The state of USB 3 flash drive in Unraid?

[Alibaba]

Hi Guys

 

As I've previously posted Im in the process of updating my unraid server. The mother board I'm looking at (ASRock Rack X570D4U-2L2T ) only has USB 3.2 ports on the rear and a a USB 3.1 Gen 1 header. The case I'm looking at also only has 3.1 ports. 

 

I've been hunting around the forums and reddit to work out what going to be the best way of getting unraid to boot on this new system. Ideally I would like the USB to be internal so have been looking at a header to internal USB port adapter cable however the only ones I can find are USB 3.0. 

 

It seems like the current consensus from the reading I've done is that lots of people have had trouble getting USB 3.0 flash drives to work and recommend 2.0 drives/ports for reliability.  However it seems like 2.0 USB ports are dying out in the latest motherboards so this is going to be an increasing problem in the future. 

 

I'm just wondering what people have done in a similar position?

Use a USB 2 flash drive in a USB 3.0 port?

Use USB 3.0 and accept they will fail more frequently given heat?

Which USB 3.0 flash drives have worked for you as it seems what some people have recommended (i.e Samsung Bar 32GB) haven't worked for others?

Cheers

Edited December 5, 2020 by Alibaba

[ChatNoir]

Hey, all I can provide is a my own experience, probably not statistically significant;  

 

I was in this situation too as my motherboard does not offer any 2.0 port.

 

I have no issue with my 2.0 flash drive in a 3.0 port and it is not as hot as many 3.0 drives I am using elsewhere. It feels fine from my point of view.

[SeeGee]

I use a USB 3.1 flash drive in a USB 3.1 port to boot from without issue. I think that there may be fewer issues with booting from USB 3 on newer hardware.
Doesn't hurt to try, if you experience problems with it, then fall back to the USB 2.0?

[Alibaba]

2 hours ago, SeeGee said:

I use a USB 3.1 flash drive in a USB 3.1 port to boot from without issue. I think that there may be fewer issues with booting from USB 3 on newer hardware.
Doesn't hurt to try, if you experience problems with it, then fall back to the USB 2.0?

Thanks for the feedback guys

 

Just out of interest SeeGee what brand/model of USB drive did you use?

[SeeGee]

Sandisk 32gb ultra fit usb 3.1
https://shop.westerndigital.com/en-ca/products/usb-flash-drives/sandisk-ultra-fit-usb-3-1#SDCZ430-032G-G46

Im sure it's not the greatest of all that is flash drive, but it's served me well thus far.

[Alibaba]

4 minutes ago, SeeGee said:

Sandisk 32gb ultra fit usb 3.1
https://shop.westerndigital.com/en-ca/products/usb-flash-drives/sandisk-ultra-fit-usb-3-1#SDCZ430-032G-G46

Im sure it's not the greatest of all that is flash drive, but it's served me well thus far.

Thanks SeeGee

 

I've been using a Sandisk 8Gb USB 2 drive for the past 7 years and have yet to have a problem. 

 

Think I'll get a USB 3.1 Header to USB female cable and give it a go and if no joy try this one (got too impatient and pulled the trigger on the new build last night) 

 

Thanks again

[seredin]

I run an AsRock Rack X470D4U, which also only offers USB 3 in its various permutations. It does not even have an internal USB 2.0 header. I'll give a brief history of my booting experiences:

 

When I first bought the board, I had the usual IT-tinkerer's collection of no-name flash drives, or brand name flash drives that were quite old (like pre-USB3 old). I tested every flash drive I owned using Unraid trial keys, and every single stick gave me similar results:

Some sticks simply would not boot AND

I had to physically change stick ports every time I rebooted my machine, and this only booted correctly most of the time. 

 

Obviously, this all but eliminated remote management feature benefits, which were hugely impactful in my motherboard selection criteria. I bought my Pro license and lived with these reboot headaches for about 6 months, complaining all over the internet about how unacceptable it was that in 2019/2020 we still can't boot Linux from USB 3, and texting my wife from work to "please do the thumb drive swap thing" every time I needed to reboot using remote management.

 

Then my flash drive of choice (read: the last drive I used in my testing that happened to boot on the first try) failed catastrophically. I also happened to have every other flash drive in my possession filled with various sundry files or OSes. PLUS, SpaceinvaderOne (may the olde gods shine favor on his lineage til the heat death of the universe) just had posted his Flash Drive Testing video. So I bought a SanDisk 32GB Cruzer Fit USB 2.0 Flash Drive - SDCZ33-032G-G35, swapped my key and imported my flash backups.

 

It booted on the first try. My mind was blown.

It even reboots seamlessly without having to swap USB ports. Praise Linus.

 

All this to say, I think certain flash drives support booting better than others, and I think USB 3 gets an undeserved bad rep for it.

[SeeGee]

One thing to consider is that many usb drives come with mbr boot sector not uefi, and I've had a couple of generics that just didn't like the unraid usb creator at all, and a few others that I had to manually replace the mbr with uefi

[Paul_Ber]

On 12/5/2020 at 7:40 PM, SeeGee said:

Sandisk 32gb ultra fit usb 3.1
https://shop.westerndigital.com/en-ca/products/usb-flash-drives/sandisk-ultra-fit-usb-3-1#SDCZ430-032G-G46

Im sure it's not the greatest of all that is flash drive, but it's served me well thus far.

I just switched to that one, they sell on Amazon a pack of 5 or individual.

[Vertabine]

On 12/6/2020 at 5:40 AM, SeeGee said:

Sandisk 32gb ultra fit usb 3.1
https://shop.westerndigital.com/en-ca/products/usb-flash-drives/sandisk-ultra-fit-usb-3-1#SDCZ430-032G-G46

Im sure it's not the greatest of all that is flash drive, but it's served me well thus far.

I bought this one and what a dissapointment, got it on sale 4.99e, but these drives dont have manufacturer ID and unRaid setup cannot detect, atleast not on me. Mine was 32gb version.

 

Also this plastic housing is quite wonky and it was a bit tight to push into io shield usb 2.0. took me 10minutes to pull it out of that port 🤣😱🥶

 

Kind of cheap and light paper weight for me this drive.

 

Has anyone been able to get unRaid setup to identify this drive?

Edited December 28, 2020 by Vertabine