Jeff Matthews Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 My computer has a 2 USB 3.0 ports and 1 Thunderbolt/USB 3.0 Type C port. Anybody have suggestions for a sturdy, shock-resistant, fast flash drive? Type C or regular Type A - whichever. Looking for 32 gig (or thereabouts). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JJkizak Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 6 hours ago, Jeff Matthews said: My computer has a 2 USB 3.0 ports and 1 Thunderbolt/USB 3.0 Type C port. Anybody have suggestions for a sturdy, shock-resistant, fast flash drive? Type C or regular Type A - whichever. Looking for 32 gig (or thereabouts). I have two different brands of 32 and 64 gig and have had no problems but I never remove them from the computer so I can't say how rugged they are. JJK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 I don't know anything about the differences between Type A or Type C ports. Here is the best protected thumb drive I've ever used, the Patriot. It is encased in rubber and has a soft tactile feel, and it has a rubber cap, a lot like a soft rubber case for a smart phone. It has that high quality feel to it, not a lightweight piece of junk. https://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Supersonic-Boost-Flash-Drive/dp/B007JPVYFO/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1509279679&sr=1-2&keywords=patriot+usb+3.0+flash+drive&refinements=p_n_size_browse-bin%3A1259716011 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMcD Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 Thanks for that, wvu. I wonder about the requirement for shock resistance. Are you going to take the flash drive into a harsh environment? Have your had a failure due to mechanical shock? Do you really need waterproofing? I have several flash drives and they have been stored in drawers, shipping boxes, pockets, etc. No failures. If you're going to something more radical, perhaps wvu's suggestion needs a close examination. But it does not have the 3.0 spec from what I see which could increase speed. I have several SanDisk which have never failed. Actually even my no-name ones have never failed. The exception is a very cheap PNY from Walgreens which has a plastic sleeve in the USB which cracked. though still works. The SanDisk's are retractable instead of a cap. I've misplaced several caps. My guess is that pocket lint is the major danger. Overall, I like SanDisk and even have one of their SSDs. Copying over and installation went very well with great improvement in boot time. Back to flash drives. I think you should look at the offering on the SanDisk site. Some flash drives there have connections for traditional desktops and laptops plus for cell phones. There is also a security program built in which I've not used. WMcD 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 50 minutes ago, WMcD said: I have several flash drives and they have been stored in drawers, shipping boxes, pockets, etc. No failures. If you're going to something more radical, perhaps wvu's suggestion needs a close examination. But it does not have the 3.0 spec from what I see which could increase speed. I have several SanDisk which have never failed. Actually even my no-name ones have never failed. The exception is a very cheap PNY from Walgreens which has a plastic sleeve in the USB which cracked. though still works. The SanDisk's are retractable instead of a cap. I've misplaced several caps. My guess is that pocket lint is the major danger. Yeah, me too. I have a Toshiba, PNY, Patriot and a Verbatim that has the retractable tip. The biggest problem I have is losing the caps. The link I provided indicates the Patriot is USB 3.0, but maybe you dug into the specs more than I did. The name says "Supersonic Boost Series 3.0." Supersonic Boost ought to count for something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Matthews Posted October 29, 2017 Author Share Posted October 29, 2017 34 minutes ago, wvu80 said: Supersonic Boost ought to count for something. Ha ha! Yes, it's a 3.0. It's a pretty fast drive, with write speed of 30 - certainly more than my USB 2.0 with write speed of 10. Take a look at this one with write speeds of 190 - 360 (it costs a bit more and is more storage than I need): Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted October 29, 2017 Share Posted October 29, 2017 2 minutes ago, Jeff Matthews said: Take a look at this one with write speeds of 190 - 360 (it costs a bit more and is more storage than I need): Corsair makes some nice stuff. "Your files are protected by a sleek zinc alloy housing with aluminum accents. It's a USB drive that you can show off as a fashion accessory. " So, you just showin' off? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Matthews Posted October 29, 2017 Author Share Posted October 29, 2017 1 minute ago, wvu80 said: So, you just showin' off? lol. Don't think I'll get it at the moment, but maybe I will... I do a weekly back-up of my laptop, and it takes about 20 - 25 minutes to send my backed-up data to my flash drive. That's at a speed of 10. At a speed of 100, it would be 2 - 2 1/2 minutes. At 300, it would be really, really fast. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted October 30, 2017 Share Posted October 30, 2017 3 hours ago, Jeff Matthews said: I do a weekly back-up of my laptop, and it takes about 20 - 25 minutes to send my backed-up data to my flash drive. I might suggest: Why not back up to the cloud? Even Microsoft offers 5 GB One Drive cloud storage for free. If you have an Apple product, the iCloud is the same thing, still free. Google has one too. You might also look into some back-up software. The first backup might take a half hour, but after that the next backup will only append data which has changed since the last backup which would only take a few minutes at worst. I feel sure the backups could be done in the back ground to the cloud via WiFi. You could also get a separate HDD, either in a external USB drive, or put a second drive in your laptop and do a complete mirror image. That way if one drive failed you would have a bootable backup that would be instantly usable. HDD's or SSD's these days are cheap. If you go with a thumb drive I would also suggest you get a thumb drive larger than you need. That way you could do an entire backup and the monthly appends, then do a completely separate backup in case there is some kind of data corruption. With a large enough drive you could have Jan - Feb - Mar - etc backups, a year worth of 12 separate backups. You don't want to need that backup and start to restore only to find the only backup you have doesn't work. Blessed are the paranoid, for they shall make backups. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Matthews Posted October 30, 2017 Author Share Posted October 30, 2017 I have an MS OneDrive and Google for everything else. I backup to flash because I sync my OneDrive with my laptop SSD. Syncing, I think, is convenient, but it can be dangerous to think of a sync as a back-up. It is not. It is a mirror, as far as I understand it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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