[SOLVED] Thinking about buying some Memory Sticks

[Oasis Curator]

While having to go through a reset of Windows 10 (luckily it could reinstall from the same disk it was installing to) (cloud option not available), I did prepare an install memory stick using the Microsoft Tool.

I have various memory sticks, one as low as 128MB! Most are between 2GB and 4GB... I have a couple at 32GB and one at 64GB I think. Most are USB 2 or below. I think only one is USB3. To be honest, I rarely use them but I've been hindered in the past with their size.

However I was thinking about making a permenant Windows Recovery Tool Disk. I have a permenant "drivers" memory stick for a PC that struggled from time to time. Took a good while to find the proper drivers so I saved them all to a memory stick, which is where they'll stay for Thr life of that PC.

Took a look on ebay and someone is selling ten 64GB memory sticks for £6 (£1 + £5 postage. They're USB-3. Looks like they're ex-work or have been used in a corporate environment. They have five or six lots of sizes ranging from 16GB up to the 64GB.

Question 1: Am I wasting £6?
While it's unlikely, I'd prefer to have some sort of redundancy of being able to install Windows 10.

Question 2: How long does this sort of memory last for?
Could I put some semi-archived things on it and keep it for years and it'll be okay?

Question 3: If I was to purchase, are there any precautions I should take before slotting them into my PC?
I am unaware of how virtual machines work.

Question 4: Is there some sort of utility that can tell me more about the sticks?
For example, I use HD Sentinel to tell me more about the health of my hard disks. Is there something like this for memory sticks?

If I purchase the job lot, I'd likely throw away / give away all my others. I'm thinking this may be the last lot of portable memory I buy before being fully cloud compliant.

I usually transfer data between my two PCs as for the life of me, getting them to "see" each other as part of a network (both are connected to the same router) is near on impossible. I don't understand why they can't talk to each other.

I'm also aware as time goes on, 64GB will become pretty small but way enough to store a bit of this and that (proper archived stuff will be on a separate mechanical hard drive).

Thank you for your time.

 

[velocityg4]

1. Depends on the memory stick. Not all are created equal. If you want a relatively reliable and fast Flash drive. Buy a good one. I recommend the Samsung Fit Plus USB flash drive. I have a few of these. They are among the fastest flash drives you can get, tiny and reliable. I just did an install of Windows 10 on my new PC build and it took about ten minutes from first boot to installed and booted into a user profile.

2. Not sure about archiving. They'll hold for a few years. Although you should be updating it with the latest Windows 10 installer every time a new version comes out. About twice a year. As it'll save you time doing updates later.

3. Are you doing a VM or a recovery/install drive. Big difference. For a VM a flash drive would be very slow. You'd definitely want the fastest you can get.

4. Couldn't say

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Flash drives are good for moving files, installing OS and running recovery tools (I use one for ultimate bootCD). Because of how Windows doesn't like multiple partitions on a flash drive. You'll want separate drives for a Windows installer and something like UBCD. You can make them work with multiple partitions. Even multiple bootable partitions but it isn't worth the effort when they are so cheap.

64GB is actually a lot for this type of activity. If it seems too confined for file transfers. You should not be using a Flash drive. As they take so long to write that much data. You should be using an external SSD for large transfers to save a lot of time. I also think they have a lower cost per GB.

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If you are having trouble file sharing. Make sure both are set to a private network in the network settings. As public blocks file sharing by default. Make sure each is set to the same workgroup which should be the same if you never changed it. Then map the shared folders to drive letters so they are easier to get at in the future.