[HN Gopher] SanDisk launches dongle-like Extreme Fit USB-C flash...
___________________________________________________________________
SanDisk launches dongle-like Extreme Fit USB-C flash drive with up
to 1 TB
Author : teleforce
Score : 108 points
Date : 2025-11-07 12:11 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.notebookcheck.net)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.notebookcheck.net)
| jqpabc123 wrote:
| _Plug and stay_
|
| Hopefully, this has been tested for durability and some MTBF
| specs are available to prove it.
|
| Otherwise, buyer beware.
|
| EDIT: I couldn't find any MBTF specs so I looked up the "limited
| warranty" for this product.
|
| _There is no warranty of uninterrupted or error-free operation._
| jedberg wrote:
| Obviously the solution is to get two, one on each side of your
| laptop, and set them up as mirrors of each other. Then your
| laptop looks more balanced and you can survive a failure!
| bloomingeek wrote:
| "Plug and stay" is a bad idea. A couple of laptops ago, when
| putting it into the laptop backpack, my hand slipped and the
| laptop dropped about eight inches into the pocket. It landed
| directly onto a mouse dongle still plugged into the USB slot.
| (I know, the dongle should have been "up", I was distracted!)
| The result was a broken slot, bummer.
| fph wrote:
| "Plug and stay" is also a horrible idea at a time when
| laptops routinely come with only 2 USB ports.
| jbverschoor wrote:
| I'd rather not have something like that poking out. Looks like
| it'll ruin the port when for example it hooks behind something
| b3lvedere wrote:
| I also wonder if the HDMI port in the stock photo is still
| easily accessible with this thing plugged in. I hate plug in
| devices that block other inputs/ports.
| amelius wrote:
| That's a more general problem with USB.
| lazide wrote:
| The problem I have with USB on windows is how windows insists
| on turning off/crashing drivers for anything attached to USB
| for long periods of time.
|
| It's gotten to the point I just turn off my machine (instead
| of power saving) so that things actually work when I turn it
| on.
| anthk wrote:
| If you use Linux (dual boot for instance) you can disable
| it with this boot arg for the kernel in Grub (and LILO too,
| you Slackware users, or Refind/Syslinux). Just append:
| usb.autosuspend=-1 usbcore.autosuspend=-1
|
| to the linux quiet=1 foo bar blah
| blah... line in your /etc/default/grub, /etc/lilo.conf or
| whatever bootloader you use. Then, run update-grub or
| similar.
|
| It will draw more power on laptops but not much.
| pndy wrote:
| Frankly, this is more a visual gimmick rather than useful form
| factor. And probably that's why sandisk went with this design
| of pill/small candy - because how long you can do boring
| 4cm-7cm oblong thumb drives?
|
| This thing is too small to be handled or placed with confidence
| you won't drop it or knock if off the table.
| tmzt wrote:
| I've used a similar drive on my Chromebooks for the last decade.
|
| I went looking for a USB-C version and was surprised not to find
| one.
|
| I would love to see one with SSD speeds if such a thing is
| possible.
| odie5533 wrote:
| SSK and Transcend sell USB-C SSD thumb drives with speeds of
| 1000 MB/s. They're SSDs though, not flash memory, but they are
| thumb drives, not big boxes.
| 3eb7988a1663 wrote:
| How hot do these things get? I have a few "bar" type USB sticks
| that get quite warm after even moderate amounts of data transfer.
| ssl-3 wrote:
| How hot is "quite warm"? And how hot is too hot?
|
| From my own observation: Anything over 40C or so feels quite
| warm to my own touch, but 40C is generally rather insignificant
| to a solid-state IC.
| dotancohen wrote:
| At around 120C or so lead solder can become weaker, and this
| temperature is forbidden in devices that experience vibration
| or other perturbations. Unleaded solders can handle higher
| temperatures. All consumer products today are RoHS 6 and so
| do not have lead.
