Question Flash drive and corruption

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Artisanico

Jan 27, 2025
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I have a 500Gb USB drive with is perhaps 6 or 7 years old but I hardly use it -- I use it only as a secondary data store and have written to it only a few times. I have made a new partition on it and given it a full format but the same thing happened as has plagued my use of this drive: many of the files and folders are corrupted as soon as they hit the drive, so don't get copied. What does this mean? What can I do? TIA.
 
rgd1101 said:
a flash drive or ssd or hdd?

5 or 6 years ago 500GB flash drive? are you sure it is legit 500GB
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I don't know the difference between a flash drive and an SSD, but it is a memory stick type of thing. Perhaps I was exaggerating its age; I might have bought it in 2022 as I had a lot of data loss back then.
 
You've been using it for 3 years and it has been faulty the entire time and yet you keep trying to use it? It's trash at this point since it probably wouldn't be eligible for RMA anymore (no idea what it cost originally).

What is the model exactly? Even 3 years ago a 500GB flash drive would not have been very common or cheap. But you CAN get cheap, high performance flash drives and even better USB SSD sticks now.

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=500gb+usb+ssd+stick
 
Oh wow. So yeah, randomly-named Chinese brand flash drive of massive size from 2.5years ago. It's amazing you could even format it. Smash it and replace it with something from a reputable brand. Real SSD sticks aren't even that much more expensive than flash drives but perform like an external USB drive. (But flash drives can be much smaller physically.)
 
OK so if anyone can advise me in specific terms as to a good one to buy (thing is, I want my secondary data store to be on some media other than an HDD, as I have my primary one as an HDD) then I'll go ahead and buy it. It doesn't need to be 500GB -- 250 or 300 Gb will do me. TIA
 
Why would you be using a slow HDD as your primary storage, and want to make a really fast SSD the secondary one? (Most of the flash drives will not be that fast at writing, but there are a few that would rival an HDD.)

Any of the known brand names in the links I gave will be good for you. PNY, SanDisk, Samsung, even SSK, Amazon Basics, Teamgroup, Buffalo, Silicon Power, all good brands so just look at the prices and sizes.
 
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evermorex76 said:
Why would you be using a slow HDD as your primary storage, and want to make a really fast SSD the secondary one? (Most of the flash drives will not be that fast at writing, but there are a few that would rival an HDD.)

Any of the known brand names in the links I gave will be good for you. PNY, SanDisk, Samsung, even SSK, Amazon Basics, Teamgroup, Buffalo, Silicon Power, all good brands so just look at the prices and sizes.
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From your links, does this one look OK to buy? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Netac-ZSLI...00gb+usb+ssd+stick&qid=1740695287&sr=8-5&th=1
 
Artisanico said:
From your links, does this one look OK to buy? https://www.amazon.co.uk/Netac-ZSLIM500G/dp/B088BTGZ43/ref=sr_1_5?ascsubtag=tomshardware-gb-1000006659963228477-20&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.MhzNWBqZ_hUJVs0cboSY2Cf0SsMLPJBgWadzLPN63zWQuc4gjbfhnl3IYtNZMXIPa7VhtEz6P2naAcE2snHShUF4CO5NW_zZXcHsymDq4TDVckMdd4bZ8KWWtRCF0LCgtiXD9ZOnua080d6JciPpKVQIOL1k1QuBbrqM2AoPW8GZzcn2ROe-paYFWaAqG8ZlXhv8P7TNmy8SHSxj1d_f0AP2YW0mWN0F4clMsgamllk.Eqqr_AA_QECHJI6BWRYP-tLmuhQ0UjwL5kBjH0XOZ-w&dib_tag=se&geniuslink=true&keywords=500gb+usb+ssd+stick&qid=1740695287&sr=8-5&th=1
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I wouldn't get that one. They, like many others, repeatedly tout the USB 3.2 Gen 2 10Gbps USB link to the PC, but in only one place do they mention the ACTUAL speed of the drive, 500MBps max (or 550, which they state in a different place), which is only equal to USB 3.2 Gen 1 (USB 3.0 5Gbps). They even mention the drive inside is an NV3000, which is itself rated for 3100/2100 R/W so somehow they've crippled the interface so that it performs like a SATA drive. (Even if they limited it to x1 lane PCIe internally as some enclosures do, that should still be 775MBps.)

I know you're not super worried about speed, but I wouldn't want to get something that has misleading advertising like that as well as crippled hardware, and you want to get value for the money. Netac in general is, from what I've read, not a terrible brand in terms of quality, but it seems you have to choose the right device for that to be true.

This looks good and costs less, and is faster: https://www.amazon.co.uk/SSK-Portable-External-Transmission-Smartphone/dp/B0BZCPDMYG

Or this which potentially is double the speed (if you have USB Gen 2x2) and is even cheaper as it's on sale, and it's a TLC drive. https://www.amazon.co.uk/SSK-Portable-External-Consumption-MacBook/dp/B0CY4PQHXZ
 
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