Stumbled across a deal for 10 64 GB USBs for 12 bucks. Figured it was so cheap that it can’t possibly hurt to have them, but now I’m wondering if they’re particularly useful for anyone?
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I use cheap USB sticks if I want to hand someone some data.
Here, have what you want on a stick. No, I don’t need it back, you can keep it.
I lend them out and mostly get them back. This is why I keep a stash of 32g, it doesn’t hurt much when they disappear
Always run a full check on usb sticks or sd cards before using to verify if the capacity reported in windows is true
https://www.grc.com/validrive.htm
Run this, determine they’re fake, throw in bin.
Just for OSes that boot of US and some bootable troubleshooting tools.
They’re not worth buying until you need them.
Load them with pictures of you and a friend or family together and give them to the person as a gift for Christmas
Yeah man back when Walmart was clearancing out those PNY 512GB USB SSDs I put like 12 of them into a software RAID0.
One of them promptly failed after trying to run CrystalDiskMark for a second time and I tossed them all in a drawer where they rest to this day
Only to carry a few files or whatever from one PC to another. They are just too unreliable, get lost or damaged too easily and their performance almost always sucks.
I keep 2 around at all times. One with Ventoy loaded with windows and linux installers (this gets wiped and updated frequently) and a second for sneakernetting big files between my laptop and my pc. I have a few others floating around, but I usually just load those up with movies/concert bootlegs and give them to people.
What about using them for playing music in the car (if not using Bluetooth from your phone)…
great for sneakernet use
I just bought 10 32GB sticks for $30. And I think it was a good deal. 64GB, 10 for $40. When something is less than 1/3 of a good price, it’s likely a fake. My other thought is that it’s 2.0 speed. And would take nearly 2 hours to transfer 64GB.
That’s very cheap, but possibly genuine if they’re not off aliexpress or temu. First off check them with Validrive as someone else mentioned here.
You could put Kiwix on them and have an offline version of certain sites and manuals. You could fill them with music, My music collection is only about 4000 songs, at 16GB - that can then plug into other things, or play in a car, on TVs or other laptops or devices. Just a seperate backup. If it gets lost somewhere too - you’ll find it again one day and it’ll be like the mixtapes or the home-burnt CD you did as a teenager.
If you have photos and videos of family or friends you’re close to, find some albums of old photos of you guys together and mail them as a cheap present. We’re backing up some old camcorder footage from when me and my cousins were kids and will send them off as gifts. We’re in our 30s now and they are parents.
Keep them as install drives for Linux or Windows recovery drives?
Not very big for videos, so not great for the *ahem* homework folder. BUT I have one that I’ve filled with movies. Then I bought a cheap projector and then can play adult content on the walls.
You can fit a lot of photos into 64GB so you can use a couple as partial backups and store them in the attic or another location. For the ultra-precious, irreplaceable data, like family photos etc. more backups makes it safer.
Or you can dedicate drives for certain series or TV shows or movies. Again not as sophisticated as a big fancy NAS, like lots of people here.
If you can get yourself some stickers as well for labelling whats on them, that will help too.
The data transfer speeds on these do tend to be slow, and in many ways it’s obsolete compared to modern SSDs / HDDs. But there are plenty of use cases where a few cheap drives are portable and only need to be basic and simple. Easy to send through the mail too, less susceptible to physical damage.
oh yeah. os installer and a few take with me drives.(nothing imporant on them)
I use them for O/S distros. Data, no.
Not particularly in that size.
I’ve got some decent ones I regularly use that are 128GB
Stick ventoy on there and boot whatever.
Imho it’s way worth it to spring for the better usb3 or above drives unless you’re just giving them away.
What you’ve got I’d be using as install disks for os factory reinstalls.
Yeah yeah I could just use the clean windows iso I have on the ventoy drive but then I have to go hunt down the drivers whereas if I flash the original factory install on there it all just works.
Especially on a lot of the newer ones that require drivers just to see the NVMe drive to install in the first place.
That type of USB flash is one of the cheapest kinds of storage and least reliable.
They’re good for a quick copy between computers, but not for reliable storage or backup.