|
| It would not surprise me if a heavily written ss device in an
| unventilated environment, such a laptop on a bed with a
| blanket covering it, or left operating in a bag, could get
| close to such a temperature on the PCBA. It would also
| dissipate heat to the USB connector of the laptop, possibly
| weakening it as well.
| numpad0 wrote:
| Looks like there are some data and guidelines are in ISO
| 13732-1:2006. $250ish per download, as well as probably
| available in the company intranet/local city library for free
| access.
| vachina wrote:
| With how short the drive is, I think the USB port and the rest
| of your pc's motherboard will act as a heatsink for the drive.
| ZeroConcerns wrote:
| 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 thermals on these things _must_ be horrible, plus the
| label makes it look like a knock-off: Sandirk?
| omnimus wrote:
| Even smaller and faster are nvme enclosures over thunderbolt.
| Easily can be boot drive.
| transpute wrote:
| Any recommended enclosures that work reliably with Linux?
| nerdsniper wrote:
| These days most of them seem to work just fine on Linux,
| Windows, and Mac. I use several brands across all 3 and
| never had an issue. I like the DOCKCASE Visual Smart ($40)
| or Explorer Edition ($50). They have large capacitors to
| provide 10 seconds of power loss protection, support 10Gbps
| USB speeds, and have a second USB port just for power which
| makes it compatible with SSD's that draw a lot of power. I
| like the info on the little screens because I swap SSD's
| in/out frequently. There are cheaper ones that work fine
| too - the "SABRENT USB 3.2 Type-C Tool-Free Enclosure"
| ($30) is nice for, well, not needing a screwdriver to swap
| out the drive - but it might not deliver enough power for
| some overkill SSD like the (now Sandisk) WD Black SN8100 -
| but the DockCase will, as long as you also plug in an
| auxiliary power USB cable.
|
| A drive like the Patriot Memory P400 Lite is very low
| power, so it works with cheaper enclosures or USB ports
| that don't deliver as much power to the peripheral. It also
| generates less heat, which can help sustain performance
| depending on the enclosure and environment.
| dotancohen wrote:
| Which filesystem do you use that handles large disks and
| can be mounted by Linux, Windows, and Mac?
| energy123 wrote:
| I have experience with ext4 not through deliberate choice
| but through circumstance.
|
| ext4 can't be natively mounted in Mac and Windows but you
| can install third party software and still mount it from
| the command line easily. And of course ext4 works fine
| with Linux natively.
|
| I don't know if you can install the Mac OS or Windows OS
| on an ext4 drive and directly boot from it, however.
| nerdsniper wrote:
| 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.
| transpute wrote:
| 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.
| robertlagrant wrote:
| ExFAT is becoming a good option on all three. Windows and
| MacOS have native support, and more and more Linux
| distros are getting support as well I believe.
| kanbankaren wrote:
| 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.
| davidkwast wrote:
| NTFS
| smallstepforman wrote:
| When you say Linux, reliability depends on distro. I had
| tried to install Mint on an external harddrive, and the
| stupid installer modified the boot loader to search for
| Grub on the removable disk. No removable disk, no grub, no
| booting of any OS. Idiotic. Lets not get started on the
| repair/recovery process since another mainstream OS
| recovery tools wont mount Fat32 EFI partition in R/W,
| needed to verify the uuid for bootmanager.exe - long story
| short, had to reinstall everything. Note - neither Windows
| or Linux are on that box anymore, but Haiku and OSX works
| brilliantly.
| metalman wrote:
| I am begining to dislike mint, that I incidentaly
| downoaded via mobile data onto an old hinky android
| phone, then put on a usb drive with a usb/c adapter, with
| "etchDroid", and booted an ancient desk top with. The
| phone I have now, has a sim tray with places for 2 SIM's
| and an SD card, so with one of these 1TB, USB-C drives
| and a 1 TB SD card, it should be possible to carry a
| local copy of OSM, and a copy of wikipedia(text only)
| with plenty of room left, the full wiki is a monsterous
| 410 TB
| backscratches wrote:
| Every Wikipedia article including pictures is ~111GB.
