Flash Memory

"ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable)" (adabofoppo) 05/05/2014 at 15:10 • Filed to: None

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School me Oppo.

I need to buy an external device to keep my music/photos/etc on and not store them on my work PC.

Is there some huge difference between the 64GB+ USB thumb drives and the SSD drives? I thought all solid state memory was the same until we have graphene and shit.

I need at least 16GB, but want to have room to expand, so I'm thinking 64GB might be a good buy. Also USB 3.0 is a must. Can't have any of the slow transfer BS.

Racescort666 > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 05/05/2014 at 15:13

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Are you worried you may be leaving your job soon or was there an edict brought down that you're no longer allowed to store your personal stuff on your computer?

CalzoneGolem > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 05/05/2014 at 15:13

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An ssd will be much more expensive and will not look like a Lambo

Chuck 2(O=[][]=O)2 > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 05/05/2014 at 15:15

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Someone say Flash? (Ahaaaaaa)

Dunnik > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 05/05/2014 at 15:15

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Throughput. An SSD will transfer data much, much faster than USB, even 3.0.

But as you need a data backup device, throughput isn't a big deal, since you won't be accessing the device regularly. So go with USB.

An external SSD or even HDD would be much harder to lose, however.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Racescort666 05/05/2014 at 15:17

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Neither. Probably getting a PC upgrade soon - still rocking XP - and having just backed-up what I have on there now between 2 thumb drives and several transfers I realized it would be less complicated to just keep it all in one place that I can take with me when I want to swap music from home and such.

Tripper > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 05/05/2014 at 15:17

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If you want something that fits in your pocket, go with a good USB 3.0 Flash Drive (as much storage as you need). However if you are going to use this drive for any kind of long term I would go with a self powered external hard drive. Western Digital is decent, you can get 2TB for $70 (usb 3.0).

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Chuck 2(O=[][]=O)2 05/05/2014 at 15:18

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Awesome.

NoahthePorscheGuy > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 05/05/2014 at 15:18

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SSD is faster and more reliable. USB's get lost, break alot more easily.

RacecaR > Chuck 2(O=[][]=O)2 05/05/2014 at 15:21

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Glad I'm not the only one that had that song pop into their head.

Racescort666 > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 05/05/2014 at 15:22

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Gotcha. In which case, I have 2 things to consider:

1. a regular thumb drive will be very convenient for transporting data since a 64gb has great capacity for the size and price.

2. an external SSD can be upgraded in the future as the costs come down since most external hard drives are literally a case with a drive in it. You could get a 16gb or 32gb SSD external and upgrade it to a 1tb when they come down enough in price.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Dunnik 05/05/2014 at 15:24

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Not just back-up, I have music at work that I would keep there but listen to during the day. Storage is more accurate a description.

Is an SSD more robust long-term?

I currently have Top Gear and related videos on a USB 2.0 platter drive at home. Ideally I would upgrade my video storage and use the now free drive for work.

Is it worth double the price for the speed when I don't even have a USB 3.0 pc at home?

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > CalzoneGolem 05/05/2014 at 15:25

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Sad face.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Tripper 05/05/2014 at 15:25

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Is flash memory more stable/robust than disc-based?

NotUnlessRoundIsFunny > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 05/05/2014 at 15:31

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Please, nobody shoot me for this. I promise I'm not making this up.

Loosely speaking, a regular thumb drive is what it sounds like, some flash memory on a stick. And I can tell you through painful experience, regular flash actually wears out when it's written to enough times.

An SSD should have some sort of intelligent controller, which can compensate for this. It basically manages when what part of the flash is written to, to "level" how it "wears." The controller can also be smart enough to mark some sections as bad so that you can still use the rest of the disk.

If you really want to know the details, check out this article on Ars Technica:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2011/0…

TL;DR: If you are just copying a file to it once in a while, a thumb drive should be fine. If this is going to be your day-to-day storage that you're using a lot, go for an SSD. They've never been cheaper.

Tripper > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 05/05/2014 at 15:33

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Yes and no, the little usb flash drives can stop working for no reason at all (more often with cheaper ones) others will go thought the laundry and work forever. Disk drives are more susceptible to shock (dropping), but you will get much more space for the money. I'm sure there are some solid state external drives out there, but that will be the most expensive route by far. The best way to ensure the security of your data is redundancy. Back up whatever drive you decide to get regularly. To another PC, dropbox etc...

CalzoneGolem > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 05/05/2014 at 15:36

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I have an 80gb ipod. It can hold my entire library with some space left over for anything else I want to store. It works great for me.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > CalzoneGolem 05/05/2014 at 15:39

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I don't have one of those. Don't you have to install something to use an iPod like a removable drive anyway?

NotUnlessRoundIsFunny > Tripper 05/05/2014 at 15:41

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This. Go get yourself something like a Western Digital USB-powered hard drive. Cheap, easy to use, and should last you at least a couple of years (don't drop it, etc.)

CalzoneGolem > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 05/05/2014 at 15:45

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Nope. Maybe you do for the touches. You can get a 80gb 5/5.5th gen ipod for ~$80. They are stupid easy to take apart. The 6th gen are crazy hard to take apart. If the drive goes you can get a 120gb drive for under $40.

Dunnik > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 05/05/2014 at 15:59

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In the long term, an SSD will stop working. The dirty secret about them - one that is obviously played down by salesmen and marketers - is that the technology has a finite amount of read/write cycles. Once that limit is reached, the drive is a brick.

In practical terms, though, it may take you several years to reach that limit, especially if you are not accessing the device many times a day, as you would with the primary drive of your PC. But I have a Quantum Fireball in another computer that's almost 15 years old and still runs like a champ.

HDD's, while cheap, have a serious issue too: they're fragile, and sensitive to shocks. This is fine for a desktop environment, but for a portable drive (or a laptop) it's not optimal.

The other issue is the interface to your PC. Assuming you don't have an E-SATA port on your computer, I'd wait until you upgrade your PC to get USB 3.0 or E-SATA, then get an appropriate drive, either an SSD or a USB stick.

Just one more thing: it's always good practice to have a backup to your backup.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Dunnik 05/05/2014 at 16:04

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I thought I remembered about the read/write limit.

Sounds like an HDD is the best option. I will accessing it daily, but not necessarily moving it around a lot. I just want something I can take home when I need/want to.

I can get a 1TB HDD for far less than 1/4 that size in an SSD.

The files I want to store aren't life-ending important should they get lost. Now my collection of Top Gear is.

Dunnik > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 05/05/2014 at 16:15

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On a dollar-per-gigabyte basis, the old-skool HDD is still the champ.

If you're moving it infrequently, and you do so with care, you shouldn't have any problems.

But a USB 2.0 connection is quite slow. You'll want to upgrade your motherboard with USB 3.0 or E-SATA. But you did say below you're still running XP (which, as you know, is no longer being security patched) and so it's probably time to get a new rig anyway. Good news is, desktop PC prices have hit rock bottom, and unless you're a serious gamer or power user you only need spend like $300-500.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Dunnik 05/05/2014 at 16:19

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Work-PC. Upgrades happen if/when deemed necessary.

Will probably get new one soon, doubtful it would be all the special. Almost assuredly a Dell. Really want one with 8.1, as I don't mind the tile interface - already have a WP8 cell-phone; Lumia 920 - and would really like to have upgraded RAM.

I use Firefox, Chrome, and iTunes all day. On occasion I will also have Open Office running as well. I hate having my system lag when I'm in the flow and being productive.