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SanDisk launches dongle-like Extreme Fit USB-C flash drive with up to 1 TB

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Re: SanDisk launches dongle-like Extreme Fit USB-C flash drive with up to 1 TB

#131

Post by craftkiller »

wkat4242 wrote: post #126
craftkiller wrote: post #90

Someone please copy the yubikey 5c form factor but make it a flash drive. I've been looking for years for a small, durable, usb type-c flashdrive for my keychain but nothing comes close to the yubikey 5c. The 5c has the metal ring so it won't ever rip off my keychain, the hole is large enough to fit a solid metal ring through it, and it is small enough that I can keep it on my keychain and use it without stressing my…

Having a stick with exposed contacts and no USB shell (like the yubikey has) is not possible in USB3 format. It requires springs on the stick itself, no chance of the easy, pretty much unbreakable yubikey format. That only works for USB2. USB3-A (and -C) reversed the part that is springy, what was previously in the receptacle is now in the plug. Of course USB3-A is a mixed standard so the USB2 part is still as it was…

Are you thinking of the USB A yubikeys? The 5c that I linked has a shell around the connector. It seems no different to me than any usb type c or thunderbolt cables that I own.

Re: SanDisk launches dongle-like Extreme Fit USB-C flash drive with up to 1 TB

#132

Post by transpute »

nerdsniper wrote: post #52
dotancohen wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which filesystem do you use that handles large disks and can be mounted by Linux, Windows, and Mac?

Ext4 and NTFS. FUSE for linux and Paragon Software for MacOS. Though often I have three partitions, so I use APFS, NTFS, and Ext4 on the same drive.

A related challenge is encryption of removable flash storage.

Linux has FUSE read-only support for decrypting APFS. iOS can read/write encrypted APFS that is formatted on macOS.

Would be nice to have encrypted ZFS support on multiple platforms, including iOS and Android.

Re: SanDisk launches dongle-like Extreme Fit USB-C flash drive with up to 1 TB

#133

Post by yndoendo »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #104
craftkiller wrote: post #90

Someone please copy the yubikey 5c form factor but make it a flash drive. I've been looking for years for a small, durable, usb type-c flashdrive for my keychain but nothing comes close to the yubikey 5c. The 5c has the metal ring so it won't ever rip off my keychain, the hole is large enough to fit a solid metal ring through it, and it is small enough that I can keep it on my keychain and use it without stressing my…

Kingston makes this product line for many years which meets the requirements I think https://www.kingston.com/en/usb-flash-drives/datatraveler-dt...

Kingston stopped making the one I really liked. A truly small microSD to USB adapter that could fit in a wallet. This was perfect for always having a USB drive around and not taking up space in your pocket.

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F...

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/658398-REG/Kingston_F...

Re: SanDisk launches dongle-like Extreme Fit USB-C flash drive with up to 1 TB

#134

Post by m463 »

nolok wrote: post #24
ZeroConcerns wrote: post #7

I've pretty much stopped using 'stick' type storage for anything >256MB, as regardless of brand and series, my experience is that these thingies overheat under anything but light write usage, and either slow to a crawl or drop off the USB bus entirely before my copy is finished. 'Credit card' sized SSDs are not that much more inconvenient to carry and store, and don't exhibit any of these issues for me. And the therm…

NVMe enclosure are cheap, mine is a ugreen supporting usb 3.2 gen2 and i paid less than 20 euro. Put any kind of half decent nvme in it covered by one of those cheap heat dissipator.

sort of related, but I really like the Sabrent PCIe 5.0 nvme enclosures.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQZ6SYD1

No tools to insert m.2 nvme stick, easily fits and locks into a pcie slot, without a metal bracket to unscrew/remove.

I don't have a pcie gen 5 system, but the new samsung drives might do 14,800 MB/s

I also love thin ethernet patch cables. and 5-in-1 usb cables for travel.

Re: SanDisk launches dongle-like Extreme Fit USB-C flash drive with up to 1 TB

#135

Post by Modified3019 »

dataflow wrote: post #128
Modified3019 wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dockcase makes enclosures with a capacitor that hold ~5 or 10 seconds of charge, and on power loss sends whatever the “get ready for shut down NOW” signal is to the contained drives. This obviously doesn’t help with unsynced data that the OS had not sent to the drive yet. I use one for a ventoy install, an another for a windows to go install. Windows on a usb stick is finicky to get recognized as bootable sometimes (…

These look cool but support only up to 4TB capacity? That feels like a super silly limitation. Do they plan to release anything with higher capacity support? Or maybe these would unofficially work fine with 8TB etc.?

I can’t say for sure, but I regard all statements on maximum supported capacity to mean “that’s the biggest drive we had to test so far”, rather than being an actual technical limitation

One thing I forgot warn about, while this applies to every drive with data you care about, have automated and tested backups. SSDs can and will just up and die, and most drives these days are going to be completely unrecoverable in practice unless the issue is solder ball corrosion/breakage.

Basically, be prepared for that 8TB of data to go poof, where it’s in an enclosure or not.

If your drive is suddenly missing, you might need to reboot, or remove the device to drain power and try again, or use a different USB port. Rarely, drives need to get power cycled to recover from power loss (I’ve not had to do with with my dockcase enclosure, but did a few times prior in earlier enclosures). See https://dfarq.homeip.net/fix-dead-ssd/

Also stay away from cheap Samsung OEM drives on eBay, they have dogshit firmware that’s often been fucked with by whatever the vendor was, with no good way to get updates even if they exist. If your drive suddenly shows up as 1GB with the firmware version of “ERRORMOD” (“error mode”), it’s all gone.

