Most reliable USB key?

[FlyingTexan]

Every article I read is about value or performance but not reliability. What's the most reliable USB key to use for unraid? Secondly, why does unraid keep checking the usb? once it boots and loads everything into memory why does it need the key to stay there? after about 13 days I just received a "Your usb key is missing" type message. Luckily I have a piKVM and on reboot it reloaded everything but I'm not home so this is a bit of an annoyance. 

Edited July 16, 2023 by FlyingTexan

[itimpi]

12 minutes ago, FlyingTexan said:

Every article I read is about value or performance but not reliability. What's the most reliable USB key to use for unraid? Secondly, why does unraid keep checking the usb? once it boots and loads everything into memory why does it need the key to stay there? after about 13 days I just received a "Your usb key is missing" type message. Luckily I have a piKVM and on reboot it reloaded everything but I'm not home so this is a bit of an annoyance. 

The key is checked for the licence only at the time you start the array.

 

The reason it needs to stay online is that it also holds all your configuration information (in the ‘config’ folder) and a small amount of status information (such as whether the array is started).   There are therefore occasional reads of this configuration information and updates to the status information.   It sounds as if in your case it dropped offline  

[FlyingTexan]

53 minutes ago, itimpi said:

The key is checked for the licence only at the time you start the array.

 

The reason it needs to stay online is that it also holds all your configuration information (in the ‘config’ folder) and a small amount of status information (such as whether the array is started).   There are therefore occasional reads of this configuration information and updates to the status information.   It sounds as if in your case it dropped offline  

I've been having some random USB errors. This time made it a couple weeks. I'm on a second key but have been on holiday for a couple weeks so threw in a cheap plastic $2 one. Today it dropped but luckily was able to reboot and get it running. I'll be home in a few days so just has to last me until then. I was doing more reading and picked up a USB DOM off ebay for $20. Should be here in 5 days. Will be excited to try that out.