Choosing a reliable and fast flash drive. A “different” look at choosing a new flash drive
Once upon a time, the shelves of any PC owner were littered with floppy disks, then CDs, but now for storing information and comfortable use use Flash drives. This is a very convenient tool that has a large memory capacity, high speed transfers, a convenient USB interface for connection, so you should have an idea of how to choose a flash drive. The choice is very wide, so before purchasing you need to be able to understand the characteristics of the device.
What is a flash drive
People have become accustomed to having a small, convenient device that can store a large amount of music, video or video, but few people understand what the device is. A flash drive is a removable storage medium with a certain type of file system without moving elements in the structure, which ensures increased reliability. To write and read documents, a TLC type of memory is used, but the choice of a flash drive is based not only on this parameter; the storage capacity, writing and reading speed are also considered important.
Species
One of the parameters of this device is its appearance. The types of flash drives are not so diverse; there are options with connection interfaces 2.0 and 3.0, but the appearance can be very different. Internal organization The carrier consists of a board and an output for USB connections, but the housing options are very different. Difficulty in choosing appearance no, however, some design features should still be taken into account when purchasing. What types of flash drives are there and what to focus on:
- Open connector. This option is often used on models with very small sizes. There is no protective cap on the contact plate, which helps make the drive compact, but does not protect the connector from scratches or debris.
- Removable cap. This is a popular, simple option for plate protection. The attachments are made of plastic or rubber to protect USB from moisture and dust. the main problem The problem is that it is very easy to lose it, so look for models where the nozzle is attached to the body with a string.
- Bracket. The housing design consists of a bracket and the body of the device; they can be rotated to the sides relative to each other. It helps to cover the drive connector with the side of the bracket to protect the plate from scratches, but this will not help against moisture or dust.
- Slider. With this design option, using a special key, you can hide the connector inside the case. This helps protect the USB from breaks and scratches, but there is a risk that the locking mechanism will break and it will be difficult to remove the plate. In addition, this does not guarantee protection from moisture and dust.
Cases for flash drives are made from rubber, plastic and metal. The best option is when these protection systems are combined. Eg, metal case The top has a rubberized base, which guarantees protection from external influences, moisture, and dust. Even if dropped from a great height, all recordings on the media will remain safe and sound. Such models are usually more expensive.
Speed
Choose the right one suitable model It will work if you know about the basic parameters of the device. Flash drive writing and reading speed – important criteria when purchasing, because they affect the speed of interaction between the drive and the computer. Considering that information can be rewritten a large number of times, it would be better if this happens on maximum speed. Measured this parameter in megabits per second (Mb/s).
Manufacturers always write the amount of memory in large numbers on the packaging, but not all companies indicate the speed, which is a very important parameter for assessing the wisdom of purchasing this removable media. On the packaging this parameter is indicated in a rating format, for example, 200x, where the variable is 200 KB/s. It turns out that the speed with this indicator will be 30 MB/s. The higher the x multiplier, the faster you will record data and transfer it to your computer. High-speed flash drives always cost more.
Maximum volume
This is the most main characteristic devices that buyers pay attention to. This is the right move on the part of the manufacturer, but a person must definitely pay attention to other parameters. The memory capacity of a flash drive is usually indicated in gigabytes (in common parlance “gig”). Modern models are designed for 32/64/128 GB, but if necessary, you can take a smaller capacity of 4/8/16 GB. Not everyone is going to store huge amounts of data, so maximum values are not needed.
The maximum capacity of a flash drive available for purchase by a user is 128 GB; the price of such a drive is on par with a 1 terabyte (TB) SSD drive. The operating scheme of the devices is different, but USB drives are more portable; you can carry them in your pocket and connect them to any computer or laptop without any problems. If you are not strapped for money and you need a large amount of memory, then it is better to choose a flash drive. You can divide the types of drives by capacity as follows:
- cheap, but small in volume - 4-16 GB;
- affordable price and good quality -16-64 GB;
- high cost, but large capacity - 128 GB.
Flash drive rating
Because of large quantity different manufacturers, companies and options for speed and volume, people have a question about which flash drive is best to buy for a computer. It should be understood that there are drives for phones and cameras (SD) that connect to the PC only through a special card reader (it is built-in in a laptop). Every year reviews are published that examine best manufacturers flash drives, which models should be chosen based on price/quality ratio.
There are certain top sellers that are popular among users. The classification is based on reviews left by customers about the operation of flash drives. You can choose one of the following companies:
- Transcend. Famous company, which produces products for computers in 1988. For the first time, this manufacturer introduced a lifetime warranty on its drives, because the service life and number of write cycles of these media is really long. If you want a proven flash drive, you need to choose Transcend.
- Silicon Power. The company is very popular, its products are sold in 90 countries around the world.
- Kingstone. You should choose this option if you want a proven brand that has been on the market since 1987. The manufacturer confidently competes with all other companies.
- TeamGroup. Every year the assortment increases and the buyer has a choice from it.
- SanDisk. They appeared on the market in 1988 and produce at least 4 million copies of memory cards every year. The design is very simple and the price is affordable.
- Apacer. The company has established itself as a manufacturer of high-quality, reliable products that are difficult to choose and buy.
- Pretec. This company is widely used for industrial and military purposes. This is a good reason to choose this flash drive.
- Adata. A relatively new company that produces reliable products.
- Prestigio. A company that produces a lot electronic products. It’s worth choosing such flash drives if you love the leather (exclusive design) that decorates the body of the product.
