Recent price drop on OZB's favourite usb keys.
PNY Turbo 256GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive. ~AU $70.16 using MasterCard rates converted from USD
CamelCamelCamel.
If you're planning on just purchasing the drive, https://www.amazon.com/PNY-Turbo-Elite-256GB-Flash/dp/B01DWN… may be better value as there's no shipping cost and it's a new model.
EDIT my apologies, just realised there is still a shipping charge.
only the $59.95 plus shipping (Click To Deal) is available to AUS.
Is this new one easier to slide the cover in and out?
As far as failure rates go for usb sticks vs larger portable/desktop HD's, would a rarely used usb stick have less chance of failure over long term ie. 3-5 years?
Have had a second 1tb desktop HD fail after being in storage/used very intermittently (once a year) for backups. Let's say that these 256g usb's are $50 in 6 months time, was wondering if eg. 4 of them would be more reliable long-term than a stand-alone desktop 1tb+ HD
Of course there will be failures affecting individual units of both types, but, as far as componentry goes, are the less-complex innards of a usb stick less likely to fail and/or deteriorate over time?
Don't use HDDs or USBs as your only backup, they're anecdotally equally likely to fail.
Use free cloud storage providers (Google Drive, Dropbox, Mega, OneDrive) for important files (due to space limits), and large cloud storage providers (generally commercial, such as Backblaze) for where up to 500GB or higher is required (see the deal for zoolz cloud recently).
There are third party services to transfer files between clouds too, I backed up my Google Photos to Mega.nz last week. Consider unlinking any password authenticated accounts when done, because passwords may not be stored securely.
What upload speed do you have? My speed makes Cloud not viable.
2.5mbit on cable. 512kbit on dsl. Just set a bandwidth limit and let it run a long time, it doesn't matter how long it takes.
-or-
Upload at work (they'll love you using the wifi) or maybe public library?
Have had a second 1tb desktop HD fail after being in storage/used very intermittently (once a year) for backups
Are you referring to a external USB desktop sized hard drive?
Internal hard drive used to last many years. Have quality dropped?
External. Never had probs with internals.
So just get an internal drive and a harddrive dock. This is my current setup.
PNY USB's have awful failure rates
I do not recommend the PNY brand.
I have endless issues with 2 of there devices. (to a point i just threw them out and saved me frustration)
Can you give more details? How many different products? How long did they last before failure? I've got a PNY. I don't use it much, but it's been a solid performer. Am I gambling my data by using it?
Check the amazon reviews, half the comments are saying the drives failed within a year
Thanks nick nick.
PNY started on a bad foot (they initially faked benchmarks and sent 'prototypes' with better hardware to reviewers). Eventually, the reviews came out that they were good (and 75% of the reviews are still 4 or 5 star), but 16% of the reviews are 1 star. Most of the 1 star reviews talk about intermittent or failed behaviour, although many (most?) of the comments on failed units listed are 32gb or below. I'm running the 256gb model.
I ran diagnostics on mine for a few hours before I used mine. However, the problem could be fatigue from insertion/removal/daily bumps rather than read/write issues.
PNY looks to be one of those brands to avoid. IT's a shame because my unit is REALLY fast.
I bought this 6 months back, hasnt missed a beat, use it daily, just very cheaply made very flimsy but hasnt failed me yet
bought one last year, unfortunately didn't last long, started getting really slow speeds, would freeze up my pc and data would get corrupt.
Does anyone have Turbo Elite (black) or Turbo Elite X and can comment on how easy the cover slides? I have a Turbo, and it is badly designed. It gets stuck half way unless you apply a lot of force which will eventually break it.
I've got the Turbo Elite 128GB USB, and I can confirm the cover is hard to slide. The drive reads fast but the write speed is atrociously slow, so for those who ponder getting one, heed the warning.
Great.
After all the complaints about that slider they decide to do nothing about it. Now I'm in two minds about buying one.
I can't find any other brand that does 256GB.
I look at the benchmarks and there seems to be a lot of variation. Some say writes are very slow, others post seq writes of 80MB/s. Not sure what is going on.
I can't find any other brand that does 256GB.
???? There are heaps of 256GB flash drives from the major manufacturers on Amazon.
@Maverick-au: Yeah you're right. But they're all generic brands I don't trust. Sandisk and Samsung are my goto brands for flash memory, and I'm not aware that either of them make USB sticks in 256GB.
Reliability of these has dropped a lot recently, I wouldn't trust my data with them. Look at the recent Amazon reviews to see how bad they've become. They made a change around eighteen months ago to the quality of the components.
Really fast USB, although doesn't work in Wii :(