Flash Drive – They’re All The Same, Right?

“If you need to copy files to a flash drive or memory stick, and don’t care how long it takes, get the cheapest one.”  ~Chris Eddy

Every once in a while, Chris is asked to copy data to a flash drive. The person has one that they purchased from above the candy rack at Target or has a huge logo that the person received as a freebie from a trade show.  He does a silent groan and prepares to make casual conversation.

Contents

Flash Drive – They’re all the same, right?

That’s what I once thought.  The only variable I thought, was how much storage it had.  Do I have just a few pictures of the kids to give to my Dad?  Then I’ll get an 8g flash drive.  A handful of videos of the grand-kids? Well, then I’ll get a 128 gig flash drive or even a 2Terabyte external hard drive!

Speed Matters:

Flash Drive insides from Wikipedia
Flash Drive insides from Wikipedia

It turns out it’s not just the size that matters with Flash Drives, speed matters too. Most of the readily available flash drives at the checkout counter will transfer around 5-8 MBps (MBps = Million Bytes per second).  Head into the back aisles of your favorite electronics store though, and you’ll see Flash Drives that are speed rated at 50 to 200 MBps.  So, if you have a lot of data to copy, you won’t be sitting around twiddling your thumbs for an hour or more while it does its thing.  (I’ve written about this before.  Check out this blog from last year.)

Flash Drives that Chris likes:

  • This Samsung transfers at 150 Mbps and holds 128g.
  • This Flash Drive from Kingston transfers at 100 MBps and holds 64g.
  • Chris especially likes the price of this Samsung which transfers at 200 MBps and holds 64g.

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