| Unless you want all of the edit history then maybe you
| are right.
|
| I have had Wikipedia on my phone for years, local search
| is fast enough. I also recommend Wiktionary, which has
| practically every word in every language and is less than
| 10GB.
|
| https://library.kiwix.org/#lang=eng
| whatevaa wrote:
| No need for thunderbolt, had good experience with good old
| high speed usb.
| RamRodification wrote:
| I have to admit I still don't really know what thunderbolt
| even is. I think it's something that is done over USB-C,
| and requires hardware support on the CPU.
|
| I'm guessing it's one search query + a one minute read away
| though. I just haven't.
| dontlaugh wrote:
| It's a PCIe tunnelling protocol, sort of. The other
| simpler one is Oculink.
|
| Most of the time you could do the same thing with USB <4
| without slowdown.
| RamRodification wrote:
| Good to know! Thanks.
| deltoidmaximus wrote:
| Does Oculink have any special sauce to it? I was under
| the impression it presented itself as regular old PCI-e
| and it is really "just" a cabling solution.
| dontlaugh wrote:
| I'm not entirely sure. It definitely don't have its own
| protocol like Thunderbolt and can't possibly be secured.
| Maxion wrote:
| Mobile storage has gotten _so_ much better in the last few
| years.
| kawsper wrote:
| The most irritating thing about the credit-card sized ones, are
| how they aren't attached if you move around.
|
| I like to be mobile, so I put some velcro ultra-mate on the
| back of my laptop, and also on my disk, then the disk can be
| attached and plugged in while I move around.
|
| I also got a 90-degree USB-C cable for a more direct cable
| route.
| ssl-3 wrote:
| Is this what we get when we stop making laptops with
| upgradeable internal storage?
| ZeroConcerns wrote:
| I just upgraded the internal storage of my Lenovo T14 (AMD,
| Gen6) to 4TB, and that took all of 5 minutes. And that
| laptop was definitely made in 2025, although I agree that
| consumer sentiment overwhelmingly favors models that are
| less convenient in that respect.
| bramhaag wrote:
| Meanwhile, modern Apple users:
| https://youtu.be/RDBX6FTYLoQ
| WesolyKubeczek wrote:
| For me it was pure ASMR content
| kmarc wrote:
| Same, with an x1 gen5, upgraded NVME to 1TB
|
| This boy is 8 year old today (bought in 2017 November)
| and still delivers me the EUREUREUR at $consultingjob
| jack_tripper wrote:
| Not really an issue outside the Apple ecosystem and a few
| fringe tablet hybrids like from Microsoft. Vast majority of
| laptops sold today have standard SSDs you can upgrade.
| dspillett wrote:
| _> Vast majority of laptops sold today have standard SSDs
| you can upgrade._
|
| Though some make it quite difficult to get in to replace
| the drive, and put everything back together after.
|
| Some are very easy: an obvious compartment at the bottom,
| unscrew lid, remove drive, put in replacement, power up
| and transfer old content, done. I've seen both NVMe and
| 2.5" SATA drives arranged this way. On the other hand,
| upgrading my friend's laptop recently involved taking
| most of it apart, the drive was under the keyboard
| inaccessible from the back, with other link cables (for
| keyboard, antenna, screen) in the way so they had to be
| disconnected and were in very inconvenient arrangements
| for reconnecting after...
| jack_tripper wrote:
| _> the drive was under the keyboard inaccessible from the
| back_
|
| Must be an old design from around ~10 or so years ago.
| Acer I presume.
| zamadatix wrote:
| I still utilize large external drives on my laptop with
| upgradeable storage, so we get it either way.
| blfr wrote:
| What do you do with all that storage?
