Are all USB flash drives created equal?
Are all USB flash drives created equal?
Are all USB flash drives created equal? I am wondering if there is significant difference in speed between brand x and brand y. Does anyone know of a really good 8gb model? I am thinking of booting from one, but I currently run a frugal install from my hdd and could not tolerate a much slower boot time (Puppy has spoiled me).
Booting from a USB drive will always be considerably slower than from hard drive or CD -the bus speed of USB is pretty slow. The best drives only achieve a very small percentage of the theoretical transfer rate. Some of the latest drives include drivers which get slightly better performance -even so, your bootup times will probably be about 50% longer than from hard drive.
Puppy boots slower on a USB thumb drive, but depending on the computer, not terribly slower. I'm making this post on a 1GB Sandisk Cruzer Micro and it boots in 32 seconds. That compares to 30 seconds on the same computer with its internal 500GB Hitachi SATA disk drive. It all depends on the computer, but I find maybe a 15 second penalty on the average for USB flash vs. the internal hard drive. This is all with frugal installs. I use a very small save file, usually 64MB.
CD's are faster because the IDE bus is considerably faster than USB transfers. It does help that puppy loads mostly into RAM using just one or a few files. Transferring lots of small files over USB is very slow since each transfer must be confirmed which causes lots of two-way traffic. Transfer rates are better when moving a few large files.
I found these touted figures:
Tiny 166X: read & write up to 24.9MB/sec and 12MB/sec
iDisk Tiny 266X: READ and WRITE speed of 39.9MB/s and 19.9MB/s
Most drives now days are close to those figures -but note that that is pretty slow compoared to IDE drives and also just a fraction of the theoretical speed of 480Mbs for USB-2.0.
And the big kicker is that those speeds are only available with the windows drivers for the sticks...
Tiny 166X: read & write up to 24.9MB/sec and 12MB/sec
iDisk Tiny 266X: READ and WRITE speed of 39.9MB/s and 19.9MB/s
Most drives now days are close to those figures -but note that that is pretty slow compoared to IDE drives and also just a fraction of the theoretical speed of 480Mbs for USB-2.0.
And the big kicker is that those speeds are only available with the windows drivers for the sticks...
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ttuuxxx
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I have had over 10 different usb flash sticks and yes the quality and speed does depend on what brand/price you pay for.
I had 1 no name from china it lasted about 4 months then had a fault error, basically lost everything and tossed it.
Another one I had was a name brand It lasted about 12 months then just stopped, wish I could remember the name, I tossed it.
Then I paid around $150 for a 1 gig when they first came out around 2.5yrs ago, It was a SanDisk Titanium
what a dream drive, here's the specs
http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog ... Drive.aspx
Specifications and Features:
* Retractable USB connector
* Performance: 15MB/s read speed & 9MB/s write speed
* Rugged body
* Crush force exceeds 2000 lbs
* Laser etched graphics and finish
* U3 smart enabled
* Loaded with the following U3 compatible PC programs
o CruzerSync synchronization tool
o SignupShield password manager
o SKYPE "Make video calls from PC to PC"
o McAfee-30 day trial
* Dimensions: 7.14mm x 19.05mm x 57.94mm (D x W x L)
* Distinctive Blue LED
* Hi-Speed USB 2.0 certified (backwards compatible with all USB 1.1 ports)
* USB Mass Storage Class Device
they used to marked it that an Elephant could walk on it and it would still work:)
well after 2.5yrs its still used everyday without any fault.
Now SanDisk have a new drive I haven't tried yet but is on my list of things to get
SanDisk Extreme® Ducati Edition USB Flash Drive, (With a name like that it has to be good
http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog ... Drive.aspx
Fast 20MB/second sequential read/write speed
hope that helps
Sandisk has a lot of identical clones on ebay, it looks the same and even has the Sandisk packaging .
ttuuxxx
P.s I won't ever by another no-name drive. Also ebay is a great place for getting a great deal on usb sticks, but be aware that they also have fake imitations that look like the real usb stick but aren't, make sure the seller has sold like 1000+ items is a good way of knowing,
Here's a page on the fakes
http://reviews.ebay.com.au/Beware-of-FA ... 0000706427
I had 1 no name from china it lasted about 4 months then had a fault error, basically lost everything and tossed it.
Another one I had was a name brand It lasted about 12 months then just stopped, wish I could remember the name, I tossed it.
Then I paid around $150 for a 1 gig when they first came out around 2.5yrs ago, It was a SanDisk Titanium
what a dream drive, here's the specs
http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog ... Drive.aspx
Specifications and Features:
* Retractable USB connector
* Performance: 15MB/s read speed & 9MB/s write speed
* Rugged body
* Crush force exceeds 2000 lbs
* Laser etched graphics and finish
* U3 smart enabled
* Loaded with the following U3 compatible PC programs
o CruzerSync synchronization tool
o SignupShield password manager
o SKYPE "Make video calls from PC to PC"
o McAfee-30 day trial
* Dimensions: 7.14mm x 19.05mm x 57.94mm (D x W x L)
* Distinctive Blue LED
* Hi-Speed USB 2.0 certified (backwards compatible with all USB 1.1 ports)
* USB Mass Storage Class Device
they used to marked it that an Elephant could walk on it and it would still work:)
well after 2.5yrs its still used everyday without any fault.
