USB Flash Memory suggestions

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Tue, Jun 21, 2005 at 10:13:31AM -0400, Alex Maynard wrote:
> Hello All,  I was just wondering if anyone had any suggestions on linux
> compatible flash memory for use with both linux and windows?  Does it
> matter which brand I buy or do they all work equally with linux? Is there
> a page which rates linux compatibility of flash-memory similar to the one
> for printers?  Are there any local downtown Toronto stores that you
> suggest buying from? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.  Alex

Well there are lots of usb-storage compatible memory sticks for usb and
almost all of them do work with linux just fine.  Some are much better
designed than others though.

Some do proper wear leveling so that updating the file allocation map of
the filesystem doesn't destroy the flash, while others do not.  I have
seen reports of people having a 1G usb key destroyed writing one 700M
file to it because FC turns on sync by default on removeable media, and
updating the FAT entries once per 4k cluster written was just to much
for the flash to handle.

So make sure you do NOT use sync with flash media (it makes it slow and
may destroy the cheaper designs too quickly).  If possible make sure it
does wear leveling in the hardware to make your flash last much longer.

As for compatibility with windows, it supports usb-storage the same as
linux (well 2k and xp and newer do at least).  As long as the key is
formated with VFAT it should work fine with both.

Lennart Sorensen
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