|
| Here's the root partition (well, lvm) on a laptop I have been
| using for over three years now >> df -hT ~
| Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted
| on /dev/mapper/vgubuntu-root ext4 869G 298G 527G
| 37% /
|
| I do have an external drive for backups and another for drone
| footage but this is it. Everything else is either fast enough
| in the cloud or just here.
| kawsper wrote:
| I record video in raw, so it's mainly dealing with video
| files during editing.
|
| I want to see if I can move to prores in my import step,
| but I haven't found a good workflow that allows for that.
| nextaccountic wrote:
| Rust compilation artifacts.
| saltcured wrote:
| This reminded me of my professor's laptop with a Ricochet
| wireless modem attached in much the same way back in the
| early/mid 1990s. That was an early wireless ISP prevalent in
| the SF Bay Area.
| Yokolos wrote:
| I have two SSK USB sticks that give me write speeds of up to
| 1GB/s (as long as they're not filled to the brim). I've copied
| things like 80GB games in something like 2-3 minutes. A real
| SSD will always be best, but I'm pretty happy with these USB
| sticks.
| jack_tripper wrote:
| The USB sticks you talk about are basically USB SSDs, not
| what we know as traditional thumb drives.
|
| I have a similar one too from HP(PNY), and it's crazy fast
| for its size, but the issue is its controller (ASMedia IIRC)
| reports it to the OS as a UAS (USB Attached SCSI), similar to
| an external HDD, instead of Removable Mass Storage as most
| thumb drives do, so you can't hot -plug/-unplug it, and that
| controller seems to be backlisted by the Linux kernel for
| some reason, so it's not recognized on linux unless I fiddle
| with the "options usb-storage quirks" kernel parameters, but
| even so my BIOS can't detect it to boot from it. From what I
| understand the issue causing all this is that it's a native
| 4K-block device causing issues with booting on it as
| typically 512-byte block native devices are required for EFI
| boot, or at least that have 512-byte emulation support which
| this controller does not.
|
| I am so disappointed because I bought a fast USB SSD to
| install and dual boot Linux on it as a second drive for my
| Windows laptop. If only I knew that there's such a big
| difference in the types of USB drives out there and that
| they're not all remotely the same.
|
| So do your due diligence on linux compatibility, if you ever
| want to buy these USB SSDs.
| transpute wrote:
| This USB SSD boots Debian Linux 6.1 kernel on HP Ryzen
| laptop, https://www.pny.com/PNY-DUO-
| Link-V3-USB-3-2-Gen-2-Type-C-OTG...
| jack_tripper wrote:
| Thanks I already switched to a SATA SSD with USB3.0
| adapter that works for booting Linux, I'm just annoyed
| spending the money on a fast pricy USB drive that doesn't
| work for anything else than Windows file transfers
| because of some BS technicality.
| Yokolos wrote:
| 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 expectation in how they work.
| Then again, I primarily only use these things to transfer
| data between machines (primarily games), so all I really
| care about is their performance.
|
| I also preferably call them USB sticks instead of SSDs,
| since afaik TRIM isn't supported on them, which makes them
| significantly worse than any proper SSD.
| jack_tripper wrote:
| _> 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
| with your BIOS specifically? _
|
| NO, like I explained before, it's not the BIOS, it's the
| lack of 512 block support on the USB SSD controller which
| is very uncommon on traditional USB thumb drives but is
| needed for UEFI/BIOS boot. 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.
|
| _> I've occasionally used these things to boot Linux
| LiveCDs without issue._
|
| Because yours have 512 native support like most USB
| drives. But No 512 support, no OS boot. Simple.
| nolok wrote:
| 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.
| avipars wrote:
| And they are fast
| abdusco wrote:
| Any recommendations for >20gbit/s enclosures with passive
| cooling (that are also not huge)?
|
| I have a 10gbit/s enclosure and a 4TB gen4 nvme in it. It
| pains me to know that it could achieve >3GB/s write speeds
| but hindered by the interface.