The biggest
Drives vary in cost depending on how large the storage is. More capacious options will cost more, by this moment This is the largest flash drive capacity – 512 GB. You need to choose this option if you want to copy movies from the Internet or games with which you will go on a trip. For text files, music, this will be too much storage space. At the same time, the device will still look very compact. Here are examples of such media along with the cost:
- Intenso Ultra Line 128GB – from 1800 rubles;
- Sandisk Ultra Fit 128GB – from 2100 rubles;
- Sandisk Cruzer Blade 128GB – from 1300 rubles;
- CnMemory Spaceloop XL (256 GB) – from 2000 rubles;
- Patriot Supersonic Mega (512 GB) – 2500 rubles.
The fastest
Another important parameter of the drive is the data transfer speed. All models undergo mandatory testing at the factory and the value in MB/s must be indicated on the packaging. High-speed flash drives display this indicator on the packaging because this is their advantage. If you can't find this parameter anywhere, it means it's low and the company doesn't want to open it. Below you will find a small TOP of which flash drive is the most reliable and fastest:
| Name | Write/read speed ratio in % |
| Sandisk Extreme USB 3.0 | |
| ADATA DashDrive UV128 | |
| Transcend JetFlash 780 | |
| Transcend JetFlash 760 | |
| Kingston DataTraveler G4 | |
| Silicon Power Marvel M01 | |
| Transcend JetFlash 790 |
The most reliable
It is very important to buy drives in official stores because there are a lot of fakes coming from China. The reliability rating of flash drives is constantly changing because the device is being manufactured large quantities and sometimes there are tanks at the factory. Below is a rating of reliable and proven models based on positive customer reviews:
- Transcend JetFlash 700. A drive with very simple design made of plastic. You can choose an option with interface 2.0 and 3.0 (USB). It's worth choosing this model if you need it good performance no overpayment for registration.
- Transcend JetFlash 780. This model has a different memory cell design, which provides higher data processing speed.
- Kingston DataTraveler 100 GZ. A simple and practical model with a sliding plastic body.
- Transcend JetFlash Z50. A very small and convenient flash drive for work or study.
- Kingston DataTraveler G4. Convenient system fastenings, you can hang it on your keys so as not to lose it.
Which flash drive is better
When did you decide to choose removable storage, consider the purpose for which it is needed, the budget and practicality of the model. The best flash drive is the one that meets your needs. If you only need to bring home a few text or graphic documents, then 8 GB will even be a lot and there is no point in overpaying for the volume. Which flash drive to buy depends solely on your needs, and the most popular and reliable companies were described above.
Which flash drive to choose
If you're shopping at a brick-and-mortar store, don't hesitate to ask a consultant about the drive's specifications. The flash drive parameters indicated on the packaging will help you choose the appropriate option. As a rule, people pay attention only to the maximum storage capacity, but data transfer speed is a much more important parameter. You can take a 128 GB drive, but it will have a slow write speed and it will take you 30 minutes to transfer one movie. Below we will discuss in detail how to choose a flash drive that will suit your needs.
How to choose a good flash drive
You have the opportunity to overwrite the contents of the drive many times. Please note that the expiration date of the flash drive is not indicated, but there is a certain number of cleaning cycles. As a rule, there are so many of them that a person does not have time to use them all. More often, drives are lost and then you need to know how to choose a flash drive. This is done according to the following parameters.
Memory
The first thing a buyer pays attention to when deciding to choose a drive. This figure can vary from 512 megabytes to 512 GB. As technology develops, the maximum memory capacity also increases, so a flash drive with a larger capacity may appear. You need to select the one that matches the files you are going to copy. If we're talking about about text documents, then you will never need more than 4 GB. If this is a flash drive for a teenager. which can copy movies, games, then the volume will be needed more (from 32 to 128 GB).
Read and write speed
These two values indicate how fast you can transfer data to and from the flash drive to your computer. The higher this indicator, the better, dears. modern models have a value of 50 Mb/s, cheaper ones - from 3 Mb/s of data recording. Read speed ranges from 35 to 90 MB/s (indicates how quickly you can copy files from a flash drive to your computer).
Not the most important parameter, but worth considering. If you often lose small things or the drive will be used by a child, then you should choose a model with a key mount. There is no need to take options with a cap, because it is also very easy to lose. Give preference simple models without iron caps, they will serve you long and reliably.
Price
The spread in the cost of this product is large; the price will depend on the characteristics of the drive. The amount of memory especially affects pricing; the more GB, the higher the cost. All popular types of flash drives for a computer can be viewed and ordered on the Internet, because their cost there will be more favorable. Here are examples of some models you could choose:
| Name | Price, rubles |
|
| Transcend JetFlash 600 | High speed | |
| SanDisk Cruzer Fit | Very compact | |
| Kingston DataTraveler SE9 | Stylish design | |
| Kingston DataTraveler R3.0 G2 | Price-quality ratio | |
| Transcend JetFlash 790 | ||
| Corsair Flash Voyager GS (CMFVYGS3) | Reading speed |
Video
We compared the 10 most popular USB 3.0 flash drives available for sale in 2016 to determine best flash drives in terms of balancing performance, price and quality.
