@SpencerJ May I ask you please to create a new category called "Boot Devices".

With a couple of sub-forums labeled something like "USB Flash", or "Legacy booting" for USB sticks and another one labeled "New Internal Booting" for the newly developed method.

They need to be kept separated.

I think it would be great to have a specific place to discuss and share flash drives readouts, like the one shared by @NoRaid99 above.

As you've mentioned in your prior post, manufacturers continue to degrade quality.

I think it's time for us as a community to start talking about this in a way that would be supported by objective evidence.

By sharing a given USB Flash hardware profile from a specific time period, not just a model name/number.

Known hardware = known quality.

You're absolutely correct in your description of the evolving market where model designations stay the same while the actual hardware goes through multiple changes.

We'll have to develop a specific simple reporting template, starting with the year of production, as stated on the back of the packaging (if just purchased).

That alone would create a much better reference point.

Edited January 31Jan 31 by Lolight

On 1/31/2026 at 1:47 AM, Lolight said:

@SpencerJ May I ask you please to create a new category called "Boot Devices".

With a couple of sub-forums labeled something like "USB Flash", or "Legacy booting" for USB sticks and another one labeled "New Internal Booting" for the newly developed method.

They need to be kept separated.

I think it would be great to have a specific place to discuss and share flash drives readouts, like the one shared by @NoRaid99 above.

As you've mentioned in your prior post, manufacturers continue to degrade quality.

I think it's time for us as a community to start talking about this in a way that would be supported by objective evidence.

By sharing a given USB Flash hardware profile from a specific time period, not just a model name/number.

Known hardware = known quality.

You're absolutely correct in your description of the evolving market where model designations stay the same while the actual hardware goes through multiple changes.

We'll have to develop a specific simple reporting template, starting with the year of production, as stated on the back of the packaging (if just purchased).

That alone would create a much better reference point.

Here you are: https://forums.unraid.net/forum/118-boot-devices/

I will also be moving this thread to USB Flash.

@SpencerJ Thank you!!

On 1/27/2026 at 12:30 AM, SpencerJ said:

I removed the video from here.

This guide needs to be revised as well.

The Spaceinvader's video is still there.

In the "Rules of thumb for replacement" section.

• Buy USB drives from reputable retailers and avoid auction sites and unknown sellers.

• Be cautious of counterfeit products, even from well-known brands.

There's one important nuance. Ebay is an incredible source for the remaining new old-stock which are nearly indestructible.

Those are large node MLC-based USB drives from 2007 to 2011 (great for older boards and non-UEFI boot).

They're still sealed in the original retail packaging. Counterfeiting was almost non-existent at the time.

Today, well-known brands are the most commonly counterfeited.

On 2/8/2026 at 12:57 AM, Lolight said:

This guide needs to be revised as well.

The Spaceinvader's video is still there.

In the "Rules of thumb for replacement" section.

• Buy USB drives from reputable retailers and avoid auction sites and unknown sellers.

• Be cautious of counterfeit products, even from well-known brands.

There's one important nuance. Ebay is an incredible source for the remaining new old-stock which are nearly indestructible.

Those are large node MLC-based USB drives from 2007 to 2011 (great for older boards and non-UEFI boot).

They're still sealed in the original retail packaging. Counterfeiting was almost non-existent at the time.

Today, well-known brands are the most commonly counterfeited.

I put in a PR to remove the video. If you have links to reputable dealers, ebay storefronts or other pertinent info, please open a PR to add them! https://github.com/unraid/docs/edit/main/docs/unraid-os/system-administration/maintain-and-update/changing-the-flash-device.mdx

On 2/24/2025 at 4:54 PM, landS said:

Samsung Bar Plus (64Gb 3.1) have given me nothing but grief on 2 servers.

I replaced 1 of them with the same flash drive after a year or so, but the experience has been the same.

Coming to this a year late — those Cruzer Blades are probably well settled in by now!

Just wanted to say your original diagnosis was really sharp.

Bar Plus failing to show up at BIOS level until it cools down, across two different servers — that's not bad luck, that's the drive telling you exactly what's wrong with it.

And moving to USB 2.0 was the right call, for precisely the reason your experience pointed to.

One thing worth keeping in the back of your mind for when those Cruzer Blades eventually need replacing — modern budget drives, even genuine ones ordered direct from SanDisk, are built quite differently inside than the USB 2.0 drives that earned the reliable reputation in the first place.

The counterfeit risk is gone which was smart thinking, but what's inside a current production Cruzer Blade is a different story from what was inside one ten years ago.

What is even worse… is that I discarded a Supermicro X10SRA-F E5-1650 v3 rig for an Asus pro ws w680-ace ipmi i9-14900K… eventually even swapping out every expansion card and storage drive due to misbehavior… when it was the Samsung Bar Plus all along.

 

The Cruzer Blades are working just fine. 

I have 2 ATP Nanodura 8GB SLC drives on backorder from Mouser… but who knows if they’ll ever come in at this point.

Replacing an entire server when it was the boot drive all along...

That's genuinely painful to read and I really feel for you on that one.

The frustrating thing is how perfectly the Bar Plus thermal failure mimics unstable hardware.