| AlexandrB wrote:
| Highly recommend this site:
| https://dancharblog.wordpress.com/2024/01/01/list-of-ssd-
| enc...
|
| It's key to get an enclosure with a chipset that will
| support whatever interface your computer actually provides,
| otherwise a lot of these enclosures will fall back to USB-3
| speeds for compatibility and things will be slow. This site
| gives a pretty good overview of the chipsets out there and
| pros/cons of each one.
|
| I've had good experiences with Acasis[1] enclosures - they
| seem have a lot of aluminum surface area for dissipating
| heat - but I get the feeling that a lot of these things are
| very similar in practice since they're just slapping the
| same chipsets into different boxes.
|
| [1] https://www.amazon.com/Enclosure-Aluminum-External-
| Support-C...
| snakeman wrote:
| This one:
| https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005008555989592.html
|
| Not small, but not huge either. More importantly, it gets
| about 3/4GB/s with a Kingston NV3 4TB drive and very
| acceptable temps.
| varispeed wrote:
| How do you deal with chronic removal of drive before
| unmounting?
|
| Are there any enclosures that hold charge to prevent data
| corruption in an event of sudden removal?
| Modified3019 wrote:
| 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 (likely a combination of hardware and
| software), but otherwise works well when it's up.
|
| https://www.dockcase.com/collections/ssd-enclosure
|
| One thing to keep in mind is USB 3 ports often only output
| around 4.5 Watts, whereas some nvme m.2 drives want more
| than double that when writing. So it's a good idea to
| choose a drive with lower active power requirements. The
| longer enclosures for dockcase have an extra usb-c port
| that more power can be supplied with
| dataflow wrote:
| 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.?
| Modified3019 wrote:
| 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.
| plorg wrote:
| And not for nothing, the SSDs that GP is describing are
| exactly this - NVME sticks with a USB/Thunderbolt interface
| and some kind of usually aluminum enclosure with a layer of
| thermal conductive material.
| m463 wrote:
| 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.
| sixhobbits wrote:
| It's a stylized S but it seems to be the official 'SanDisk' -
| the same image is on https://shop.sandisk.com/products/usb-
| flash-drives/sandisk-e..., linked in the article
| LargoLasskhyfv wrote:
| I've always wondered about _why_ those little gadgets don 't
| come with metal encasings bonded to the chip with a thermal
| pad, or putty out of the factory. Be it brushed aluminum,
| copper, or another alloy. Brushed, anodized, or with fins for
| 'heavy duty (outdoor/industrial?)' use(which you could clean
| with a brush, if need be).
|
| There should be a market/demand for that, when people are
| paying fantasy prices for gamified crap, yes?
| aidenn0 wrote:
| The SanDisk Extreme Pro is the best I've found for USB sticks
| (not to be confused with the "Extreme Go" which looks very
| similar and sucks). Just be aware that there are a lot of
| knockoffs, so be careful of where you source and test the speed
| of a large file copy (along with checksumming the contents)
| right after purchasing. The real drives always have a metal
| enclosure as well, which helps.
| KnuthIsGod wrote:
| I was foolish enough to buy SanDisk.
|
| SanDisk flashdrives get extremely hot and die in months.
|
| The warranty process is time consuming and tedious.
|
| I stick to Samsung flashdrives now.
| b3lvedere wrote:
| Can't say i have the same experiences. The only products to
| fail me where really really cheap AliExpress devices.
| lazide wrote:
| Sandisk in general I've had good luck with - but there are a
| ton of fakes out there.
|
| That said, I see no way this drive could dissipate any useful
| amount of heat at all, so suspicious it would be a problem
| under sustained write loads.
|
| Especially since most use cases likely would never have
| sustained write loads.
| bloomingeek wrote:
| The way to tell if it's genuine Sandisk is if you can't get
| the damn thing out of the package without cussing!
| bjt12345 wrote:
| I prefer the SK Hynix Beetle (X31) and Tube (T31) to Samsung
| flash drives, because internally the are DRAM SSDs, I hope they
| come out with new models.