For each device we calculated "average rating"- average rating on a 100-point system based on customer reviews on the largest trading platforms. The number of estimates taken into account is indicated in parentheses.
|
| 1 | 55.0 (315 ratings) |
| 2 | 76.8 (254 ratings) |
| 3 | 70.5 (162 ratings) |
| 4 | 74.2 (125 ratings) |
| 5 | 90.8 (71 ratings) |
| 6 | 74.5 (213 ratings) |
| 7 | 51.6 (180 ratings) |
| 8 | 67.3 (75 ratings) |
| 9 | 65.2 (102 ratings) |
| 10 | 52.9 (243 ratings) |
| 1 | 90.8 (71 ratings) |
| 2 | 76.8 (254 ratings) |
| 3 | 74.5 (213 ratings) |
| 4 | 74.2 (125 ratings) |
| 5 | 70.5 (162 ratings) |
| 6 | 67.3 (75 ratings) |
| 7 | 65.2 (102 ratings) |
| 8 | 55.0 (315 ratings) |
| 9 | 52.9 (243 ratings) |
| 10 | 51.6 (180 ratings) |
There are only two USB flash drives the most important characteristics(except for the price) - data transfer speed and reliability. In terms of reliability, there are no clear statistics; all media are quite unreliable. Therefore, it is recommended to have several copies of the most important data, or to choose drives from which, in the event of a breakdown, you can most likely recover data.
Comparing the speed of flash drives is much easier. There are many special utilities for assessing the speed of drives, as well as sites where the results of such tests are collected.
Read and write speed
We compared the performance of flash drives. Write/read speed data was taken from UserBenchmark, a site that collects information about the actual performance of flash drives based on user tests.
The best USB 3.0 flash drives reading speed:
| Speed reading |
Speed records |
| 1 | 197 MB/s | 117 MB/s | 74.5 (213 ratings) |
| 2 | 170 MB/s | 39 MB/s | 76.8 (254 ratings) |
| 3 | 125 MB/s | 55.8 MB/s | 65.2 (102 ratings) |
| 4 | 110 MB/s | 23 MB/s | 90.8 (71 ratings) |
| 5 | 94.8 MB/s | 10.9 MB/s | 52.9 (243 ratings) |
| 6 | 82.7 MB/s | 40.1 MB/s | 51.6 (180 ratings) |
| 7 | 81.7 MB/s | 22.8 MB/s | 55.0 (315 ratings) |
| 8 | 77 MB/s | 32 MB/s | 74.2 (125 ratings) |
| 9 | 75.5 MB/s | 8.85 MB/s | 67.3 (75 ratings) |
| Speed reading |
Speed records |
| 1 | 197 MB/s | 117 MB/s | 74.5 (213 ratings) |
| 2 | 125 MB/s | 55.8 MB/s | 65.2 (102 ratings) |
| 3 | 82.7 MB/s | 40.1 MB/s | 51.6 (180 ratings) |
| 4 | 170 MB/s | 39 MB/s | 76.8 (254 ratings) |
| 5 | 77 MB/s | 32 MB/s | 74.2 (125 ratings) |
| 6 | 110 MB/s | 23 MB/s | 90.8 (71 ratings) |
| 7 | 81.7 MB/s | 22.8 MB/s | 55.0 (315 ratings) |
| 8 | 94.8 MB/s | 10.9 MB/s | 52.9 (243 ratings) |
| 9 | 62.6 MB/s | 9.9 MB/s | 70.5 (162 ratings) |
| 10 | 75.5 MB/s | 8.85 MB/s | 67.3 (75 ratings) |
There are several different speed tests - sequential read/write, random read/write of 4 KB blocks, with different queue depths. How do I get a summary performance score? Majority USB flash drives used for Reserve copy data, as well as storing photos, audio and video files. These file types typically have big size and high sequential read and write speeds. When calculating effective speed The USB flash drive takes into account the speed of sequential read (50%), sequential write (40%), random 4K read (5%) and 4K write (5%).
Sooner or later, any technical thing becomes a refrigerator, i.e. When buying it, most people think more about appearance and capacity than about characteristics. Actually, this happened a long time ago with USB flash drives - many of my friends, who are ready to discuss the speed characteristics of some SSD with foam at the mouth, when it comes to flash drives, give up and buy a nice one from a well-known company (most often Kingston or Silicon Power). Because “...what is there to choose? A flash drive is a flash drive."
Meanwhile, there is plenty to choose from. The speed characteristics of individual USB drives can exceed the market average by up to 4 times. At the same time, the price for them will not be exorbitant.
So, how will we choose? First, go to the website Usb.userbenchmark.com, where users upload benchmark results for their USB sticks. We choose a volume of 32 gigabytes (as medium-comfortable and as the most represented on the domestic market among the models under consideration). We filter the results obtained by reading speed and are surprised to find in first place the well-known Lexar JumpDrive P10 USB 3.0
Read speed – 250 Mb/s, write speed – 215 Mb/s. For comparison, its 64Gb counterpart (by the way, the leader in writing speed among flash drives of different sizes) can write data at a speed of 235 Mb/s and read at 231 Mb/s
But is this flash drive the best buy? For comparison, we will do three things:
- Since benchmarks are benchmarks, and everyday use– this is a little different, let’s use the concept of “effective speed”, which, according to userbenchmark.com, means the following: most USB drives are used for backup and storage of video, audio and photos. Accordingly, the effective speed is weighted as 50% sequential read, 40% sequential write, 5% read and 5% write 4K video.
- Let's sort 32-gigabyte flash drives according to this parameter. Let's choose the top ten, discarding brands that are exotic for Russia.
- And to be absolutely sure, we’ll enter its average price next to each flash drive according to Yandex.market or price.ru for rare cases
*clarification regarding the price of JumpDrive P10
At the time of publication, I found only one offer with an astronomical price of 7,500 rubles. On Amazon, such a flash drive costs about $60, so I took it upon myself to set the price at about 4,000 thousand
Now let’s make a small visualization showing the speed/price ratio. To do this, we multiply the values of the write and read speeds, and use the effective speed as a correction factor:
The upper right point (block 1) is our leader with a sky-high price. Then, the next block is SanDisk Extreme and Corsair Flash Voyager GT, while SanDisk will be a better buy as it has similar characteristics and is cheaper.
