Can anyone recommend a good 64 Gig flash drive? I understand that the file system must be compatible, whatever that means. I’m running Win7, 32 bit, desktop and laptop.
Thanks in advance,
Jake
I’ve always had good luck with Sandisk, but I’m sure everyone has their preference.
I have always been conservative about e-drives and e-cards; I tend to use a larger number of mid-sized ones rather than one or two of the largest available. For one thing, I have a sense that the smaller ones are more robust, usually being based on older tech (even a year or two is a long time in chip production refinement). I also like to spread my data out, especially on CF cards from my cameras, so that a physical or data loss will only affect a small part of the accumulated material. I have been on vacations where people are shooting 2-3-4,000 photos on one card, and I just have to shiver. I’m happy to carry a couple of thumb drives, or a couple of wallets of CF or SD cards, and switch from time to time, rather than risk losing every egg in one basket.
Just sayin’.
The per-GB cost is also much lower, in many cases. Paying for that data density can be expensive. Eventually the curve drops so that 32 is less than 2x16, etc. but it can take years.
Anything over 32gb is a different specification - SDXC and will not necessarily be compatible with devices that can read and write 32 gb drives (SDHC specification). In fact, unless the device if fairly new, you should assume it won’t be compatible. Read the product literature or contact the manufacture to be certain of which Secure Digital Cards it will accept.
edit: also be aware of the unique speed ratings for SD cards.
If you have it, get USB 3? 64 GB is going to take a long time on USB 2.
SD cards are not the same thing as flash drives. Flash drives are the ones with USB plugs.
I’m not sure if there’s anything equivalent for large flash drives–I haven’t gone above 16gig yet–but it won’t be the SD/SDHC/SDXC paradigm.
Absolutely. If you don’t have USB 3 ports on your computer, you can add an inexpensive expansion card that will add them (desktops only, of course). If you have USB 3 and are using big data cards, a USB 3 reader will drastically speed up your file dumps.
Sorry. Just woke up and have been thinking about all the devices I have that use flash media which all use it in the form of SD drives.
But you’re right. Flash drives can be PCMCIA cards, thumb drives, Sony memory sticks in one of at least 4 flavors I think and so on.
If you’re just going to use the drive as part of a sneaker net to move data from one machine to another or as the basis for a portable OS installation, it shouldn’t matter. I’ve been able to read the SDHC cards on fairly old card readers but I still wouldn’t feel confident stuffing an SDXC drive in one although in theory, it should probably still work. And I have bought PCMCIA cards of much higher capacity and used those with no problems in old multi-format readers.
Speed ratings are based on cd/dvd read speeds - see previous link under sd drives.
assuming it’s a USB flash drive, go with any recognizable brand (PNY, Sandisk, etc.) and buy it at an actual physical store. Don’t get them off of eBay 'cos a lot of them are counterfeit.
as for the filesystem issue, Windows won’t let you format it as FAT32 because it’s bigger than 32 GB (an arbitrary restriction in Windows) so either you need to use exFAT or NTFS, or use another OS to create a FAT32 volume on it.
For all your responses. I think I’ll go with a couple 32 Gig drives. (Sandisk)
You guys and gals are awesome!
