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Author Topic: Help: Recommend flash drive(s) for small files  (Read 4797 times)

Cloq

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Help: Recommend flash drive(s) for small files
« on: February 28, 2011, 01:34 PM »
I am having a hard time finding flash drives that are small file(s) friendly (read fast write/delete).

The brands I have used: Corsair, Super Talent, Lifetime, Edge, PNY. Capacity range: 2GB - 16GB.

Relatively speaking, they all tanked when it came to dealing with small files (4KB and smaller).

Just recently, I spent a couple hours moving ~13K files (most) under 4KB size. Total amount: 5GB.  >:(

All my flash drives are really fast when it comes to dealing with big files (over a meg).
As a test I copied 5 files, each 1GB and that process only took a few minutes.

Recommendations? Anyone? :)
« Last Edit: February 28, 2011, 01:41 PM by Cloq »

timns

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Re: Help: Recommend flash drive(s) for small files
« Reply #1 on: February 28, 2011, 01:44 PM »
Zip up your small files first?

Cloq

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Re: Help: Recommend flash drive(s) for small files
« Reply #2 on: February 28, 2011, 01:50 PM »
I sync to my flash drive, and occasionally I back it up to another flash drive, structure and all.

I am thinking of syncing to a cloud storage service but the downside to that is always have to have the internet available. 

wraith808

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Re: Help: Recommend flash drive(s) for small files
« Reply #3 on: February 28, 2011, 01:56 PM »
Here's a thread on this.  It's from 2009, but there's a lot of good info.

You could probably run tests on it and get good info on the actual transfers; there's some info on that here.  Again, it's from 2009, but the program links provided still work other than Chip Genius and Check Flash.

Chip Genius seems to be at http://www.fake-memory.com/index.html, though it seems that this site is only for verifying if a chip is fake (the original purpose of that post).  More on Check Flash (and some other speed utilities) can be found at http://www.makeuseof...flash-drive-windows/, and a download link for Check Flash can be found at http://www.softpedia...sk/Check-Flash.shtml.

I use the cloud sync route; I was concerned about having the internet available, but it's not really a big issue, it turns out (at least for me).  I can recommend Dropbox and Jungle Disk for the sync.
« Last Edit: February 28, 2011, 01:58 PM by wraith808 »

4wd

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Re: Help: Recommend flash drive(s) for small files
« Reply #4 on: February 28, 2011, 02:23 PM »
ChipGenius' home is at MyDigit, (Chinese), but you can also download it from here.

Cloq

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Re: Help: Recommend flash drive(s) for small files
« Reply #5 on: February 28, 2011, 04:03 PM »
@wraith808

Thanks! Informative site. Bookmarked.

f0dder

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Re: Help: Recommend flash drive(s) for small files
« Reply #6 on: February 28, 2011, 06:03 PM »
You could set your filesystem cluster to the flash erase-block size - that should speed up things, but is also (possibly) going to waste a lot of space... and it might not be possible to find the erase-block size without trial and error.
- carpe noctem

Cloq

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Re: Help: Recommend flash drive(s) for small files
« Reply #7 on: March 01, 2011, 06:51 AM »
I am currently looking at an eSATA/USB flash drive (kanguru or super talent).

Looks interesting from everthing I am reading, plus I have an esata port on the top of my case.

Anyone used one of those yet?

rjbull

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Re: Help: Recommend flash drive(s) for small files
« Reply #8 on: March 02, 2011, 03:03 PM »
Just wondering: would it help to use TeraCopy?