| rozab wrote:
| SanDisks are very frequently fake, even in brick and mortar
| stores. Could it be you had a fake one?
| dawnerd wrote:
| Yep, my SanDisk SSD died, was one that had the bad firmware but
| supposedly a fixed revision. They did RMA it but took about a
| month. Only using that now for Ventoy, can't really trust it
| for anything else. Also annoying is they wanted a serial number
| that they silk-screened on in tiny letters matte black on
| black.
|
| Quick edit: Wasn't a fake either, was bought direct.
| closetkantian wrote:
| I had one of these break within a few days of purchase. It's a no
| for me.
| lloydatkinson wrote:
| > Claims to be extreme fit
|
| > Shaped unlike any other USB memory stick and has awkward ill-
| fitting shape
|
| Genuis
| Tuna-Fish wrote:
| Back when Macbook airs had tiny drives and sdcard slots, there
| were multiple vendors selling flush-mount sd cards. They work
| surprisingly well, they can sink heat well into the aluminum
| body.
|
| This product isn't quite there yet, but it's clearly aiming for
| the same market.
| vasco wrote:
| I have a few of those still lying around, they were great!
| piskov wrote:
| There are still for any macbook pro with sd card slot. BaseQi
| or similar
|
| Nothing beats cheap storage like that and completely flush with
| the case
| deafpolygon wrote:
| But how reliable is it? I've heard stories about how
| unreliable it is, and it's got me concerned.
| pcdoodle wrote:
| running a parallels windows install off one, no issues.
| macos does unmount if battery gets really low but not
| really an issue after reboot or replug.
| Tuna-Fish wrote:
| It's a portable device, everything on it needs be backed up
| frequently in case of loss or theft anyway.
|
| I just wanted more storage for media for when I'm not
| connected to my home setup and/or into a fast internet
| pipe, and also didn't want to pay apple 1000% margin for 2
| commodity flash chips.
| actionfromafar wrote:
| When will they start offering flash drives which have a "rubbery"
| connection to itself (imagine a tenth of an inch of flex cable in
| silicon) so the port won't take a beating.
| mosselman wrote:
| I had a USB-A from sandisk which was very solid and I used it for
| years. It wasn't flush with the body of the laptop, but was
| rounded and strong.
|
| This looks super flimsy and like it might break off easily and
| ruin your port.
| myself248 wrote:
| Yeah, that's one thing we lost with USB-C. The USB-A port was
| big enough for a whole system (storage device, wireless chip,
| security processor) to fit inside. With type C we're back to
| dongles hanging out.
| system2 wrote:
| When I was studying at university, I had the highest-capacity USB
| drive of its time, which was 64mb. I was able to fit all my Word
| documents and some extras, and still felt huge. I can't find a
| reason for anyone to use a tiny flash drive and store 1tb info on
| it. It is too risky to store anything important without a backup.
| Versioning is also an issue and must be synced somewhere all the
| time. I thought we were over flash drives already. I only use
| flash drives for installing fresh distros on old computers. Can't
| find a reason to use them anymore.
|
| I used SanDisk Cruzer Fit https://amzn.to/47OqNXT for a very long
| time (USB 2.0) for ESXi server installations too. Never had a
| problem. But this "new" design looks terrible.
| lazide wrote:
| Maybe they have a GoPro and want to be able to do some basic 4K
| video manipulation. Or want to download some warez or porn, or
| use it as a backup drive, etc.
|
| 1TB is enough space to be actually useful for some of this, and
| if you have a somewhat older laptop, it might only have 256GB
| or 512GB internal.
| myself248 wrote:
| Backup drive is my use-case. But that means a mountain of
| sustained write traffic, which means thermals are important,
| which is where this thing sucks. I had been using a regular
| external with a short cable, until I got a Framework and
| decided to try one of their "fits in the module slot" SSDs,
| which is perfect.
