USB Memory sticks

[Jim Hawkins]

Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost. I see you can get up to 64GB USB memory sticks these days Which makes and sizes have the best reputation/longest lives ?

Jim Hawkins

[Bernard Peek]

By the time anyone has tested them they have become obsolete and you can't buy them any more. Buy a reputable brand and hope.

[The Natural Philosopher]

they are all teh sae chips inside more or less.

Kingstion is usually a safe brand.

1GB is SO old it must go back YEARS.

[John Williamson]

As TNP says, they're all the same chips, and are probably all made in a random factory in China.

Kingston have a good reputation. and most of the USB sticks I've had fail have been for mechanical reasons such as being driven over or stepped on. If you can find one where the whole thing retracts into the body, they're a touch safer than ones where the connector is permanently exposed, even if that's under a cap.

[Brian Gaff]

Yes indeed, I've never had one fail though the newer ones do seem to be faster. I just hope the format keeps going as a lot of players now use them for video and audio. Brian

[Andy Dingley]

I don't know _any_ >=3D 16GB that are acceptably reliable, and I've tried loads. My robust backups are on a box of 4GB no-names that seem indestructible (one of them went through an autoclave!).

[Andy Dingley]

This has never been true for memory - Korea is a big player.

[dennis]

They all last a couple of years, then they are too small and get replaced by a bigger one. These days they get replaced by SDcards as they fit the camera as well.

As with all digital media, don't rely on them for anything important. They fail, get broken, stolen or lost. You need multiple copies at all times to be safe.

[polygonum]

Very recently got a Transcend 16 GB USB3 - and it certainly works very much faster than any I have previously used (yes - in a USB3 socket). And not too much of a premium when I got it.

[mike]

I've just had a Kingston SD card fall to pieces inside a card reader, after only a couple of months of light use. Had to pick out the remains with a needle. If I had the receipt I'd send the bugger back. I also thought Kingston was a reliable brand but not quite so sure now...

[Brian Reay.]

The actual electronics (the memory etc.) tends to be fine, the bit that generally fails is the connector- often as not the joint(s) between the PCB and the "pins" on the USB plug. If you've something on the device you need to recover, it is worth a try to repair it.

Remove the plastic case (carefully) and look between the metal shell of the connector and the PCB. You should see a row of 4 soldered joints- these tend to fail. Remake them and try the device.

The joints often fail because of stress, people hang key etc from the memory stick when it is inserted into the PC or it gets a "knock".

I've repaired a number like this- several for my daughters and some for pupils at school who had important work on them.

[Brian Reay.]

[Brian Reay.]

I now buy mine from MrMemory.

's service is excellent.

[Mike Tomlinson]

En el artículo , mike escribió:

Prolly a knock-off one. Millions of the buggers on ebay.

[AlanD]

+1

The only problem I ever had with a Kingston card turned out to be a copy. DONT buy these from ebay or an Amazon seller. Use 7dayshop or ebuyer or similar.

[Andy Bartlett]

Be very wary of the write speed of cheap sticks. Some 64GB sticks have a write speed of 7MB/s or less. At 7MB/s it will take over 2.5hours to fill.

[Java Jive]

Beware of buying unbadged chips, or what may be faked brand-name products. Where possible buy a respected brand-name from their own company site.

The world of 'grey' USB sticks is ripe with trickery, many cheap ones are a scam - one that claims to be, say 16GB, actually turns out to be, say, 2GB, with its memory addressing rolling over to fill the same

2GB eight times, thus looking to the computer as though it has 16GB, but it fills up after only 2GB, when you think it should have another 14GB to go. Yet, even when full, when examined in Explorer or Disk Manager, it may still say 14GB free!

This is the complete thread where I first read about this ... Flash Drive Recommendations

but you may wish to go straight to the most relevant post ... #9 Theo Markettos

The manufacturer's blog l> Just had a 1GB Kingston Data Traveller give up the ghost.

[mike]

It was from ebuyer.

[Bob Eager]

I was given a 1GB promotional one only last Friday.

[Bob Eager]

There are definitely differences - I suspect that there are 'cheap' chips and 'not-so-cheap' chips.

I use Sandisk.