I've come to depend on my flash drive and PortableApps a lot, and lifetime of the drive has become an issue. They don't last forever, ya know. And now I need to buy a larger one.
I haven't been able to find any info on the relative quality or expected lifetime of the flash drives from the various manufacturers. Is there a difference in lifetime? Is there a "best" flash drive I can buy for reliability? Is there a brand I should avoid?
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A lot of people around here have bought the Corsair Flash Voyager GT, it's got great reviews, it's fast, it's durable, and it's got a ten year warranty.
Site is corsairmemory.com I think, and you can purchase it from NewEgg.com
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I had been using a Voyager GT for portable apps for a while, but I had one just stop working with no explanation. That one was replaced by Corsair. It took a month, but it was replaced. My new Voyager GT one day, just stopped recognizing portable apps. I am very reluctant to put my portable apps back on this drive.
You may want to consider the ATP ToughDrive. I have the 2 GB version and it is very well built and one of the fastest USB drives on the market. What you should be looking for is a drive that is both fast (for running PA) and durable.
If you search this site you will find several threads that give performance figures for the various drives on the market.
-IP
I have the 8GB Voyager GT, and the 4GB Tough Drive.
I use both on a regular bases and haven't had any trouble with either.
The GT is a little bit faster than the Tough Drive, at least it seems that way to me.
I've dropped them, stepped on them, left them in the bottom of my laptop bag, etc. and neither one has failed on my yet.
The GT is 6+ months old, the Tough Drive is over a year.
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I had an Apacer for 3 years, never failed. Also, although my Kingston's r/w speeds are really slow, it hasn't failed me yet!
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"Pray as if everything depended upon God and work as if everything depended upon man."
Francis Cardinal Spell
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"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook
John Haller has pointed out in a past thread or two that the feature to look for is termed "dual channel". This means that the flash drive can theoretically read and write simultaneously. Benchmark tests seem to back up the promise of "dual channel" in the reviews I've read.
As far as quality and reliability go, it seems that for the most part you get what you pay for. Also, those manufacturers who are known for producing good system RAM are also making good flash drives (Corsair, OCZ, Patriot, Geil, etc.). Some of them even offer lifetime warranties.
There's no substitute for a backup. Backup your flash drive as often as you can. I use SyncBackSE to do this, but Microsoft has a free "powertoy" called SyncToy which reportedly works well and there's the great new app here named Toucan.
I would recommend going with a vendor that has a good return policy and RMA history, buying a drive based mostly on performance and keeping it backed up.
There's also PA.com backup tool, included with the menu.
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"Pray as if everything depended upon God and work as if everything depended upon man."
Francis Cardinal Spell
-Please search before posting.
"Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning." - Rick Cook