The rest of the flash drives, in fact, are in the third block, and here the most successful purchases would be Adata DashDrive and SanDisk Ultra Fit. Adata has a little more cheap price, SanDisk has a higher write speed. Interesting, testing MicroSD flash drives demonstrates SanDisk's advantage in the same way.
Well, the cheapest of the “correct” flash drives presented is Adata DashDrive UV150. As you can see, at this price it doesn’t have the worst characteristics.
It would seem that that’s all, we can put an end to this – the most interesting options have been identified. But this is only true if you just need a flash drive and nothing else. But if you have a tablet or are interested in built-in cryptography, then speed is unlikely to interest you so much.
Alas, but normal speeds there's no smell here. Standard USB 2.0. But pleasing to the eye.
As for cryptography, there are many options that support on-the-fly encryption (including from the above-mentioned high-speed flash drives, but here, for obvious reasons, you have to sacrifice speed). But I would like to draw your attention to the ultimate and to some extent funny option with entering a pin directly on a flash drive like Samurai GuardDo Touche or iStorage DatAshur.
Among the disadvantages of such solutions, it is worth noting the slow speed (only USB 2.0) and the too high price. Still, regular software encryption seems more suitable to me.
Quite high read and write speeds (198 and 45 Mb/s, respectively, which is in 8th place on our list) allow us to classify it as a fairly reasonable purchase. Among the shortcomings, it is worth noting that the price does not correspond to the low volume (about 2000 for 16 gigabytes). But here, increased impact protection comes to the fore as the main argument.
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Almost every person who has a computer knows what a flash drive is and how it looks. Therefore, we will not provide a definition of this device. But not everyone understands how to choose a flash drive, what nuances and characteristics you should first pay attention to. Now we will deal with this.
Memory
The first factor you pay attention to when choosing a flash card is the amount of memory. Now stores mainly sell flash drives with capacities from 4 GB to 64 GB. Flash drives smaller than four gigabytes are practically no longer available for sale..
At the moment, the best flash drives in terms of price/volume are 16/32 GB. This is exactly the size of flash drive we recommend you buy., this volume is enough for most daily tasks– transfer of text files, music, photos, films.
If you need to transfer very large volumes, then you can find flash cards with a capacity of up to 256 gigabytes on sale. Or better yet, take a closer look at external hard disks, which in the price/volume ratio will cost you much less and will be more reliable.
Read/write speed
This is one of the main characteristics that most ordinary buyers do not pay due attention to when buying a flash drive. Preferring cheap, larger capacity drives.
If the recording speed is very low, then, for example, recording your favorite movie in good quality, you can spend an hour or more. And simply transferring a large amount of information every time, your patience will be stretched to the limit.
Nowadays it’s not difficult to find flash drives with a write speed of 30-50 MB/s. This is the range you should focus on. With reading speed, everything is somewhat simpler, since the reading speed of a flash drive is usually 1.5 - 2 times higher than the writing speed.
You can see the speed of the drive on the packaging itself or in the product card if you choose a flash drive in an online store. And of course, the price itself will tell you, since most often fast flash cards are made from more expensive and, accordingly, faster chips.
Frame
I think you now don’t understand much about how to choose a flash drive. But the two parameters listed above are not all.
The appearance of a flash card is a matter of taste, but there are some but:
- size, a drive that is too large cannot be plugged into the case next to another drive. Since USB ports in a computer case or laptop are located very close to each other. Also, do not buy flash cards that are too small, similar to a USB plug. They are usually slow and fail quickly. And it’s very easy to lose such a flash card.
- drives with retractable connector It is better to avoid, such flash drives usually quickly fail with active use.
- high-quality, expensive and fast flash cards usually have a strict and universal design, so be careful with flash drives with flashy designs.
Interface
At the moment, flash drives work with support for two main interfaces - USB 2.0 and USB 3.0. The interface does not have a big impact on the speed of operation regular drive, But USB interface 3.0 is a fairly new type and has greater potential for data transfer. Therefore, all other things being equal, naturally choose USB 3.0 USB 3.0 flash drives are compatible with devices that do not have this interface.
Brands
If you are interested in which flash drive to choose, we would recommend drives from the following brands:
Just three manufacturers control about 80% of the global market.
Also, one of the main indicators of the reliability of a flash card is the number of warranty repairs. Flash drives from Transcend are very rarely repaired - 1 flash card out of 900, Apacer - 1 out of 540, Kingston - 1 out of 490.
Additional functions
You are unlikely to need any gadgets, such as a flashlight, a clock, a display. Their presence will only affect the price increase.
Working on specifications USB standard 3.0 was completed at the end of 2008, which allowed the computer industry to begin developing devices. Already in 2010, almost all leading manufacturers announced systems with USB 3.0 support. But the massive onslaught of the new interface on the market is still ahead.
According to In-Stat, by 2014 the vast majority of new computers will be equipped with USB 3.0, and in 2015 - all without exception.
But this is only one side of the coin - after all, devices are also needed. However, it won’t be up to them.
If in 2012, according to In-Stat's forecast, less than 500 million USB 3.0 devices will be sold, then in 2015 - already 2 billion! By the way, I wonder where they sell them USB devices 1.1 – judging by the forecast, they are reluctant to give up positions.
What's in my speed for you?
Have you heard that USB 3.0 can be 10 times faster than its predecessor? This figure is obtained by comparing its maximum throughput at 5 Gbit/s and 480 Mbit/s for USB 2.0. Device manufacturers, however, do not fall into marketing hysteria and indicate more real numbers, thereby avoiding accusations of deceiving buyers.
So, for my USB 3.0 flash drive it is modestly indicated that connecting to such a port makes it twice as fast.
