? 

 

I'm thinking of either:

 

https://goo.gl/o3Jv55

 

or this

 

https://goo.gl/Eu29Rm

 i have one that writes and reads Pretty Quick 80MBs write 100+ reads.  BUT there so mixed i bought a incidental one few months later and it did 30s so many fake/ knock off/ bad ones out there i barley trust em.

 

The Samsung/ any SSD portable route seems pretty nice as another suggested feel like it will help quaility control and knowing what your getting. If you want the smaller size i get that i would just be carful and not get a cheaper one to save a few dollars or from a non rep company.

[Scruffy90]

1 minute ago, daniielrp said:

They are tempting, but I don't need that much storage, and for the use I can't justify the cost.

Sandisk and PNY make other portable ssds that are cheaper and equally as small. Those may be worth a look too. 

[Corrupt_Liberty]

I've always used flash drives as disposable portable storage.  I keep them backed up at home so when they fail just toss 'em in the trash and grab another one.  The need has largely been eliminated for me though thanks to cheap online storage.

[PenPoint]

7 minutes ago, daniielrp said:

Looks good, can't seem to find them on sale anywhere in UK though.

Yeah, at least it seems like worldwide Amazon has one.

[SilicateWielder]

10 minutes ago, Scruffy90 said:

It's still a mixed bag in my recent experience (which is why I ditched them all together). Why not get something like a Samsung T3 (an insanely small portable ssd)?

It's also possible to purchase an mSATA SSD and then use a USB adapter with it. instant DIY flash drive up to 1 TB. 

 

I managed to find one used a year or so ago, bought an adapter and it worked nicely. if you make a housing I recommend using some form of mesh as these things can get hot and the passive ventilation can help with heat dispersion.

[michaelocarroll007]

Also what about just getting an SSD 120GB any manuf you want then get a USB3.0 to sata cable for it no enclosure or anything ? the wires are like 10 bucks and 120gb ssds can be 40-60 dollars. 

 

edit more options

What about an M.2 SSD and a enclosure to USB?  get a cheap 64-128gb or something. Ive also seen SSD USB drives that are close to USB flash drive sizes but i think form factor makes it expensive.  Price wise portable SSD is best 

[Bouzoo]

Yes, many are good and worth it. I can only recommend SanDisk Cruzer, since I've been rocking the Extreme 64GB for a year now, and it's in great shape. Bought it because I don't want to carry my external drives with me.

[Zodiark1593]

My 2 GB Cruzer and my 4 GB SanDisk (lettering worn away) have both survived 6 and 4 years respectively, both having even been through the wash several times. Both achieve about 9 MB/s write and 21 MB/s read. My Patriot Stellar 32 GB drive failed after a year of use (less than 100 GB of lifetime writes, no physical damage). Coincidentally, both my Patriot 4 GB MicroSD cards have also failed. My Lemar 32 GB MicroSD card is going strong in my tablet, even as the primary Steam drive. 

 

Most recently, I bought a 128 GB Samsung flash drive. Write speed is nothing to write home about at 30-40 MB/s, but Read speeds exceed the listed rating at 160 MB/s (130 listed on packaging). While not my only backup, it does contain anime collections and other important files, in the event I am without my desktop. It lives with my keys, so where I go, it goes. That is why I went for the flash drive over an external SSD. 

[Ruffleduffle]

what about one of those "ssd 2 go" from Angelbird. those things are crazy small, about two usb keys next to each other.

http://geni.us/qplN5

 

[Sousuke]

I've always always used ScanDisk USB Drives as i've never had one fail on me, my oldest being a 4GB Cruzer Micro which i've had for god knows how long about 8-9 years now and i've used it a lot!!

[TheRandomness]

-Thread moved to Storage Devices.