As for fake thumbdrives, there is a method that they can use to keep you from realizing the lower-than-advertised capacity. So you really should be careful to buy from reliable sources. (Not that I know of this method actually being used, but it sure would cut down on returns.)
Those devices would be much more expensive than just a fake flash drive.
From the looks of that, it’s just a standard 2.5" form factor external case with an SSD inside instead of a mechanical laptop HDD. Not a bad idea from the standpoint of durability even though speedwise an SSD is overkill in such an application, but anyone could build that themselves, and probably cheaper, too, by picking up an SSD on sale and throwing it into any old external case. In fact I’ve been tempted to do just that, for the sake of having a non-fragile solid-state external, but whenever I find a good sale on an SSD, I always have a better use for it!
But the only reason to do it over a USB thumb drive is if you can’t get the capacity any other way or you need faster write speeds. Byte for byte, a typical thumb drive of any commonly mass-produced capacity is going to be far cheaper, but much slower, than the equivalent SSD.
That’s getting closer and closer. A quality 256GB flash drive is around 40-50 dollars. 240 GB SSDs are in the 60-70 range.
It varies a lot, one of the factors I’ve noticed being that USB flash drives tend to get deeply discounted during sale events. SSDs, not so much, probably because of demand.
I wouldn’t trust Amazon either.
They really don’t make anything affordable larger than 256GB right now. Will that change? Sure. I think every year or two they double the size of the affordable option.
A 256GB USB drive is about $50. A 512GB is about $200. A 1TB is about $1200. SD Card prices are probably roughly the same, but a little higher.
If people are offering prices way out of line with these, then you are probably getting robbed.
I’d either get 4 256GB USB drives, or get an external HD. Or just wait a few years when 512GB drives are affordable.
Thanks everyone!
Sounds like the best option is an external disk drive.
Portable HDD’s can be powered off the USB cable, but not all external HDD’s can. And even with portable, if the device you’re plugging it into isn’t providing power to spec over USB, you still might need an adapter or USB Y-cable to plug into two ports. This is most common with the Wii U, but with zillions of devices and computers out there, I’m sure at least some of them besides the Wii U aren’t giving the right amount of power.
This tends to be more common with front USB ports than rear ones on desktops, since they’re often just an unpowered USB hub. I have one desktop that has this issue with the front USB ports and a 2.5" USB-powered external. Works fine on the rear ports, and fine everywhere on all other systems including a laptop. I’m guessing it would work on a 2.5" SSD in the same enclosure because of the lower power draw. It certainly has no issues with USB flash drives on those ports, even two at the same time.