Specific read and write speeds are also included, and below you'll see how they matched my tests.
Are you ready for the test? Always ready!
The actual data transfer speed depends on both the USB device and the system hardware configuration and driver USB controller.
The tests were carried out on an HP Pavilion dv7-6053er laptop (Windows 7 SP1 x64), where USB 2.0 and 3.0 ports are located on different sides. For the USB 3.0 controller, the driver was installed using Windows Update.
In fact, this is an NEC chip and driver, since Renesas Electronic is a joint venture of several large Japanese companies, where NEC is the main shareholder.
I measured the speed of common household devices - flash drives. The star was the austere-looking ADATA S102 16 Gb (USB 3.0).
Backing up is the weightless and feminine Transcend JF620 32 Gb (USB 2.0)…
... and the big, brutal Sandisk Contour Cruzer 8 Gb (USB 2.0).
The pictures deceptively hide the true size of the flash drives, so I decided to reach for the camera.
USB 2.0 speed test
I used CrystalDiskMark for the test, and the first thing I decided to do was compare the speed of the ADATA S102 with the manufacturer's claims.
Let me remind you that the read speed was stated to be 34 MB/s, and write speed – 21 MB/s. CrystalDiskMark shows similar results, although reading falls a little short.
Everything in the world is relative, so I pitted the ADATA's speed against the Transcend, which felt a little slower than its recently missing sister.
With read speeds comparable to ADATA, Transcend was a third slower for sequential writes, but 2.5 times faster for 512K random writes. By the way, Transcend claimed a read speed of 31 MB/s and a write speed of 12 MB/s for this flash drive.
Sandisk, who faithfully serves his brother, showed himself like this (we will do without a screenshot):
Sequential read: 25.969 MB/s | Sequential write: 12.985 MB/s
Random read 512KB: 25.654 MB/s | Random write 512KB: 1.946 MB/s
By the way, his results confirmed that a random recording is not the most strong point ADATA flash drives.
USB 3.0 speed test
Since the ADATA S102 was the only flash drive with a 3.0 interface, it competed with itself and won unconditionally :)
When connected to a USB 3.0 port, the sequential read speed increased by more than 3 times, which is almost 2 times faster than the 68 MB/s stated by the manufacturer.
Sequential recording became 1.5 times faster than when connected to port 2.0, also exceeding the performance stated by the manufacturer. Interestingly, random recording became even a little slower.
Results
Let's sum up the intermediate results:
- The USB 3.0 interface is coming – in a few years it will dominate the market;
- the actual speed of devices depends on them themselves, as well as the USB controller in the computer and the driver installed in the system;
- Not all yoghurts are equally healthy, i.e. flash drive speeds can vary greatly;
- flash drive manufacturers indicate on their websites adequate reading and writing speed estimates;
- Based on the tests, USB 3.0 devices are clearly faster (in my case, reading was 2-3 times faster, writing was 1.5 times faster).
CrystalDiskMark tests give dry numbers, but it’s not too clear what this translates into real life. In a couple of days I will bring to your attention a comparison of flash drives and USB interfaces for typical operations with files and folders.
Hello. Although optical media They are in no hurry to become a thing of the past, but more and more people are switching to using compact USB drives. Which Flash drives are the most reliable and fastest? You will learn about this from my current review.
Every year there are more and more manufacturers that produce high-quality (and not so high-quality) flash media. But the lion's share of the market is still occupied by recognized brands: Kingston, Transcend, Apacer and others.
There are many models, and choosing the best option among this variety is not very easy. It’s worth deciding on your preferences and finding out:
- How much memory should a flash drive have (currently from 32 GB);
- Desired data transfer speed;
- Is a large design suitable for you or do you need a compact model?
- Is the degree of protection of the device from liquid ingress important?
- Should there be protection against viruses and hacking?
It all depends on the application of the drive. If you plan to use it with a car radio to play music, then you should choose a product with a compact body. Computer engineers and system administrators give preference to write / read speed so that you can quickly install the desired software.
Rating of flash drives by reliability 2016
I analyzed the popular USB drives 2016 and compiled the list. It includes models with extremely positive customer reviews, high ratings from authoritative computer publications.
A simple device that cannot boast of a unique design. The black body is made of durable plastic. The surface is smooth, and near the cap there is an important inscription “USB 3.0”, which indicates the high data exchange speed when connected to the appropriate interface: reading – up to 70 MB / sec, and writing – up to 30 MB / sec.
This is exactly the case when you don’t need to overpay for registration. If you need performance at an adequate price, choose this model.
A more advanced flash drive compared to the previous drive. Again, the design is simple, but all the salt is hidden inside. A special cell structure is used, which provides excellent information processing speed. The case has a checkerboard texture that makes fingerprints less noticeable.
I analyzed the prices of devices with different amounts of memory and came to the conclusion that for the JetFlash 780 it is better to buy a 64 GB model. In this case, the cost of one gigabyte will be minimal.
Just in case, I’ll note that all the “participants” of this review are placed in descending order of popularity.
A simple and practical model with a sliding body, which reduces the likelihood of losing the cap to zero. Material: plastic. At first glance, it may seem that it is not of very high quality and will not stand the test of time. But positive reviews on the pages of many online stores convince us of the opposite. The previous generation of flash drives from this manufacturer were made of the same plastic. I was lucky enough to inspect the case “live”, and I did not identify any defects that could affect the performance of the device. I'll continue to tell you which flash drives are better?
And Transcend again! This time we are dealing with stylish thing, which weighs just over 8 grams. Very convenient to carry with you to work and school. It does not take up much space and can serve as an attractive accessory for girls.
