Most reliable USB flash drive?

[Benny Blanco]

Hey yall,

I'm planning on connecting a USB flash drive to my router to receive MPEG video files via the internet for freelance video work that I do. If anyone has a strong affinity to a particular manufacturer or model of USB flash drive based on actual experience of moderate to heavy use, I'd love to know about it.

I generally avoid the cheaper brands and I'm leaning towards Patriot just because they are cool people who I've had good experience. The Xporter looks good and the price looks GREAT.

Physical size is obviously not a factor, in fact I'll be steering away from ultra-tiny ones because I'm sure they're not ideal for moderate to heavy use. Capacity will probably be 8GB.

Thanks
Danny

 

[Beta4Me]

I love my Patriot USBs. Rock solid and fast! I have a 16GB, 32GB and 64GB and they were all the top model at time of purchase

 

[CEI]

No matter what USB drive you end up getting, make sure you run the H2 burn in test on it!! H2 writes data into your flash memory up to full capacity, and then verifies the data. If there are errors, then basically the flash memory is not and will not be very reliable for data storage. If your drive passes H2, then congrats, it should indeed be reliable. For a video guide and more info on H2: http://www.chinaelectronicsinsider.com/technical/how-test-fake-flash-memory

 

[Rikki]

Interesting, I do something similar, copy a load of big files to the new card/usb and then MD5 hash them to make sure they are the same

 

[[LYL]Homer]

I've had a dozen brands and some of them have gone through the washer and dryer multiple times and the data has always staying intact. I generally feel they're bulletproof. (Make sure to run them in the dryer if they do go in the washer!)

 

[ckryan]

Consider just getting an SSD -- like a cheaper used one or something like that. I bought a couple smaller ones cheap because they're way better than USB flash drives, and I've actually paid less per GB than a lot of flash drives.

Flash drives typically have the worst flash -- that is, the manufacturer of the flash bins them, and the first 3 or so highest grades go into their SSDs, then the next best stuff goes into other people's SSDs, then the rest goes into various other applications. It's just a lot more inconsistent flash. It's not that you need a ton of PE cycles, but if the data you're putting on it is worth money, I'd take more precautions. If it's just a matter of convenience, then go for it.

Patriot's stuff is pretty good.

 

[CEI]

Interesting, I do something similar, copy a load of big files to the new card/usb and then MD5 hash them to make sure they are the same

Yap, that sounds like you are manually performing the same functions of H2. Smart!

Consider just getting an SSD -- like a cheaper used one or something like that. I bought a couple smaller ones cheap because they're way better than USB flash drives, and I've actually paid less per GB than a lot of flash drives.

Flash drives typically have the worst flash -- that is, the manufacturer of the flash bins them, and the first 3 or so highest grades go into their SSDs, then the next best stuff goes into other people's SSDs, then the rest goes into various other applications. It's just a lot more inconsistent flash. It's not that you need a ton of PE cycles, but if the data you're putting on it is worth money, I'd take more precautions. If it's just a matter of convenience, then go for it.

Patriot's stuff is pretty good.

So true, all the lowest grade flash memory can ONLY be used for USB drives.