[mdlug] USB Flash Drive Recommendations for Linux?

[Raymond McLaughlin]

Robert Citek wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 17, 2009 at 10:08 PM, Aaron Kulkis <akulkis00 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Stan Green wrote:
>>> I am currently using USB flash drives that I am not happy with. They are VERY
>>> slow, they are at their worse during writes. It is taking about 30 minutes to
>>> copy 5GB. I lost track of how long my last 20GB copy took. They might be USB
>> This is why I buy laptop drives, and put them in a $25 USB carrier.
>> The $/GB is a better buy, and for large file transfers, they
>> work faster -- at least for decent file systems like ext3 or xfs.
> 
> I concur.  In addition to being slow, USB flash drives have a limited
> write lifetime.
> 
> An alternative to a carrier is an USB adapter.  Some images of one in
> use to multi-boot:

I generally agree, with the caveat that it is wise to use an external
power supply for disk drives whenever possible. With the USB adapter I
have all SATA and all laptop drives (i.e. everything except full sized
IDE drives) will pull power through the USB connection if you let it.
This is not necessarily enough power for the drive, and an undue strain
(current=heat) on the USB circuit. I had a name brand powered USB hub
die shortly after running a laptop drive that pulled it's power through
the USB.

To avoid this hazard I make it a practice to connect the USB last, and
disconnect it first, while supplying power to the drive with a dedicated
supply.


> http://picasaweb.google.com/Robert.Citek/USBDrive#
> 
> The one pictured is 160 GB, but now you can get larger, faster drives
> for less than what I paid for the 160 GB drive.
> 
> Regards,
> - Robert