If you want to buy a flash drive that will work equally well with both USB 2.0 and 3.0, then you should pay attention to this model. A very convenient design with a large ring for fastening and a high-quality cap that does not “lose” or fall off over time.
High data processing speed allows the drive to be used in almost any area:
- to install software;
- for playing music or video;
- for secure storage of personal information.
In terms of characteristics, this device is very similar to the previous participant included in the rating. Also works well with everyone USB protocols. Data management becomes easier with proprietary Transcend Elite software.
The body is quite compact. There is no cap as it uses a retractable mechanism. The activity of the device is indicated by a light indicator, which is very convenient. To prevent the flash drive from getting lost, you can attach it to a ring for storing keys.
At first it may seem that this model is too large and uncomfortable. But when it ends up in your hands, your opinion changes dramatically. Yes, the body has some design features, which affects the dimensions. But the surface is pleasant to the touch, although it is not protected from scratches.
To access the connector, you must activate a mechanism (loudly said!), similar to the one used in a switchblade. At the same time, a soft click is heard, which gives the device a special flavor. You can rest assured of its reliability – reviews about the flash drive online are only positive. You can check it yourself.
The advantages of the model include a retractable design and a heavy-duty body made using ultrasonic welding technology. As a result, you don't have to worry about the drive accidentally breaking in half or cracking when dropped. Maximum protection – at an affordable price!
Perhaps my words will seem too loud to you, but this flash drive is the most compact in the world! But don’t think that this fact affects its capacity. The use of a special cell placement technology made it possible to cram tens of gigabytes of memory into a small case. Just right for storing thousands of audio files and millions of documents.
The TOP 10 best USB flash drives of 2016 are closed by a device from the famous brand Sandisk. Among the interesting points:
- Possibility of storing your data in the “cloud” (up to 2 GB);
- Protecting information from outside interference using the SecureAccess utility;
- Small dimensions.
Cruzer Fit cannot boast of speed (writing/reading – 5/8 MB per second), but the main purpose of this model is reliable storage of information, which it does an excellent job of.
I am sure that you will definitely make your choice, which flash drive is better to buy, starting from this rating. In any case, my article helped to significantly narrow the circle so that you do not have to sort through hundreds of options. If you have questions on the topic, feel free to ask them in the comments. I'll be glad to help!
Sincerely, Victor
Modern technologies are developing by leaps and bounds. Processors are becoming more powerful, screens are sharper, cameras are better - all this allows you to create much more productive programs and higher-quality films and games than before. But this “arms race” has led to the need to store huge amounts of information. And if a 50 GB movie doesn’t take up much space on your hard drive, then transferring it to another device is more difficult. Fortunately, manufacturers do not forget about the good old flash drives.
There are a huge variety of them: MicroSD, SD, MemoryStick and a bunch of other things. We’ll talk about the format most familiar to most people - USB. Flash drive- or simply speaking about USB flash drives. In literary terms, this is a device for storing, transferring and exchanging data (movies, music, documents, etc.). Flash drives are also used for backup and downloading. operating systems, but these directions are less popular among the population.
In terms of their structure, most USB flash drives are quite standard: a USB interface for communication with the receiving device (computer, TV, multimedia system car, etc.), controller, oscillator and NAND flash memory chip itself. So it turns out that flash drives essentially differ little from each other, and therefore the choice of one or another model depends mainly on the read and write speed, reliability and appearance. We will pay attention to these parameters in our traditional rating. Go!
The best USB flash drives with interface 2.0
First, let's look a little more old technology flash drives with a USB 2.0 interface. This standard was born back in 2000, and therefore it is difficult to comply with it modern standards productivity. The maximum possible speed is 480 Mbps, which is equal to 60 Mbps. It doesn't seem that bad, but these are just theoretical numbers. In fact, flash drives with USB 2.0 are capable of delivering no more than 35 “meters” per second when reading, and even lower when writing. Of course, there are still restrictions on the maximum current, but in the context of an article about flash drives, this is of little interest to us. The only thing that models in this category can boast of at the moment is price. If we compare flash drives of similar capacity from the same manufacturer, it turns out that a USB 2.0 flash drive is about 2 times cheaper than a more modern competitor.
So it turns out that the models from this rating should be recommended to people who either do not care much about the time spent waiting for loading, or to those who work with small amounts of data, where speed is not so important. In any case, we advise you to look at our rating of the best USB flash drives with a 2.0 interface
Note! For the “purity of the experiment” in the rating, we compare models with the most popular capacity - 16 GB. Versions with higher or lower capacity may differ in cost and speed.
3 Kingston DataTraveler SE9
The most stylish
A country: USA (manufactured in China)
Average price: 710 rub.
Rating (2017): 4.4
Unfortunately, the flash drive from one of the company's leading drives on the market is not particularly high quality. Yes, the design is interesting. The sizes are compact. But you forget about all this when you try to download large file to a flash drive. The speed is amazing, but not in a very good way. The price, of course, is pleasant, but winning less than 50 rubles, the buyer significantly loses in speed and additional functions.
Advantages:
- Metal body
- Best price
Flaws:
- Low read (22.5 MB/s) and write (15.6 MB/s) speeds
2 Transcend JetFlash 600
Best speed
Country: China
Average price: 1,120 rub.
Rating (2017): 4.7
Transcend is producing enough interesting drives, however, it is quite difficult to call JetFlash 600 such. Outwardly, it does not stand out in any way - an ordinary piece of black plastic without a single hint of designer sophistication. Here you can even criticize the manufacturer for the lack of any fastening of the lid, which makes it very easy to lose. And there are no eyelets on the flash drive itself, so it won’t be possible to attach it to the keys. The only thing that can really smooth out these shortcomings is the highest speed in the rating.