Re: SanDisk launches dongle-like Extreme Fit USB-C flash drive with up to 1 TB

#136

Post by mcdonje »

craftkiller wrote: post #93
mcdonje wrote: post #69

I want one that is shaped like the USB-C port. Like it was extruded from the port. About as long as a key, maybe a shorter key, like a mailbox key. Has a rounded end with a hole to make a very sturdy keyring hole. Capacity is limited to what would be reliable and not overheat. <1g.

It sounds like you're describing the yubikey 5c form factor. Unfortunately I haven't been able to find a flash drive matching that form factor in my years of searching. https://resources.yubico.com/53ZDUYE6/at/cm85k8947jm9g32znfs...

Close! I'm thinking something like the Kingston DataTraveler, but usb-c.

https://www.kingston.com/en/usb-flash-drives/datatraveler-dt...

Re: SanDisk launches dongle-like Extreme Fit USB-C flash drive with up to 1 TB

#137

Post by jasomill »

m463 wrote: post #134
nolok wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

NVMe enclosure are cheap, mine is a ugreen supporting usb 3.2 gen2 and i paid less than 20 euro. Put any kind of half decent nvme in it covered by one of those cheap heat dissipator.

sort of related, but I really like the Sabrent PCIe 5.0 nvme enclosures. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQZ6SYD1 No tools to insert m.2 nvme stick, easily fits and locks into a pcie slot, without a metal bracket to unscrew/remove. I don't have a pcie gen 5 system, but the new samsung drives might do 14,800 MB/s I also love thin ethernet patch cables. and 5-in-1 usb cables for travel.

I just replaced my 2013 Mac Pro's 256 GB factory SSD and an external SSD array with a 4 TB Samsung 990 Pro with one of these in an old Thunderbolt 2 PCIe 2.0 enclosure I had sitting on the shelf, and it works perfectly.

It's obviously limited by Thunderbolt 2 transfer rates, but it's still faster than both the sluggish factory SSD and the SSD RAID, consisting of 4 Samsung 850 Pros in an 8-drive Areca SAS enclosure that also contains 4 2 TB HGST Ultrastars that are somehow still running without a single uncorrectable error after more than 13 years of 24/7 operation in a dusty apartment with questionable climate control.

At this point, my money's on both the enclosure and at least two SSDs failing before any of the hard drives.

I'd say they don't make 'em like they used to, but since I've yet to see a failure or uncorrectable error on any of my newer 8 TB and 16 TB Ultrastars either, I lack data to support this conclusion.

Re: SanDisk launches dongle-like Extreme Fit USB-C flash drive with up to 1 TB

#138

Post by dotancohen »

kanbankaren wrote: post #103
dotancohen wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which filesystem do you use that handles large disks and can be mounted by Linux, Windows, and Mac?

The exFAT suggested below is really not resilient enough that I could trust GBs of data on it. Easily gets corrupted. If you don't need to use it on Mac/Windows, use a FS like BTRFS with checksumming feature. Don't use any FS that doesn't have checksum feature as silent bitrot is real.

So, nothing? Unbelievable

Re: SanDisk launches dongle-like Extreme Fit USB-C flash drive with up to 1 TB

#139

Post by jasomill »

Modified3019 wrote: post #135
dataflow wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These look cool but support only up to 4TB capacity? That feels like a super silly limitation. Do they plan to release anything with higher capacity support? Or maybe these would unofficially work fine with 8TB etc.?

I can’t say for sure, but I regard all statements on maximum supported capacity to mean “that’s the biggest drive we had to test so far”, rather than being an actual technical limitation One thing I forgot warn about, while this applies to every drive with data you care about, have automated and tested backups . SSDs can and will just up and die, and most drives these days are going to be completely unrecoverable in…

You might be surprised. Just the other day I put an 8 TB drive in an old USB 2.0 SATA enclosure and it presented as a 1.1 TB drive, suggesting that the bridge chip is limited to 31-bit (?!?) LBAs.

Re: SanDisk launches dongle-like Extreme Fit USB-C flash drive with up to 1 TB

#140

Post by Dylan16807 »

jack_tripper wrote: post #123
Yokolos wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure what you mean by "so you can't hot -plug/-unplug it". If I use it in Windows or Linux, I can eject it like I can any standard non-SSD USB stick. I'm also not sure what issues you've been having with booting from them. I've occasionally used these things to boot Linux LiveCDs without issue. Might be a compatibility issue with your BIOS specifically? I've seen some messed up BIOS's that simply defy all exp…

>I'm not sure what you mean by "so you can't hot -plug/-unplug it" Only UMS (universal mass storage) devices can be hot-plugged-unplugged without ejecting, while UAS (USB Attached SCSI) devices cannot and need to be ejected beforehand since the OS treats them like an internal drive instead of a removable one. > I'm also not sure what issues you've been having with booting from them. Might be a compatibility issue wit…

> Only UMS (universal mass storage) devices can be hot-plugged-unplugged without ejecting, while UAS (USB Attached SCSI) devices cannot and need to be ejected beforehand since the OS treats them like an internal drive instead of a removable one.

"need" according to what? If this is about writeback caching, you can turn that off manually for the disk. And isn't windows the only OS that disables it by default for removable disks?

> USB tools (like Rufus in default mode) create 512B-aligned images, but if the drive is 4Kn-only, GRUB or kernel can't read the filesystem.

> The lack of 512 support seems to be a issue on the newer lower-cost USB SSDs which are designed to just do NTFS file transfers on the go and not host an OS for boot.

Sounds like a rufus issue to me, rather than a hardware problem. It's been standard practice to align to larger values for a long time for performance reasons.

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