USB 2.0 FLASH MEMORY PEN STICKS?

Art_Sempai · Mar 22, 2010

I'm shopping around for more storage.

Anyone using USB 2.0 PEN STICKS 32GB to 128GB?
I've found some real cheap deals in online stores.

Are they good/reliable?
They're being sold out of China and UK with free shipping.

I haven't had any problems with my small one, just 512MB lol.
I'm wondering about the large drives.

Cyia · Mar 22, 2010

I use 2 gig jump drives, and so far, so good - but I bought them at an office supply store and Wal-Mart. (Incidentally, the cheap ones worked better.) There was one incident where one drive jumbled EVERYTHING on it, and I wasn't able to recover the information.

Art_Sempai · Mar 22, 2010

Woot! For Wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive

OMG! Found a 128GB for $23.99!

benbradley · Mar 22, 2010

Cyia said:
I use 2 gig jump drives, and so far, so good - but I bought them at an office supply store and Wal-Mart. (Incidentally, the cheap ones worked better.) There was one incident where one drive jumbled EVERYTHING on it, and I wasn't able to recover the information.

I had one crap out (I may have pulled it out without "ejecting" it), but I was able to reformat it and continue using it. I got two or three 2-gigs that look just alike, I don't remember which one it was.

I didn't lose anything, as I use these for moving files between computers and quick "in the pocket" backups. These were on sale at Fry's for about $5 each. Plenty of room for NaNoWriMo novels (a copy of the whole thing as it existed each day in November) and one or two CD images.

Art_Sempai said:
Woot! For Wiki.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_flash_drive

OMG! Found a 128GB for $23.99!

What the heck are you going to use it for? Carrying a few dozen DVD's at a time?

Not that it's any of my business...

Shadow_Ferret · Mar 22, 2010

What is USB 2.0 and how do I know if my computer has it or 1.0?

Cyia · Mar 22, 2010

You also need to make sure that one that claims to hold that much really does. Fakes are hard to spot until you actually try to use them to capacity... not that you'd likely save over 100 gigs of information.

Art_Sempai · Mar 22, 2010

benbradley said:
What the heck are you going to use it for? Carrying a few dozen DVD's at a time?

Not that it's any of my business...

I do graphics work lol.

I need storage for Photoshop PSDs, DAZ 3D models and game dev resources.
...And Podcasts/Youtube tend to add up after a while.
I also collect freeware like mad.

I don't need it all on my system wasting space.

benbradley · Mar 22, 2010

Here's some warning stuff about USB flash drives - if it says it's a certain size (and sold at a bargain price), your OS (Windows or whatever) may even say it's that size when you plug it in, but it may actually be a lot smaller, and if you write files to it past it's real size, some files will be lost. These are usually grey-market or black-market items rather than the ones sold at big retailers or office supply chains, but if you order some online, from say, an ebay seller, you might have "problems." Here's some info on a specific model with this problem:
http://www.thefake32gbs.blogspot.com/
Here's a forum thread with more info:
http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/Fake-Kingston-Usb-Flash-Drives-t282855.html

There's "bottom feeder" prices here at this aggregator site, the occasional things I've bought through here were fine, but I usually cringe and wonder what I'll get when I push the buy button:
http://www.pricewatch.com/

Cyia · Mar 22, 2010

If you need the space, why not get a portable hard drive? You can get one with a terabyte of storage and it's not much bigger than a wallet.

Art_Sempai · Mar 22, 2010

Shadow_Ferret said:
What is USB 2.0 and how do I know if my computer has it or 1.0?

Get ready for USB 3.0!
http://www.everythingusb.com/superspeed-usb.html

I on the look out for the fakes.
Good thing about eBay and PayPal, you can get your money back.

backslashbaby · Mar 22, 2010

I use a separate hdd that I can just plug into the USB port when I want to use that stuff. It was $35-40 and huge. It even uses another USB port for power, so I don't need to be by an outlet. They are light now, too.

SF, most things have 2.0 now, but if yours doesn't have it, it just runs slower on the earlier version. You'll get a popup saying that the device could perform faster if you use a faster version. There are add-ons to upgrade it, too.

ejket · Mar 22, 2010

Art_Sempai said:
USB 2.0 PEN STICKS 32GB to 128GB?

I wouldn't trust these for permanent storage. I've heard too many horror stories of them corrupting data and becoming unreadable -- even though I've had good luck with mine. USB sticks are okay for moving stuff around between computers, but IMO they're just not as reliable as an external hard drive or backing up to DVD.

blacbird · Mar 22, 2010

I'm with Cyia on this one. For the money, you're much better getting a USB hard drive. I have a 180GB one that my daughter gave me for Christmas 2008, smaller than the average TV remote, fits in my pocket. Perfect for backups of everything, and costs still a hell of a lot less than the biggest flash drives I've seen. I also have a couple of 4GB flash drives for file transfers (my business partner, with whom I share lots of files, is a benighted Mac user, but flash drives work transparently between PCs and Macs).

caw

Art_Sempai · Mar 22, 2010

ejket said:
I wouldn't trust these for permanent storage. I've heard too many horror stories of them corrupting data and becoming unreadable -- even though I've had good luck with mine. USB sticks are okay for moving stuff around between computers, but IMO they're just not as reliable as an external hard drive or backing up to DVD.

The only media I trust for permanent storage are DVDs.
I've had four drives fail and plenty of Jaz/Zip disks die.

*Sigh*
DVDs are great but making backups take a long time.

jairey · Mar 22, 2010

Be just as careful with external hard drives. I've been using them for several years now and they certainly do go bad! As low as the price has gone now (compared to when I started), get two. And listen for funny noises.

benbradley · Mar 22, 2010

I bet I can make a DVD go bad with my bare hands.

The only media I trust for permanent storage are various copies on different media in different places. Anything can go bad, and that's what backups are for.

USB 2.0 FLASH MEMORY PEN STICKS?

Art_Sempai

Writer

Cyia

Rewriting My Destiny

Art_Sempai

Writer

benbradley

It's a doggy dog world

Shadow_Ferret

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Cyia

Rewriting My Destiny

Art_Sempai

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benbradley

It's a doggy dog world

Cyia

Rewriting My Destiny

Art_Sempai

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backslashbaby

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ejket

Noobus Perpetuus

blacbird

Art_Sempai

Writer

jairey

benbradley

It's a doggy dog world

USB 2.0 FLASH MEMORY PEN STICKS?

Writer

Rewriting My Destiny

Writer

It's a doggy dog world

Court Jester

Rewriting My Destiny

Writer

It's a doggy dog world

Rewriting My Destiny

Writer

~~~~*~~~~

Noobus Perpetuus

Writer

It's a doggy dog world

*