USB drives

James · Feb 12, 2023

I have many USB drives with different oses but also different files on. Gigabytes of them. I have 1 3.0 usb but then about 7 2.0s ranging from 2gb - “2tb” (supposedly)*

Anyway, that’s not the matter. Do you use USB drives for things other than oses? I usually spend about £20 on them, which is easily 256gb storage, whereas cloud storage is around £12 per year for 100gb of storage. But cloud storage is more reliable, and you can’t “loose it”.

So what’s your opinion? I have only ever paid for the upgraded iCloud storage for my phone, no other payments. (Although I get 1tb one drive free with my work account for office 365)

*Ive heard 2tb usbs are mostly scams but this one seems to show 2tb and it is pretty full (a couple 100 gbs) yet it is not complaining.

bobkn · Feb 12, 2023

I doubt that there are unambiguous data readily available, but flash drives are considered by some to be risky for long-term data storage (longer than a year). HDDs are regarded as better.

I have a few 100GB M-Disks. They're supposed to be good for centuries, but they are too small.

James · Feb 12, 2023

bobkn said:
I doubt that there are unambiguous data readily available, but flash drives are considered by some to be risky for long-term data storage (longer than a year). HDDs are regarded as better.

I have a few 100GB M-Disks. They're supposed to be good for centuries, but they are too small.

You can get 320gb external HDD for about £25 here in the uk. Good value for money, it’s just they’re often noisy and quite big, not very portable.

TVeblen · Feb 12, 2023

I use USB sticks to transfer files, when network transfer is not available or risky.
I actually use one to backup some data files - shot term. Long term backups are on external drives.

Mostly I use them for OS, diagnostic apps and such
Currently: Windows 10, Windows 11, Ubuntu, Kihi's Boot Stick, Macrium Reflect 8, Easus, Partition Wizard, Memtest.

James · Feb 12, 2023

TVeblen said:
I use USB sticks to transfer files, when network transfer is not available or risky.
I actually use one to backup some data files - shot term. Long term backups are on external drives.

Mostly I use them for OS, diagnostic apps and such
Currently: Windows 10, Windows 11, Ubuntu, Kihi's Boot Stick, Macrium Reflect 8, Easus, Partition Wizard, Memtest.

I find them useful If I, for example, make a presentation, it saves having to log in etc on the other computer, I can just plug & play. What I truly desire is a lightning port -> usb drive, with maybe 32 or 64gb of storage, so i can plug into my iPhone and move files that way. Less requirement now with intel unison

bobkn · Feb 12, 2023

James said:
You can get 320gb external HDD for about £25 here in the uk. Good value for money, it’s just they’re often noisy and quite big, not very portable.

Drives that small would usually be bad values in the US. My most recent purchase was a Seagate 8TB unit, currently available at $150. £25 is about $30US at the current exchange rate, so that's 25X the storage at 5X the price. (I ignore niceties like taxes, and the added costs of living in a more desirable country like the UK.

)

LeLibran · Feb 12, 2023

Primarily USB SSD or HDD; and sometimes large capacity microSD Cards for expanding laptop storage - All normally cheaper and faster than equivalent sized 'quality' USB Flash Drives/SD Cards. I tend to use USB Flash Drives only for Boot Images/System Installers.

James · Feb 12, 2023

bobkn said:
and the added costs of living in a more desirable country like the UK. )

Yes indeed!
That adds a lot More than thought.

Yes, I saw a seagate 8tb one for £125 so once again, brilliant value if you really need that much space.

James · Feb 12, 2023

LeLibran said:
Primarily USB SSD or HDD - Both normally cheaper and faster than equivalent sized 'quality' USB Flash Drives/SD Cards. I tend to use USB Flash Drives only for Boot Images/System Installers.

Same here to an extent.

PerpetualCycle · Feb 12, 2023

Everything is files, so yes

I keep most of my data on USB 3.0 UASP HDD (archived photos and videos). I also use them for archived backups. I have 2x6TB and 2x2TB HDD in a 5 bay enclosure that has power buttons for individual drives so I can bring any online at the push of a button. And when not needed, they are silent. I keep redundant copies on them.

USB Flash I use for data like BIOS files, making backups to from other machines, and providing a rescue media for restoring Macrium Reflect backups, among other purposes. One is essentially a 512GB that is a UASP so shows up a SSD instead of removable storage. It is near as fast as a SATA SSD.

James · Feb 13, 2023

geneo said:
Everything is files, so yes

I keep most of my data on USB 3.0 UASP HDD (archived photos and videos). I also use them for archived backups. I have 2x6TB and 2x2TB HDD in a 5 bay enclosure that has power buttons for individual drives so I can bring any online at the push of a button. And when not needed, they are silent. I keep redundant copies on them.

USB Flash I use for data like BIOS files, making backups to from other machines, and providing a rescue media for restoring Macrium Reflect backups, among other purposes. One is essentially a 512GB that is a UASP so shows up a SSD instead of removable storage. It is near as fast as a SATA SSD.

