recommend flash drives

[davemchine]

It seems I am always looking for a spare flash drive or recycling ones that I would prefer not to recycle. I'd like to pickup a few spares when they are on sale so I don't have this problem. A few years ago I bought some on extreme sale and they were junk. Any recommendations for good ones? Only feature I know I want is a light to flash during access. Thanks.

[jdc]

how much data? USB 3 or 2? speed important?

[davemchine]

I think USB3 since I have a new iMac that supports it. Capacity can be anywhere from 8GB and up. Mostly I've been using them for OS X and Linux installers. Thanks.

[Ombligo]

I would just keep an watch on Amazon and Newegg for a sale. Amazon had PNY marked down a few days ago, they will again.

[WHiiP]

This is a familiar topic here. Search the forum for brand names that people like.

[msglee]

Look at dealnews, about 1/3 the way down. Sandisk flash drives.

free shipping.

http://dealnews.com/

[RAMd®d]

http://dealnews.com/c297/Computers/Stora...sh-Drives/

I prefer the SanDisk Extreme series flash drives.

A 32G and 64G USB3 drives let me boot and run El Cap in my 2012 mini and for a lot of tasks, I don't even realize I'm on a thumb drive.

Aside from boot duty, I still prefer SanDisk drives. I've never had one of them (or Kingston) fail.

[testcase]

Staples was recently taking pre-orders on a PNY USB3, 256GB stick for $40 (early March delivery). Staples is currently selling the 128 GB PNY USB3 stick for $20. Straight up pricing; no BS rebates.

[davemchine]

Thanks for all the help those extreme flash drives look very nice. Fast, highly rated and has the blinkey light I want. I will probably jump on that wagon.

[Robert M]

Dave,

I'll echo the recommendations for the SanDisk Extreme flash drives. Great drives! The key with to this particular model is the amazingly fast read/write speeds. They are like SSDs in stick form.

That's why I don't look at just the interface, i.e. USB 3.0. There are USB 3.0 flash drives that are _much_ slower than other USB 3.0 drives. The SanDisk Ultra series USB 3.0 flash drives has a noticeably slower read/write rating than the SanDisk Extreme. There are some USB 3.0 flash drives that aren't all that much faster than their USB 2.0 siblings.

You may find a great deal on a different make and model USB 3.0 flash drive that has a speed rating along the lines of the SanDisk Extreme models. You'll also find some that are horrifically slow in comparison.

Robert