Kanguru Workspace flash drives

[straycat19]

Does anyone have experience with Kanguru Workspace flash drives?  I have only used Kingston's DataTraveler Workspace drives but have an opportunity to buy the Kanguru Workspace 128GB new for less than the Kingston Workspace 64GB.  

[Israeli_Eagle]

Well... It's only a flash stick, nothing else. Useless for daily usage.

 

[Soze]

I have always loved kingston but they all fail eventually.  I have never had the Kanguru but my forays into offbrand flash media have all given me slow transfer speed

 

I'd stick with Kingston.

[straycat19]

On 9/1/2018 at 1:42 AM, Israeli_Eagle said:

Well... It's only a flash stick, nothing else. Useless for daily usage.

 

 

Not just a flash stick, it's certified for windows to go, and the kingstons work fine.  The computer I am typing this on doesn't even have a drive in it, running the OS off a Kingston Datatraveler workspace.  Plug it into any computer, turn it on and I have my entire operating system with software at my fingertips.  But at over $350 for 128 GB they are expensive.

 

3 hours ago, Soze said:

I have always loved kingston but they all fail eventually.  I have never had the Kanguru but my forays into offbrand flash media have all given me slow transfer speed

 

In over 20 years I have only had two flash drives to fail.  I still have the first flash drive I ever bought, an IBM 128MB that cost $299, and it still works although it doesn't store much.  Kanguru isn't an off brand, I have been using them as long as I have SanDisks.  Matter of fact Kanguru is the only name brand maker that still makes drives with physical hardware write locks, they just tend to be expensive.  I could never throw away a perfectly good flash drive, which is why I have bags full of them (over 500 at last count) sitting in a storage box, everything from 128MB to 4GB, everything from titanium encased drives to waterproof drives in a metal tube.  For the record, the only flash drives I have ever had fail were made by PNY and a LaCie Xtremkey.

[Soze]

I just had a Kingston fail me after two years of daily use. And I bought a 128gb "kingston" brand knockoff microsd a while ago, it's in my phone. The package says class 10 but it caps out at about 4-5mbps.

 

They all burn out if you use them a lot.  The only one I hate using is San disk. Fixed disc mode for USB lol, yea sandisk you're doing it right. 

 

I use live USB os too.  Best to buy usb drives on bulk and carry backups. 

[neofita]

of all the ones I have my favorite is a Sandisk Extreme 64Gb, bought online for € 53, which works great with E2B and windows to go (removable type)

 

 

regards

[Soze]

^on dark theme I cannot read that

[Israeli_Eagle]

Both Flash and SSD are based on NAND-based flash memory, which retains data without power, and so can be labelled as Flash memory.

 

Technologically, the main differences between the two are in :

 

1. The underlying technology used to construct the NAND,
2. The quality of the Flash memory controller,
3. The computer connector : USB or SATA.

 

NAND technologies

 

NAND technologies diverge on two points : Speed and price.

 

On the one hand one finds MLC (Multi-level cell) which is a memory element capable of storing more than a single bit of information. Most MLC NAND flash memory has four possible states per cell (or even more with TLC), so it can store several bits of information per cell. This reduces the number of required transistors, so reducing size and manufacturing costs, while also reducing speed and increasing the possibility of errors.

 

On the other hand one finds SLC (single-level cell), where each cell can exist in one of two states, storing one bit of information per cell. This increases the access speed, while also increasing manufacturing costs and electricity usage.

 

An MLC cell is typically rated at 10,000 erase/write cycles, while an SLC cell might last 10 times that before failing.

 

Because of these differences, MLC is typically used in slower and cheaper media, accessed typically via USB. A good SSD will use SLC and be costlier, but faster, have a longer life-time and be typically accessed via SATA 2 or 3.

 

Memory controller

 

A USB mass storage controller has only a small micro-controller with a small amount of on-chip ROM and RAM.

 

An SSD controller is much more complicated. The controller is an embedded processor that executes firmware-level code and is one of the most important factors of SSD performance. Some of the functions performed by the controller include:

 

• Error-correcting code (ECC)
• Wear leveling
• Bad block mapping
• Read scrubbing and read disturb management
• Read and write caching
• Garbage collection
• Encryption

 

In a hybrid SSD, the controller will also manage a small classical hard disk.

 

Connector

 

A flash stick normally uses a standard-A USB plug that provides the physical interface to the host computer. These can now go up to USB-3 speeds for the more costly models, or USB-2 for the common ones.

 

SSD technology uses electronic interfaces compatible with traditional block input/output (I/O) internal hard disk drives. Additionally, new I/O interfaces, like SATA Express, have been designed to address specific requirements of the SSD technology. Most SSD cards are typically much faster than classical hard drives.

 

Summary

 

A Flash stick typically has less memory capacity, is slower, cheaper and is also less dependable than an SSD.

 

There are of course always devices that bridge these differences by using compensating technologies.

 

(Source: https://superuser.com/questions/919058/whats-the-technical-difference-between-a-flash-drive-and-an-ssd)

 

[Rekkio]

If you want more than 4GB of storage, you should buy a standard hard drive of small capacity (60GB, 80GB) and put it in a USB 3.0 case.

You'll have much more storage for almost nothing compared to the racket ongoing for USB storage (which is low-quality).

 

Not only are hard drives safer than USB drives (thumbdrives are weaker) but they're also so much faster.

So long as you moderately take care of it, your hard drive should last for a decade while your USB drive would have died.

[BTJB]

These sticks work perfect: Netac Original U335 USB 3.0 Flash Drive have hardware lock and low price. Already 2 years no issue!

[Soze]

waterproof I like that, I had one get destroyed by getting wet, I didn't realize it, then plugged it in and it never worked again, also kingston hmmm.  Seeing a pattern here lol.

 

I guess a lot of the longevity depends on how often its being written and what you use it for.