[SOLVED] Are USB 3.0 256GB reliable mostly for backup purposes

[travistee]

I tried a PNY USB 3.0 turbo 256GB. I had lots of problems trying to backup large files and large amounts of storage.
It would go real slow and seemed to be going nowhere. I formated it in NTFS, it came as ExFat.
I read reviews on it and it was all bad so I returned it.

Now I'm looking at a HP 256GB x900w USB 3.0 Flash Drive (P-FD256HP900-GE)
This one has good reviews but I see there are still complaints about trying to backup large files or large amounts of data.

They say it slows to USB 2.0 speeds and gets very unreliable.

I use the flash drives to backup things i want to carry with me. My main backup is the Seagate Portable 4TB External Hard Drive HDD – USB 3.0

I use two of these. One to take with me and one to leave home.
I also use an AC powered USB hub with these drives because I have heard they can fail if there is not enough power coming from the computer USB.

I like to copy to a flash drive and then also have a copy on the external HD. I also have an enclosure to backup on a SCSI 3.5 drive.

So the question is if the large capacity 3.0 flash drives are reliable enough or is it better to stick with the 2.0 drives for higher reliability?

 

[rgd1101]

external ssd?

 

[USAFRet]

Flash drives are not good for a backup solution.
And slowing down during a large data transfer? Yes. The cache fills up, and it slows.

External HDD or SSD is what you want. Not fragile flash drives.

 

[travistee]

Like I said, I use the external seagate 4TB drives as duplicate backups ( 2 of them ). When I bought them at bestbuy they told me they are SSD but seagate told me they are really a pair of Samsung drives , in each of the 4TB drives, working together as one drive.

I use the Flash drives as an easy way to carry lots of storage and not have to use the seagate drives. ( If I don't use them they wont break). So my question was about which of those flash drives are best to get. A USB 2 flash takes a long time to copy data to. So I want a USB3 that is at least somewhat reliable. Thats why I asked about the HP flash I mentioned above.

Any ideas on a good 256GB USB3 that I should get. Other USB3 flash drives were really fast, but only 16GB.
It's looking like going to large capacity is not working so great.

Reading some of the sob stories on Amazon about people who put their very important files on a flash drive that failed is really sad.

 

[rgd1101]

external ssd like https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-T5-Portable-SSD-MU-PA500B/dp/B073GZBT36

 

[USAFRet]

Reading some of the sob stories on Amazon about people who put their very important files on a flash drive that failed is really sad.

Amazon reviews are absolutely not reliable. You see the 20 people who lost data (half due to their own idiocy). You don't see the tens of thousands of others with no issue.

And data should never reside on a single drive, no matter what type. A dead drive should never involve data loss.

 

[mdd1963]

with quality 500 GB SSDs by Crucial (MX500) at $65 these days, why bother worrying with USB flash drives...; slap an SSD in an enclosure if USB is needed....