On 3/11/2025 at 1:52 AM, SJOWG said:

Swissbit Industrial SLC 2 GB.  5 years and counting.  I expect the drive will outlive me.

Which model and where you bought it?

I just changed my 4th USB drive in the past 12 months, any recommendations on what to actually use because I'm fed up with these drive failures ?

I had a Kingston DataTraveler Micro which lasted for like 6 years ant then went through another Kingston and 2 ADATA in the span of less than 12 months.

I'm now running a 64GB Kingston DataTraveler Kyson, hopefully this one lasts more than a year.

Why does Unraid not have a list of known good and greatest USB drives? It seems as a paid product this kind of testing would justify an ongoing commitment to it's customers. I am not shitting on Unraid. I think this question is quite valid, as I am again searching as another USB drive is failing

Having lots of issues with USB's lately, its been difficult to find one that works well, heat seems to be a common issue.

I recommend using a USB drive where the plug (the part that goes into the socket) is metal. The cheap ones are often plastic with just a trace for grounding. The metal acts as a tiny radiator. This is especially important when using those tiny drives that hardly extend past the port socket at all.

If the socket is directly on the motherboard I'd think there would be a fan getting to it, but it doesn't hurt to check.

Edited May 31, 20251 yr by jhyler

Cruzer Glide and Samsung Bar Plus have not let me down yet. I like the fit of the Samsung better of the two.

On 5/31/2025 at 12:11 AM, jhyler said:

I recommend using a USB drive where the plug (the part that goes into the socket) is metal. The cheap ones are often plastic with just a trace for grounding. The metal acts as a tiny radiator. This is especially important when using those tiny drives that hardly extend past the port socket at all.

There's more to it than just the material of the plug.

All modern USB drives are made with cheap NAND and generally run much hotter than the old ones.

Old as in the pre-2010.

The USB 2.0 ones tend to run cooler, but still it all depends on the design, NAND and controller used.

The plastic plug ones are probably the junkiest of them all.

And I'm not even mentioning counterfeits.

The best bet for a reliable USB drive is to try to find an new old-stock from the pre-2012 production era on places like ebay.

I just looked and found a few promising, judged by Brand, model, capacity, approximate DOM, reports of components from teardowns, listings.

I can post the links if anyone interested.

Edited January 23Jan 23 by Lolight