Yep, mainly used for bios, drivers etc. Can you boot from an hdd, for example load windows on there and then install from one, booting from it in bios?

Try3 · Feb 13, 2023

James said:
Ive heard 2tb usbs are mostly scams but this one seems to show 2tb and it is pretty full (a couple 100 gbs) yet it is not complaining.

Fake ones do indeed display the faked capacity so that's not a means of testing them.
Fake ones would only go wrong once you exceeded the unknown true capacity. Then the whole lot would become unreadable.

There are test utilities that can help you.
Is Your SD Card Legit Here's How to Check - Android Gadget Hacks
QuicknDirty way to Fix a fake SD Card - Gadget Victims
How to Identify and Test Fake Memory Cards
11 Freeware To Detect Fake USB Flash Drives, SD Cards And SSD Disks
Free Tools to Check SD Card Speed and Capacity - Make Tech Easier
How To Verify SD Card Capacity on Windows - NoW

Download FakeFlashTest - MajorGeeks
H2testw - Download

I've got a 4GB USB that was supposed to be 32GB.
I used FakeFlashTest to check it after it had gone wrong when I put more than 4GB on it.
I told Amazon & they refunded me.
It continues to be reliable as a 4GB device. My notes do not reveal how I formatted it at its correct 4GB capacity so perhaps that was done by FakeFlashTest?

All the best,
Denis

K7MEM · Feb 13, 2023

bobkn said:
I have a few 100GB M-Disks. They're supposed to be good for centuries, but they are too small.

I have a old Subnote laptop with Windows 3.1 that uses a 40MB hard drive. The battery is dead and the charger burned up, but it still boots up and works fine. I have a external floppy drive for it also.

James · Feb 13, 2023

bobkn said:
I have a few 100GB M-Disks. They're supposed to be good for centuries, but they are too small.

Always wanted a M-disk but I haven’t got a disk “slot” in my pc.

James · Feb 13, 2023

Try3 said:
Fake ones do indeed display the faked capacity so that's not a means of testing them.
Fake ones would only go wrong once you exceeded the unknown true capacity. Then the whole lot would become unreadable.

There are test utilities that can help you.
Is Your SD Card Legit Here's How to Check - Android Gadget Hacks
QuicknDirty way to Fix a fake SD Card - Gadget Victims
How to Identify and Test Fake Memory Cards
11 Freeware To Detect Fake USB Flash Drives, SD Cards And SSD Disks
Free Tools to Check SD Card Speed and Capacity - Make Tech Easier
How To Verify SD Card Capacity on Windows - NoW

Download FakeFlashTest - MajorGeeks
H2testw - Download

I've got a 4GB USB that was supposed to be 32GB.
I used FakeFlashTest to check it after it had gone wrong when I put more than 4GB on it.
I told Amazon & they refunded me.
It continues to be reliable as a 4GB device. My notes do not reveal how I formatted it at its correct 4GB capacity so perhaps that was done by FakeFlashTest?

All the best,
Denis

Thanks for the links will try it out tomorrow. Doubting it’s real and fear when my data comes unreadable, I should probably buy something for back up as I have A LOT on there,

James · Feb 13, 2023

bobkn · Feb 13, 2023

James said:
Always wanted a M-disk but I haven’t got a disk “slot” in my pc.

Nor do I. I moved a 5.25" optical drive into an external enclosure. Bulky, but I don't use it much.

James · Feb 13, 2023

bobkn said:
Nor do I. I moved a 5.25" optical drive into an external enclosure. Bulky, but I don't use it much.

Yes. I still find the concept of 100Gb Dvds amazing!

pparks1 · Feb 13, 2023

James said:
Anyway, that’s not the matter. Do you use USB drives for things other than oses? I usually spend about £20 on them, which is easily 256gb storage, whereas cloud storage is around £12 per year for 100gb of storage. But cloud storage is more reliable, and you can’t “loose it”.

So what’s your opinion? I have only ever paid for the upgraded iCloud storage for my phone, no other payments. (Although I get 1tb one drive free with my work account for office 365)

i use them to install OS's, I use them as recovery media. I don't use them to store data files.

Hazel123 · Feb 13, 2023

I changed my selection from "mostly" to "all the time". I originally put "mostly" because I thought you meant usb sticks. Then realised it said usb drives, which I took to be external hard drives. So I use external hard drives for backups a lot. And also have quite a few usb sticks. One is my "rescue" and utilities usb stick. With various things on I like to add to a new install (including Panda vaccine for usb vaccination!) and malwarebytes chameleon and various other things. I don't use this as much these days as I'm not cleaning up and fixing old computers any more - everything is less upgradeable these days.

I have some with OS's on. I have one with parted magic on.

USB drives

Do you use usb drives for files?

Yes, all the time!

Yes, mostly.

No, rarely.

I’m fully on cloud storage

I use another storage method

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