Advantages:
- Best speed. Reading - up to 32 MB/s. Recording - up to 16 Mb/s
- Has password protection
- Data compression function
- There are versions from 4 to 128 GB - the largest selection
Flaws:
- High cost - one and a half times higher than competitors
1 SanDisk Cruzer Fit
Most compact sizes
A country: USA (manufactured in China)
Average price: 740 rub.
Rating (2017): 4.8
A flash drive from SanDisk has almost everything you could want. The main advantage over competitors is its very compact size. Yes, it’s easier to lose one than dimensional models, but they mainly buy it, judging by the reviews, for use in a car. And here the small size is simply a salvation, because in many car radios the USB connector is located on the front and a large flash drive can simply be broken if you move it carelessly with your hand. Cruzer Fit protrudes no more than 5 mm, and therefore it will be difficult to remove it with your hand. This model can also be recommended to owners of laptops with a small amount of built-in memory. I inserted this little thing into the port and forgot about it - there was more memory, but almost nothing stuck out.
Advantages:
- Good speed performance. Read - 28.3 MB/s, write - 13.96 MB/s
- The most compact dimensions
- It is possible to protect the flash drive with a password
- There is a backup function
The best USB flash drives with 3.0 interface
The USB 3.0 standard, like 2.0, can hardly be called very modern, because the final specifications were formed in 2008. However, this interface remains popular to this day, because... Provides theoretical speeds up to 625 Mb/s. Already impressive, right? In fact, such flash drives provide about 250 “meters” for reading, which is also a very good result. Choose best model our rating will help in this category.
Attention! As in the previous category, we compare models with the same volume. In this case it is 64 GB. Other versions may differ in price and speed.
3 Transcend JetFlash 790
Best price
Country: China
Average price: 959 rub.
Rating (2017): 4.4
No matter how strange it may sound, the manufacturer of the fastest flash drive in the previous category does not perform very well with USB 3.0. The design is interesting, and you won’t lose the lid. The speed indicators also seem okay, but they are very unstable. Judging by the reviews, they differ by one and a half times! What this is connected with is unclear. Otherwise, this is a fairly standard flash drive for a low price.
Advantages:
- Data transmission indicator
- Large selection - models from 8 to 128 GB
Flaws:
- Unstable speed indicators. Average 101.75 MB/s read and 44.8 MB/s write
2 Corsair Flash Voyager GS (CMFVYGS3)
Best reading speed
A country: USA (manufactured in China)
Average price: 4,089 rub.
Rating (2017): 4.7
Corsair products are quite well known among computer enthusiasts and, not surprisingly, are little known to ordinary users. And the only thing that prevents the widespread spread of the brand is high price. Very high. Yes, the speed of work here is one of the best in the world. Yes, the build quality and reliability are at the highest level. But, unfortunately, the average buyer is unlikely to want to pay 3-4 times more for the sake of increasing productivity by several tens of percent.
Advantages:
- The highest speed is in real tests Read speed was 236 MB/s, write speed - 170 MB/s
- Metal body
Flaws:
- High price
- Large dimensions
1 Kingston DataTraveler R3.0 G2
The best ratio of price and quality. Waterproof housing
A country: USA (manufactured in China)
Average price: 1,300 rub.
Rating (2017): 4.8
Finally, we come to one of the most interesting flash drives. Its main feature is water resistance. Of course, any model will almost certainly survive a light rain, but this flash drive from Kingston can be safely immersed in water without fear of losing data. This can be useful not only for extreme sports enthusiasts, but also ordinary people who are concerned about the safety important files. In addition, the speed of the flash drive does not suffer at all from the protected rubber body. On the contrary, the official figures are a little... underestimated, which is good news.
Advantages:
- Waterproof housing
- The real speed is higher than the officially declared ones - reading 141.5 MB/s, writing 44.7 MB/s
- Maximum memory capacity up to 256 GB
Flaws:
- Under high load the case becomes noticeably hot
In this article, I've selected nine of the world's largest flash drives, based on storage capacity, that can handle all your digital data, especially for people who need huge storage in a tiny body.
Data storage technology has made great strides forward. Solid state drives (SSDs) can now fit into smaller devices, and portable hard drives can easily hold 3TB of data or more in a wallet-sized package. But there's still a niche for good old USB flash drives, especially now that faster USB 3.0 ports are standard on almost all new laptops (and some tablets).
The largest USB flash drives
Kingston DataTraveler Ultimate GT 2 TB - $1,650 (RUR 93,000)
Kingston has released another new product - DataTraveler Ultimate GT with 2 TB of space in a relatively compact case. The main highlight of the flash drive is support for the USB 3.1 Gen 1 standard. This allows you to store a large amount of data and transfer at very high speeds (read/write) - 300 Mbit /s and 200 Mbit/s respectively.
OS compatibility: Windows 10, 8.1, 8, 7 (SP1), Mac OS version 10.9.x and higher, Linux versions 2.6.x and higher, Chrome OS. The only one real disadvantage of this USB flash drive is the price. You'd need a very good reason to pay over $1,500 for a USB flash drive when you can buy several smaller devices for a fraction of that amount.
Kingston DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0 USB 1 TB - $700 (RUR 40,000)
The DataTraveler HyperX Predator 3.0 is an incredibly powerful USB flash drive in a very small package. The flash drive will work well as a keychain.
The Predator uses USB 3.0 for fast data transfer, but with a $700 price tag, it's twice as expensive as some of the 512GB drives listed below.
Corsair Flash Voyager GS USB 3.0 512 GB - $260 (RUB 15,000)
This drive from Corsair is the fastest and one of the largest in its line. Flash Voyager GS USB 3.0 is packaged in a sleek metal alloy body and has read/write speeds of up to 290 MB/s.
