Recommendations for USB drives?

*Sigh*

My OS installer collection has finally taken up the last of the DVD-RWs that I got a couple years ago. Times have since changed though, because whereas back then most electronics stores had an entire aisle of burnable DVD media, nowadays there's 1 or 2 options buried somewhere in the Blu-ray isle, and what's there is very expensive - at $2.50 for a single disk, I'd rather just go with USB sticks in the future.

That said, does anybody have any recommendations for USB drives? Any horrible drives that I should avoid? Price and quality (as in I can image it today and dig it out 10 years from now and still be able to install Windows 7 from it, just like how my Windows XP RTM CD still works) are the main concerns, though extras like USB 3.0 are definitely welcome as long as they don't bump up the price too much.

 

Unless you need somthing water resistant or that can handle being thrown off buildings, they're all pretty much the same in terms of build quality.

I tend to use Kingston Datatravelers but I wouldn't let it keep me from buying cheaper USBs if they gave me more GB/$

 

Yeah, there're more or less the same (except some of the very expensive higher-grade ones), since the flash chips are all sourced from the same few companies.

That said, I've always had great experiences with Corsair and Kingston drives. I've generally bought whatever I could get for an exceptionally low price, though.

 

Amazon sells their own USB drives now. Crazy cheap and so far I've been happy with the one I have.

Introducing USB 2.0 Flash Drives from AmazonBasics

 

4GB for $7.50 and 8GB for $9.50 lol
Oh the world we live in.

 

If you're going to get a USB drive (online presumably), why are you being so put out to just order some DVD-RW's online? Retail stores are dead, overpriced, and require you to waste time and money to drive to them.

Taking 2 mins to look at both amazon and newegg as examples, they both are selling spindles of DVD-RW's for much less than a dollar per disc.

 

I personally like installing an OS from a usb drive, installs faster.

 

My thoughts exactly. Its what I do.

 

The problem with getting a spindle these days is that you get crap burn speeds, either 2x for DVD-RW or 4x for DVD+RW.

I can't find a spindle anywhere, online or otherwise, with 6x and above burn speeds. The higher speeds seem to be reserved for expensive singles.

 

Wait...people burn to discs still?

 

I still do on extremely rare occasions, but a pack of 10 discs will last me years...

 

Absolutely. In fact, not only is the disc alive and well, it is still the simplest and most economical and universally accepted way to transfer and store data.

Second only to books in keeping those in power from simply throwing a switch and putting you out of action. Yes conspiracy theorist.

 

The speed difference you're going to get between 4x and 6x is nominal, even if you are explicitly burning full discs worth of data.

In the end, I don't trust USB drives for extended storage of files in the slightest. Have experienced waaaaaaay too many failures, especially on the lower end value drives. Well, also on the better end (and supposedly quality) drives such as Corsair.

 

I've experienced the opposite, in fact. Lost a year of data archived in 2002(?) when the DVD I had burned just did not work -- not even a year after it had been burned. Fortunately nothing important was lost but after that I stuck to copies on another hard drive and/or USB sticks.

 

All of which makes one point incontrovertibly clear: never put all your egg in on basket. Theres still much viability left in disc as a storage medium. So I wouldn't hang up my optical drives just yet. I have and use both.