Budget 0-20k USB Stick buying advice

Sandisk extreme Pro models are much costly. I have one of their first series and currently external SSD's are within their price range with much more flexibility...you can use USB C & USB A and they are more better.
In the usb Stick/pendrive range, go for USB C, A 3.1, c & A models with size at 32gb/64/128 from reputed manufacturers like samsung/sandisk/corsair and buy from reputed sellers so that you don't get fake ones.

OP's choice of Sandisk flair is good but the device is flimsy, light weight reminds me of sandisk black/red model with USB 2 which was extremely notorious.
You can try this one too
 
NobodyButMe said:
Hey! Thanks for the heads up about SanDisk. I will look at comparable options in SStrontium or PNY. I wasn't considering them because, on average, they have lower reviews on Amazon.
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I had a Strontium Nitro 16GB microSD card purchased from Amazon India in 2015. I have moved to HK for quite some time. I was using it for Rpi 0 for Pi Hole and that card went bad late last year. I got RMA done for it here successfully with a brand new card over the counter in about 15 minutes.
 
TheCoolerPlayer said:
Speed is not too shabby on this one (I'm speaking for the 128GB model here) - for larger files such as movies, I get 150mbps for shorter ones and 70mbps sustained write. But for smaller files, such as copying game folders, it's pretty abysmal at around 15mbps. Still pretty good for me since I don't often move my steam libraries between computers. Read speed is fantastic tho, always 120-150mbps sustained (if copying to a SSD ofc). More expensive drives might do 150mbps sustained, or more, and have higher random read write speeds but also cost way more. For 850 bucks I think it's a fantastic workhorse for casual, non-sensitive data use.
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Yikes! I guess that's a common issue, larger files transfer at higher speeds? But still, the difference in speed between larger and smaller should not be that large! I agree. For 850 it seems like a steal! Thanks for the input.
vishalrao said:
If your budget permits... I got sandisk extreme go 64gb and extreme PRO usb 3.1 128gb pen drives. The pro hits the USB 3 base limit of nearly 5 gbps... yes around 400 MBps read and write speed.

Got them to reduce OS installation times which I frequently do with the ventoy tool and boy does it fly!
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More than the budget since I only see myself installing an OS once in a blue moon I would rather it be as cheap as possible but still long lasting and durable. Not too concerned about speed of installation either.
Titokhan said:
Re. Ventoy, you need to use the app to "prepare" your pendrive only once. You'll end up with having two partitions in your pendrive: one formatted with exFAT (to hold the bootable ISO/WIM/IMG/VHD(x)/EFI files as well as your personal data) and another small one (FAT formatted) meant for holding the actual bootloader related files. The bigger one can be formatted as FAT32/NTFS/UDF/XFS/Ext2/Ext3/Ext4 too, but exFAT gurantees maximum compatibility.

Once prepared, you need to copy the ISO to the bigger partition, and that's it! Ventoy's bootloader is smart enough to detect them automatically, so you'll be greeted with a nice boot menu once you boot from the pendrive.
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Awesome. Thank you.
JMak said:
It's fine I have a normal HP one and I use that to install windows.
Had made a bootable drive of it via microsoft site View attachment 104736
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Thank you!
 
?dOuBtFiRe? said:
Sandisk extreme Pro models are much costly. I have one of their first series and currently external SSD's are within their price range with much more flexibility...you can use USB C & USB A and they are more better.
In the usb Stick/pendrive range, go for USB C, A 3.1, c & A models with size at 32gb/64/128 from reputed manufacturers like samsung/sandisk/corsair and buy from reputed sellers so that you don't get fake ones.

OP's choice of Sandisk flair is good but the device is flimsy, light weight reminds me of sandisk black/red model with USB 2 which was extremely notorious.
You can try this one too
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Hey, thanks, Yes I quite like the look and sturdiness of this one, too.
vyral_143 said:
I had a Strontium Nitro 16GB microSD card purchased from Amazon India in 2015. I have moved to HK for quite some time. I was using it for Rpi 0 for Pi Hole and that card went bad late last year. I got RMA done for it here successfully with a brand new card over the counter in about 15 minutes.
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In other words you vouch for Strontium?
 
NobodyButMe said:
Yikes! I guess that's a common issue, larger files transfer at higher speeds? But still, the difference in speed between larger and smaller should not be that large! I agree. For 850 it seems like a steal! Thanks for the input.
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Yea, larger files transfer at hgher speeds since they do so at a sequential rate instead of a random rate. If you looks at speed tests of any storage device online, you will see metrics such as sequential read write and random 4k read write. Usually larger files, such as movies transfer faster since they are sequential in nature compared to, say, a game folder since the latter has lots of files (textures usually), and that too smaller ones of hardly a few mb each, it is slower. This is a good resource to learn more about why this is the case, and why it is completely normal.
 
I've had two Sandisks in last few years (both of which I misplaced) One was a USB 2.0 old 16 gb, worked okay but another one was a dual USB 3.0 32 GB drive. The problem was that it would start transferring at a good speed but soon after heated up a lot and then started crawling on speed. Mine was not a faulty one since the amazon review too were littered with similar stories of many users. I don't want to end up getting a similar kind of drive ever again.

Corsair used to be a fantastic option in 2008-10. What happened to them?
 
Titokhan said:
USBDEV.RU is a good starting point.
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Hi,
You seem to be very knowledgeable in this regard, so asking for your advice. Someone I know on FB has an issue with a CF card. He has tried data recovery software, but the card doesn't even get recognized in any machine. We have suggested him to at least try with linux first. But if it doesn't work, is there any way in which data can be recovered from that supposedly dead card. He was talking about removing the physical memory chips from inside the card and then somehow recovering data from them as he saw that on a Youtube video.
 
@rdst_1

It is technically possible to dump the raw contents of the NAND through a low-level (e.g. JTAG) serial connection, but it requires specialized hardware solutions as well as prior experience. However, I'm not sure if the person can locate someone with such equipments in the present lockdown-like situation.
 
Titokhan said:
@rdst_1

It is technically possible to dump the raw contents of the NAND through a low-level (e.g. JTAG) serial connection, but it requires specialized hardware solutions as well as prior experience. However, I'm not sure if the person can locate someone with such equipments in the present lockdown-like situation.
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Yeah, that will have to wait. But in the meantime is there something he can try at home. He doesn't seem to be too much inclined though, if I have to be honest. I told him to make a bootable Linux pen drive and he thinks even that is too much for him. He is in his 50s, so probably right about that.
 
@rdst_1
  1. How old is the card? Is there any physical damage?
  2. What type of card reader is he using? Is it a camera's built-in CF card slot or a generic USB reader connected to the PC?
  3. If the NAND modules start degrading, I'm afraid there's not much the person can do.
 
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