|
| I still pop it out after the backup and store it elsewhere, but
| it's lovely that during the backup job (which can take a while
| if it's doing a fresh copy), it's completely unobtrusive and
| can't break off if I set the lappy down wrong.
| BenjiWiebe wrote:
| Using ventoy and having multiple rescue/install images on one
| flash drive is super nice. I have a Windows 2 go installation
| on it too.
| piskov wrote:
| Just buy microsd to sd adapter that sits completely flush in the
| case. Like this called BaseQi:
|
| https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0822/8493/files/feature-1_...
| supermatt wrote:
| Also "just buy" a MacBook Pro to go with it?
| ThePowerOfFuet wrote:
| Speed and write durability are both going to be trash, alas.
| jmpeax wrote:
| "up to 1 TB capacity... starting launch price is $15.99"
|
| I have adblock, how did this SanDisk commercial make it through?
| InMice wrote:
| Goes well with their affiliate links. And it's actually
| discounted to $14.99 at sandisk
| https://shop.sandisk.com/products/usb-flash-drives/sandisk-e...
| prolyxis wrote:
| Note that the $15.99 is for the 64 GB version. The 1 TB version
| sells for above $100.
| dawnerd wrote:
| Considering 1TB sandisk ssds (which have notoriously had high
| failure rates) were around 100 for 1TB for a while is pretty
| impressive they got it into that form factor. I wouldn't
| trust them for anything important though.
| DrammBA wrote:
| It follows the classic format of "Most expensive
| configuration [price ommited], Lowest price bracket
| [configuration ommited]"
| energy123 wrote:
| One would hope the durability of this is keeping pace with the
| capacity. If not, what is the niche? The 1TB is an enticement to
| use this for more than shuffling files from place to place. But
| absent the durability I would not want to do that.
| Wowfunhappy wrote:
| Personally, I've long wanted a USB flash drive large enough to
| store my full movie collection. Traditional external hard
| drives are too cumbersome to use on e.g. public transit. By
| contrast, it's possible to plug in a flash drive and still
| actually use my laptop on my lap.
|
| If the drive died, I wouldn't care too much (beyond the cost of
| replacing the drive), because the master copy of my collection
| would still be at home. (And of course I have other backups
| besides.)
|
| The thing is, 1 TB is actually too small to make this work. I'd
| really need 4 TB.
| hk1337 wrote:
| > Error: Failed to load script: Fallback Failed
|
| That's unfortunate, apparently the site requires some js, that is
| probably blocked by my firewall, to even load the page.
|
| https://shop.sandisk.com/products/usb-flash-drives/sandisk-e...
| Permik wrote:
| They could get rid of the overheating problems by slapping some
| Frore systems cooling chips on the dies and IO chips. No need to
| cook the mf out of the chips as we already have solutions to cool
| them.
| Copenjin wrote:
| Durability is more important of capacity+size. Something flash
| drives are not known for in general.
| dspillett wrote:
| Tiny form factor USB drives have been around for _ages_ 1 but
| only for USB-A ports, so I assume the news here is the USB-C
| connector (and the availability of capacity over 256Gb). This
| would be nice, I've been looking for something small that will go
| in a C port without an adaptor that stops it being so tiny any
| more, but the shape of these looks like it would irritate me,
| sitting "high" above the port and likely above the device it is
| plugged into.
|
| The closest I've found are minimal size dual-port things like
| https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B5S29JWY/ but they could be half
| the length (when inserted) without the A connector at all. I have
| no portable devices without at least as many C ports as A's, non-
| portable devices with only A ports I can stick a C-in-A adaptor
| or two semi-permanently into.
|
| --------
|
| [1] Examples: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07HPX38XC/
| https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07YYMX5LQ/
| https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B08772NT1L/
| mcdonje wrote:
| 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.
| craftkiller wrote:
| 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...