It doesn't fail cleanly — it just becomes intermittently unrecognizable at the controller level when it gets too hot, which looks exactly like a flaky PCIe slot, a dodgy memory stick, or an unstable CPU.

Nobody thinks to blame the little USB drive that's supposedly just sitting there doing nothing.

The failure mode is very counterintuitive — and it's completely absent from any official guidance that might have pointed you there first.

That's the real problem.

Really glad the Cruzer Blades sorted it out.

USB 2.0 power draw is lower so the thermal stress just isn't there — not the ultimate long term solution but clearly good enough to prove what was actually going on.

The ATP Nanodura from Mouser is absolutely the right destination — SLC industrial drives are exactly what should have been recommended from day one.

Keep the order active though — Mouser stock does move.

Edited March 25Mar 25 by Lolight

I first bought a replacement cpu then 4 replacement ram sticks also thinking it was one of those before thinking the mobo might be bad.

Yes, the boot time is very slow with the cruzer.

Strangely the bz checksum takes 3-5 minutes.

A good question.

The official documentation confirms the blacklist is permanent and universal.

https://docs.unraid.net/unraid-os/system-administration/maintain-and-update/changing-the-flash-device/

"Cannot be used with Unraid" — not "cannot be used with your specific license."

The language is categorical and applies universally.

The drive is permanently retired from any Unraid use on any machine with any license including trial.

That would be my understanding.

Since it's been a few years, does the advice not to use Sandisk still stand or have things improved?

Thinking of picking these up to have some spare drives on hand:

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/9161627

2 hours ago, tech3475 said:

Since it's been a few years, does the advice not to use Sandisk still stand or have things improved?

Don't...

I'd advise to check the guide first.

Edited April 3Apr 3 by Lolight

Is anyone using swissbit as Unraid boot drives?

Curious whether the ambiguity has been resolved about whether they have unique GUID or not.

On 8/20/2025 at 10:22 PM, echocabinet said:

@adoucette fwiw, I ordered two Swissbit drives at the same time. Each drive has a unique serial number printed on the outer drive body, but that number does not match what win11 has for the SerialNumber value using:
Get-CimInstance -ClassName Win32_Volume | Where-Object { $_.DriveLetter -eq "F:" } | Format-List *

For Unraid, the GUID appears to match the class ID_SERIAL_SHORT from:

udevadm info --query=all --name=/dev/sda | grep ID_SERIAL
This value partially matched my unraid key registration, in the "Flash Vendor ID + Product ID + Serial Number" format.
See: https://forums.unraid.net/topic/675-argh-how-to-get-flash-guid-from-windows

For clarification, the ID_SERIAL_SHORT value did not match the printed Swissbit Serial Number on the outside of the device.
Comparing the two drives, the ID_SERIAL_SHORT values are different, but only by 2 digits of the 16 digit value.
I hope it is unique enough.

23 hours ago, adoucette said:

Is anyone using swissbit as Unraid boot drives?

28 minutes ago, NoRaid99 said:

is there still the time limit of 12 month if changing the boot device and replaceing the license?

If you need to transfer the license and are over the limit of self-serve, you can always contact support, and they will do it for you.

I think I've just had my Kanguru FlashBlu30 8GB fail. Appears to be in read only. I managed to get away with a reboot last week, but have had the webgui fail again, and logs.

Only 2 years in, which is disappointing. Any other brand recommendations that are available in Aus?

Sorry to hear.

Kanguru has removed any mention of the NAND type from their documentation -- it used to be clearly stated as MLC.

Take a look at the Unraid Boot Device guide in the USB Flash section of this forum first -- it explains what to look for.

Prices have skyrocketed lately for the industrial types:

https://au.rs-online.com/web/c/?searchTerm=usb+flash+drive&rpp=100&sortType=ASC&sortBy=price&selectedNavigation=availability=IN_STOCK

https://au.mouser.com/c/embedded-solutions/memory-data-storage/storage/usb-flash-drives/

There’s one clear bargain I’m aware of: an industrial USB stick being sold at liquidation-level prices.

However, the shipping cost makes it less of a deal for those located in Australia:
eBay item #: 326046070546

Another good option is legacy, new-old-stock MLC consumer drives.

You can find examples in the "MLC-Based Consumer USB Flash Drives" thread.

Edited April 23Apr 23 by Lolight

1 hour ago, Lolight said:

Sorry to hear.

Kanguru has removed any mention of the NAND type from their documentation -- it used to be clearly stated as MLC.

Take a look at the Unraid Boot Device guide in the USB Flash section first -- it explains what to look for.

Prices have skyrocketed lately for the industrial types:

https://au.rs-online.com/web/c/?searchTerm=usb+flash+drive&rpp=100&sortType=ASC&sortBy=price&selectedNavigation=availability=IN_STOCK

https://au.mouser.com/c/embedded-solutions/memory-data-storage/storage/usb-flash-drives/

There’s one clear bargain I’m aware of: an industrial USB stick being sold at liquidation-level prices.

However, the shipping cost makes it less of a deal for those located in Australia:
eBay item #: 326046070546

Another good option is legacy, new-old-stock MLC consumer drives.

You can find examples in the "MLC-Based Consumer USB Flash Drives" thread.

Wonderful, thank you!