Now SanDisk have a new drive I haven't tried yet but is on my list of things to get
SanDisk Extreme® Ducati Edition USB Flash Drive, (With a name like that it has to be good
http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Catalog ... Drive.aspx
Fast 20MB/second sequential read/write speed
hope that helps
Sandisk has a lot of identical clones on ebay, it looks the same and even has the Sandisk packaging .
ttuuxxx
P.s I won't ever by another no-name drive. Also ebay is a great place for getting a great deal on usb sticks, but be aware that they also have fake imitations that look like the real usb stick but aren't, make sure the seller has sold like 1000+ items is a good way of knowing,
Here's a page on the fakes
http://reviews.ebay.com.au/Beware-of-FA ... 0000706427
http://audio.online-convert.com/ <-- excellent site
http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/A-codecs/ <-- Codec Test Files
http://html5games.com/ <-- excellent HTML5 games :)
http://samples.mplayerhq.hu/A-codecs/ <-- Codec Test Files
http://html5games.com/ <-- excellent HTML5 games :)
A little different perspective... I am using a 3 year old 256MB Sandisk cruzer I had lying around with a 128MB save file. It boots Dingo in around 50s, I gather this is an eternity for Puppy.
But it is faster than Ubuntu or XP. Whenever I need to quickly check something on the internets I always use Puppy on the stick.
But it is faster than Ubuntu or XP. Whenever I need to quickly check something on the internets I always use Puppy on the stick.
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Billwho?
- Posts: 559
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Trialing 4.20
anyone remember 5 1/2 inch floppies? I still use one occasionally, now thats slow':)'can8v wrote:WOW!! slower than CD. I didn't think anything was slower than CD.
Linux = Learning through doing :shock: :? :D
The learning curve may be steep but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
You just have to pass the occasional oncoming train to get there.
The learning curve may be steep but there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
You just have to pass the occasional oncoming train to get there.
Billwho; How about the 8" floppy disks that they originally used to boot IBM main frames?
My first CP/M S-100 computer used 2 of them for main storage.
amigo; The 266x is close to the average HDs 40 MBS speed.
The newer fast drives (Barracuda for one) do 60 MBS.
So the next generation of flash will pass HDs once & for all.
The banked array design should make for a faster chip now.
My first CP/M S-100 computer used 2 of them for main storage.
amigo; The 266x is close to the average HDs 40 MBS speed.
The newer fast drives (Barracuda for one) do 60 MBS.
So the next generation of flash will pass HDs once & for all.
The banked array design should make for a faster chip now.
@Sunburnt
I haven't seen you around the forum in some time, I was gone for a while and then I guess we have just been interested in different areas of the forum for a while. Anyway I happy to see some of your post again.
I hope you are right, that USB sticks will eventually surpass HDs in speed. Until the cost comes down a little on some of the new super speedies I think I will hold off. I was just thinking of it as a toy to tinker with mostly anyway. You know seeing how I can go to any of my local stores and pick up an 8, 16 or even 32 gb USB drive dirt cheap. But if they are not all created roughly equal I will simply wait for the name brands to come down a bit.
As for the old floppies I remember boot the old Commador Vic 20 off of tape. Anyway I haven't had a floppy drive for almost 5 years until very recently when I picked up this Dell Dimension 4100 at a yard sale for $15 and 15 inch LCD for $25 now the pair makes for my Web development box. I am running my custom Puppy 301 on it much faster than the Win$ box I had a couple years ago and that box had much faster hardware.
I haven't seen you around the forum in some time, I was gone for a while and then I guess we have just been interested in different areas of the forum for a while. Anyway I happy to see some of your post again.
I hope you are right, that USB sticks will eventually surpass HDs in speed. Until the cost comes down a little on some of the new super speedies I think I will hold off. I was just thinking of it as a toy to tinker with mostly anyway. You know seeing how I can go to any of my local stores and pick up an 8, 16 or even 32 gb USB drive dirt cheap. But if they are not all created roughly equal I will simply wait for the name brands to come down a bit.
As for the old floppies I remember boot the old Commador Vic 20 off of tape. Anyway I haven't had a floppy drive for almost 5 years until very recently when I picked up this Dell Dimension 4100 at a yard sale for $15 and 15 inch LCD for $25 now the pair makes for my Web development box. I am running my custom Puppy 301 on it much faster than the Win$ box I had a couple years ago and that box had much faster hardware.
In USB flash drive types, I have a Sandisk Cruser micro that works fine.
I also have a Lexar that works fine.
I recently purchased a Sony 2gig Microvault USB Flash drive that works with USB 2.0 only evidently.
I have USB 1.1 on one of my computers with XP and XP says no driver can be found for the Sony USB flash drive!
I contacted Sony via chat and was told to uninstall my USB and restart windows. I did that with no good results.
I also had to go back to a saved restore point on XP to keep from having to reinstall all my USB connected hardware. (printers mainly)
So If you have USB 1.1 stay away from the Sony Microvault.
I also have a Lexar that works fine.
I recently purchased a Sony 2gig Microvault USB Flash drive that works with USB 2.0 only evidently.
I have USB 1.1 on one of my computers with XP and XP says no driver can be found for the Sony USB flash drive!
I contacted Sony via chat and was told to uninstall my USB and restart windows. I did that with no good results.
I also had to go back to a saved restore point on XP to keep from having to reinstall all my USB connected hardware. (printers mainly)
So If you have USB 1.1 stay away from the Sony Microvault.