What size USB Flash Drive should I purchase?
Asked by
bridold (
638
)
July 1st, 2008
I’m looking to purchase a USB Flash Drive for when I go back to taking classes on Monday. My old Flash Drive corrupted, so I need to buy a new one. I already have an external hard drive, but I’m looking for something more portable. FYI: I’m a graphic design major so I deal with a lot of big flash/ai/psd/etc files, but I don’t plan on putting a lot of files on it at one time – that’s what my extermal hard drive is for. (It’s just a pain to have to plug it in every time I switch computers in class, so I wanted something smaller, too)
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9 Answers
The good news is that they’re coming down in prices…I bought a Kingston 4GB one last week at Office Depot for $15 (on clearance). here’s a good list of some 4GB drives from Newegg.
here are some 8GB drives. And here are some 32GB drives
i think 4GB is probably enough…but if you can find a good deal on a bigger one that you like, then definitely go with that. just be sure to read up on the reviews of ones you are not sure about.
I would say buy the most memory that you can afford.
You can never have to much memory.
@ccatron – great answer! I was actually looking around Comp USA and they have some really good prices for the 4GB, I’ll probably go with one of them.
@shilolo – thanks! That’s a very good point.
Just remember that there can be a huge difference in speed, which will matter a lot when we’re talking about several gigabytees of data. I’ve personally used the Kingston Migo II edition, which is really fast and can be recommended.
For reviews check here: http://tinyurl.com/5v9yrp
If the labs you use are connected to the internet (what labs aren’t these days?!), I would strongly recommend looking into the iDisk function of MobileMe (formerly .Mac); it’s cross-platform, virtual storage up to 20GB (base level) accessible anywhere and a host of other services (and no I don’t work for Apple). If you want to look it up, go to the Apple website, but from personal experience as a .Mac customer, I haven’t used flash drives for 2 years now, and folks are always amazed that I can access large files anywhere anytime, even on Windows PCs…
Otherwise, an iPod can also double as a removable storage disk (USB 2 speeds/bandwidth)...more bang for the buck IMO.
I’d recommend considering how large your previous drive was, and to what length it was sufficient/insufficient. Shouldn’t be too hard to determine what size you need.
Anyone else remember when a 128MB flash ram thumb drive was HUGE? The capacity could hold 88 times the data of the mainstream alternative.
At $75 in 2002, it was a relative bargain.
Flash drives ranges from 128MB to 32GB. It depends on for what purpose you are going to use it. Since you want a flash drive just to copy files you can go with 4GB flash drives.
http://usbdrawer.com
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