| mcdonje wrote:
| Close! I'm thinking something like the Kingston DataTraveler,
| but usb-c.
|
| https://www.kingston.com/en/usb-flash-drives/datatraveler-
| dt...
| tlhunter wrote:
| 64 GB (curr. $14.99 instead of $15.99) 128 GB (curr.
| $19.99 instead of $21.99) 256 GB (curr. $27.99 instead of
| $29.99) 512 GB (curr. $54.99 instead of $59.99) 1
| TB (curr. $109.99 instead of $117.99)
| bloomingeek wrote:
| Amazon is a little higher priced, but you can get free
| shipping.
| Mistletoe wrote:
| I think it looks cool, despite what the haters here say. And does
| no one use desktops anymore?
| craftkiller wrote:
| 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 usb type c ports.
|
| https://resources.yubico.com/53ZDUYE6/at/cm85k8947jm9g32znfs...
| max51 wrote:
| The best I have found so far with good specs is the "sandisk
| SanDisk ultra dual drive go". The spinny thing is super
| annoying but you can glue it in place if you don't need the
| type-A. It's a bit bigger than the yubikey, but it's smaller
| than the other alternatives.
| craftkiller wrote:
| That's the one that I use now! I'm weary of the spinny kind
| because with other brands/models the outer spinner has ripped
| off the flash drive, but at least so far I haven't had that
| issue with the "SanDisk ultra dual drive go". The only
| modification I've had to do to it so far is lubricating the
| spinny bit because it was all grindy and rough.
| max51 wrote:
| when I realised I never use the type-A, I glued it in place
| with epoxy. Now I don't have to worry about it breaking.
| hnuser123456 wrote:
| I got the ultra dual drive (non-go), no silly spinny bit,
| just a sliding mechanism that locks into place in either
| configuration as well as fully retracted on both sides.
| sidewndr46 wrote:
| Kingston makes this product line for many years which meets the
| requirements I think
|
| https://www.kingston.com/en/usb-flash-drives/datatraveler-dt...
| aidenn0 wrote:
| That's close, but is USB-A, so much larger than the Yubikey
| GP is asking about.
| sidewndr46 wrote:
| I think this is as close as you can get
|
| https://www.walmart.com/ip/PNY-128GB-DUO-LINK-
| USB-3-2-Type-C...
| aidenn0 wrote:
| (OT, but while I was able to find what you were talking
| about by googling the part name, I couldn't follow that
| walmart link because I'm apparently "not a human").
| yndoendo wrote:
| 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.
| ..
| wkat4242 wrote:
| 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 for
| backwards compatibility.
|
| The reason is that the springs wear the most. This ensures
| longevity of USB ports in laptops where they are hard to
| replace. A USB cable or device is usually much easier to
| replace, and also a PC is normally used with many devices so
| the wear is shared between them now. But it does mean the
| contacts on the plug side are more fragile now.
|
| And without USB3, filling something at current capacity levels
| is going to be tedious.
|
| Of course for a yubikey that just transfers a few bytes this is
| not an issue but for a USB key it is.
| craftkiller wrote:
| 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.
| HackerThemAll wrote:
| Is it compatible with Linux? The official store page doesn't
| mention the "Linux" word at all.
| kube-system wrote:
| USB mass storage is compatible with Linux. SANDISK Memory
| Zone(tm) is not.
| theanonymousone wrote:
| Since some time ago when "storage is cheap" was trendy, I have
| been thinking about the question of physical boundaries of data
| storage, i.e. how many Terabytes can be fit in a square (cubic?)
| centimetre? Do we know?
| dylan604 wrote:
| That number is directly proportional to the number of angels
| that can dance on the head of a pin.
| xnx wrote:
| https://what-if.xkcd.com/31/
| theanonymousone wrote:
| Very interesting, thanks a lot. If only we had the densities
| :/
| wkat4242 wrote:
| Hmm these tiny things tend to get hella hot for me :(
|
| Better a bigger one.
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