which usb drive do you use?

[MvL]

Hi,

 

I want to buy a new usb drive for my unRAID server (when i buy a licence). I know Lime-tech advises some drives but what i want to know which drive do you use? How large is this drive?

 

Actualy i'm looking for a fast drive. My test unRAID box has now a very slow usb drive so booting takes forever.

[Rajahal]

I use a generic 1 GB flash drive that I claimed from the lost-and-found drawer at my old job (after the appropriate 2 week period, of course)  

 

Mine is basically this style, though I removed the metal outer layer.

 

1 GB is plenty of space, but you'll be hard pressed to find one these days.  So I would go for a cheap 2-4 GB drive with the fastest read speeds you can find.  Small form factor is always nice as well.

 

If you are looking for small form factor, here you go.

[klipsch]

I use a 4GB "Microcenter" flash ... it was free about a year back just for walking in the store with the mail ad ... not sure what the actual brand is ... unRAID boots in less than a minute ... I have no idea if that is fast or not

[BRiT]

I use an 8GB SanDisk Cruzer. It was on sale at the time. It has less than 50Megs used.

 

I run on a full Slackware-Current distro installed on a SATA HDD.

[chanders]

I use a lexar 4GB. Works good, unRAID boots in under a minute (edit your syslinux file to reduce the delay)

[MvL]

Thanks for the reply's!

 

What are the benefits to run a full Slackware distro? When running a full Slackware distro you still need a usb drive for the licence?

 

 

I use an 8GB SanDisk Cruzer. It was on sale at the time. It has less than 50Megs used.

 

I run on a full Slackware-Current distro installed on a SATA HDD.

 

 

Hmm, i thought i did read something in the wiki about fine tunning your usb drive.

 

 

I use a lexar 4GB. Works good, unRAID boots in under a minute (edit your syslinux file to reduce the delay)

 

 

Yes, small form factor good idea. Hmm, lost and found drawer action. I found some cat6a cable for my network. 

 

I use a generic 1 GB flash drive that I claimed from the lost-and-found drawer at my old job (after the appropriate 2 week period, of course) 

 

Mine is basically this style, though I removed the metal outer layer.

 

1 GB is plenty of space, but you'll be hard pressed to find one these days.  So I would go for a cheap 2-4 GB drive with the fastest read speeds you can find.  Small form factor is always nice as well.

 

If you are looking for small form factor, here you go.

[PeterB]

Mine is a Kingston Datatraveler mini 1GB.  I have 850MB free, even though I have unmenu and several packages installed, along with some backup folders.

 

A big benefit of this device is its size ... it only projects about 2cms from the socket.

 

Oh, with regards the speed .. on my test bed system (Athlon XP 2700+), it took about a minute to load the system image ... on my new i3 system, it takes about 5 seconds (both are usb2) - using the same memory stick.  So, be aware that it isn't necessarily the usb stick which imposes the bottleneck!

[MvL]

Thanks for the reply's!

 

What are the benefits to run a full Slackware distro? When running a full Slackware distro you still need a usb drive for the licence?

 

Hi,

 

Can someone answer this question?

 

 

 

[Joe L.]

Thanks for the reply's!

 

What are the benefits to run a full Slackware distro?

You can run a full software development environment and have access to a X-Windows graphical desktop. To run a full slackware environment you MUST compile your own kernel.  (Not for the Linux newbies... and honestly if you are asking this question, not likely the right choice for you)

When running a full Slackware distro you still need a usb drive for the licence?

Yes, you still need the USB drive for the unRAID license if you wish to use more than two data drives in the protected array.

[MvL]

Thanks Joe L.

 

Oh, ok its for development. I'm using Linux for a year now. I must admit i have lots to learn and lots to experiment. I like experimenting with Linux and learn new stuff. Some day i hope i can ditch Windows...

[MvL]

Orderd this one http://www.salland.eu/product/349645/kingston-datatraveler-mini10-dtm10-8gb.html

[nosro]

You can use ChkFlsh (http://mikelab.kiev.ua/index_en.php?page=PROGRAMS/programs_en) to benchmark and USB drives that you find in a dusty cabinet. Generally, 10MB/s is "OK" and 20MB/s is very good, although I wouldn't get too hung up on speed.

 

You can also use that program to burn in your stick or to check for iffy sticks.

 

As for brands, I work in a department where everyone (approx 60 people) has a Sandisk around their neck and I don't know anyone who had one go bad. Performance varies, though - the "Cruzer Blade" is the smallest, but I benchmarked 5MB/s write and 15MB/s read on Chkflsh, which is very slow for a modern device.

 

I purchased a 2GB stick, but only because it's very hard to find anything smaller than that these days. I would use a 5-year-old Sandisk 512MB, but it gets fairly hot, which gets me worried.