For those looking to save some money, Corsair offers Flash versions Voyager GT and Flash Voyager Survivor for under $100 with 256 GB capacity.
Patriot Super Sonic Rage 3.0 512 GB - $250 (RUR 14,000)
Patriot has updated most of its line of flash drives USB format 3.0 up to 512 GB, and the fastest among them was Sonic Rage 2. The flash drive can write at speeds of up to 400 MB/s and read at speeds of up to 300 MB/s, although you will have to pay $250 (RUR 14,000) for this pleasure.
Less reliable periphery equipment, both Supersonic Magnum 2 and Supersonic Mega are available with a storage capacity of 512 GB for $170 and $150 (RUR 9,500 and RUR 8,500), respectively.
VisionTek Pocket USB SSD 512 GB - $265 (RUB 15,000)
The latest version of VisionTek's line is called "Pocket SSD" which accommodates large flash memory and SSD controller into a tiny package, significantly improved data storage conditions. The Top-of-line model offers write speeds of up to 450 MB/s and a storage capacity of 512 GB. But the price is more than $250 (RUR 14,000) making this flash drive one of the most expensive among its analogues.
PNY Pro Elite 512 GB USB 3.0 512 GB - $150 (RUB 8,500)
PNY Pro Elite supports read and write speeds of up to 400 Mbps and 250 Mbps, respectively. The Pro Elite 512GB is one of the most affordable options to get a huge amount of memory in a small package.
The gadget is hardly the most attractive among the rest, but it is quite fast, compact and can fit almost anywhere. Installing the game? No problem. Hundreds of hours of video? The drive can handle this too. Need your entire music collection on one device? Easily.
Some reviews noted that smaller files take longer to write here, but if you need a lot of space for a reasonable price, this flash drive is quite suitable.
Alternative and portable storage options
SanDisk Ultra Dual 256 GB USB 3.0 - $70 (4,000 rub.)
USB-C connectors are not yet very popular today, but the need for them is increasing as most PCs and laptops move to more new standard. The SanDisk Ultra model offers an unusual design - modern USB-C together with USB 3.0 with maximum capacity 256 GB.
SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick 256 GB - $125 (RUB 7,000)
SanDisk Connect Wireless Stick combines wireless adapter Wi-Fi with a large amount of memory - 256 GB.
The USB 2.0 port provides charge to the drive, but even in offline mode, the flash drive easily interacts with a PC or mobile devices (via an application) or local wireless network. Storage and streaming capabilities Wi-Fi transmissions make it very different from any other flash drive.
Samsung T3 Portable SSD - $110 (RUR 6,000)
Samsung Portable SSD T3 is the second generation of an ultra-compact and high-performance line of portable solid state drives from Samsung. The volume here starts from 250 GB, in a version costing about $120 (RUR 6,500) and increases to an incredible 2 TB, with an equally incredible price of $750 (RUR 42,000).
In addition to its capacity, the T3 has a high transfer speed of 5 Gbps, which is superior to most flash drives in this article.
Flash drive with the largest memory
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Operation hard drives in their data centers. Specialists monitor which disks work without failures and failures for how long. Reliability analysis is also carried out HDDs of different manufacturers. The database includes the disk production date, manufacturer, model, serial number, status (whether the disk is working or dead), as well as SMART attributes that are reported by the disk itself. By the end of 2017, the database had accumulated about 88 million objects. The database size is 23 GB. You can download it from the company website -.
The new report provides data on HDD operation for 2017. At the time of writing the document, there were 91,305 hard drives operating in the company’s data centers. The report can be viewed for different periods of time, including each quarter separately or information for the entire year.
At the end of the fourth quarter of 2017, the company was monitoring 91,305 drives. To improve the accuracy of the report, information about test models hard drives, models of which the company has less than 45 copies are also not taken into account. As a result, 91,243 disks remained.
The company provides several explanations for the table:
- The failure rate is given only for the fourth quarter of last year. If a particular HDD model has a 0% failure rate, it means there were no problems with the drives in the fourth quarter;
- As mentioned above, 62 disks are not taken into account because the number of models is too small to obtain any reliable statistics;
- Quarterly failure rates may vary, especially for models that are not in large numbers or have been in use for a relatively short period of time. For example, for Seagate 4 TB, model ST4000DM005, the failure rate was 29.08%. But this does not mean that these types of disks are extremely unreliable. There are simply few of them in the company; the data is based on 1255 disco days and only 1 refusal.
A total of 25,746 new disks have been added. 6442 disks were taken out of service. As a result, the volume of file space increased by 211 petabytes (HDDs were added with a total volume of 230 petabytes and disks were removed by 10 petabytes).
Below you can see complete statistics for HDDs that remained in working order as of the fourth quarter of 2017.
Well now - comparison table showing various HDD characteristics. For most, the story began in 2015, although there are newer models that began operating in 2017.
The failure rate was calculated for each year separately. In general, the following conclusions can be drawn:
- Failure rates for 6TB models from Seagate and WDC have dropped over time. Many HDDs continue to work without any problems;
- Despite the fact that the failure rate of three-terabyte drives from WDC also seems to have decreased, this is primarily due to the fact that about 1,000 such hard drives were taken out of service in 2017. This was done to replace them with more capacious ones. At the moment, only 180 of these models remain in service;
- Toshiba 5 TB and HGST 8 TB had zero failure rates last year. This is impressive, but the fact is that there are only 45 disks of each model in service, which does not make it possible to obtain more accurate statistics;
- But the HGST/Hitachi 4 TB model has a failure rate of about 1% over three years. This is very impressive.
