Like any electronic equipment and most things in life for that matter there are varying qualities of the same thing. What I`m looking for is the 'highest quality' thumb drive.

I don't need it waterproof, or able to withstand a car driving on it, I simply want the most reliable drive in terms data loss prevention from faulty hardware, wearing out, etc.

I`m looking at this:
http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-DataTrave...203&sr=1-20

But was curious if anyone else had any ideas ???

This will not be for occasional use, it will be used almost daily, and transported between two locations in a laptop bag too.

The reliable thumb drive is the redundant thumb drive.

:0)

Seriously tho, one thing you might consider is to see if you can find some anti-conductive epoxy and dip the uncased unit in that.

So far I've had pretty good luck with most units, and it seems physical damage the mostly likely issue (move the computer and bend the drive, or whack it with your knee, or smash it in the bottom of your bag).

Oh, I've heard of people doing this with clear epoxy and embedding contact information in case lost.

http://dmitrybrant.com/2009/08/27/make-your-usb-flash-drive-indestructible
http://wwwebb.blogspot.com/2007/11/how-to-waterproof-thumb-drive.html
http://www.instructables.com/id/Clear-USB-Drive/

Oh, don't forget encryption (as appropriate). I like Truecrypt (free!).

-john

I keep losing the removable caps. There's a PNY 4GB mini-attache that I've had for almost a year--chained to a whistle and nailclippers--in my front pants pocket. Instead of a removable cap, it swivels to reveal the contacts.

The first (and only) PNY I bought was bad from the get-go. I never gave that brand a second chance. I've had maybe three SanDisks, of which one went bad (intermittantly). The most durable and long-lasting ones I've had? Don't laugh. Some unheard of brand called "A-Data". I've got four of those from back in the day when 256Mb was considered large. All four still work perfectly.

My A-Data's are similar to this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.as...1-357-_-Product but mine are many years older.

I agree redundancy is probably the shortest path to a reliable drive. I have two on my keychain, a Verbatim Store n Go, and a Verbatim Tuff n Tiny, like this - http://www.amazon.com/Verbatim-TUFF-Driv...197&sr=1-1. I've been impressed with the Tuff n Tiny, not only is it very small, there are no caps or moving parts, its literally the most convenient thumb drive I use. I keep an OS image on it, also store docs and other things I need. I've only had it about a month so I can't rate it's durability, but others have reported that it stands up to a beating well.

Cool thanks!

This is a moving target. It's hard to know where the failure point of a thumb drive is ... unless you destroy it. And by then, it's been replaced by a whole new line.

As previous posters have said, redundancy is key.

FWIW, I have been using SanDisk thumb drives for many years and have never had a failure. I have a couple of Verbatims too, but they are annoyingly slow.

I used to use cheapo thumb drives; some years ago, when I dropped one of these onto a wooden floor, it permanently scrambled. Note to self: don't use no-name stuff for important data.

My $0.02.

I'm not a big fan of thumb drives. You are right - too many brands and not many reliable ones. Instead I'm carrying everything on micro SD cards, inserted into tiny USB readers. This way you have a chance that if the reader electronics fail, the card may survive (I had such a situation just a week ago). And it is very easy to carry the additional duplicate of an important card simply taped to the reader's outside (or in some other place). Kingston cards never failed me. The only disadvantage of such a solution is the speed of reading/writing, which is generally lower for the cards compared to the thumb sticks.



One of the greatest advantages of this approach is that you can read your bare micro SD card almost with any mobile phone (if the documents format allows, and JPEG - is the most compatible), so your information can be accessible even if there is no computer survived in a close proximity.

Note you can also do the same thing using the SDHC format:

http://www.amazon.com/Memory-Reader-Writer-MiniSD-MiniSDHC/dp/B001L41QO8

-john

I've decided to stick to SD format (up to 4Gb size, but I'm primarily using 2GB micro SD cards in order to format them in FAT16) because it's backward compatible with SDHC, and because some older devices may not be able to deal with SDHC cards at all.

Also consider the impact of loosing the 16GB of data on SDHC card versus just 2Gb on SD

Or you mean the SD card form-factor versus micro SD?

Yes, I meant the larger form factor. Personally, I mostly use SDHC, but I understand your point that sticking to SD provides additional interoperability.

The nice thing is the readers that can do SDHC can do both.

As for losing data. It's easier to have two 16GB SDHC cards (redundancy) than eight 4GB SD cards. ;-)

-john

Thanks for the link to the Tuff 'n Tiny. I hate carrying things on my keyring but even I could probably squeeze one (or two) of those into the mix.

The Tuff 'n Tiny looks interesting. But I would be concerned about static discharge across the exposed contacts when carried in a pocket.

I have some ancient Lexar USB drives, a 4 year-old PNY Attache drive, and several unknown drives received from vendors that also work flawlessly. In fact, now that I think about it, the only problem I've had with USB drives is losing them, or the drive not fitting into a recessed USB jack.

My current favorite is the Kingston DataTraveler Locker with included encryption. I've plugged these into all kinds of computers with different versions of Windows, old USB 1.0 through the new USB 3 draft, and the drives and encryption software works flawlessly.

Agreed, its a concern for me too, and while online reviews don't establish much, the static discharge risk or other failure owing to exposed contacts hasn't been reported by anyone anywhere I know of - I've only had this for about a month, so more use is required. My other thumb drive is a retractable version, so if the Tuff n Tiny fails I have the same data on the retractable version, and I start again by duplicating it to another drive. (and since I'm far more likely to lose a ring of keys than anything else, it goes without saying that data on keyring thumb drives should always be redundant with some other location).

One nice thing, both thumb drives formatted with the new Win7 supported bitlocker usb drive encryption really easily, such that the proprietary data I carry on them remains encrypted unless I connect it to one of my PCs. I use that as I travel, preferring to keep business data encrypted on my thumb drive rather than on a laptop or phone. One less password to remember...

I keep my contact info, and offer a reward, in a "readmefirst.txt" file at the root level of every card for my digital cameras. The first image on each card is a photo directing the viewer to that info. It occurs to me now, that I could ditch the thumbdrive, as I almost always have a camera and a cardreader with me.

This is a timely topic for me because one of my new year goals is to get my documents (hard copies and electronic versions) in order.

Among other formats, I plan to use thumb drives for storing/carrying certain information.

Anyone have any experience with Iron Key?

https://www.ironkey.com/

I'd suggest you use a software encryption. Hardware is too... um, permanent. And all things security will eventually need an upgrade:

http://it.slashdot.org/story/10/01/05/1734242/Encryption-Cracked-On-NIST-Certified-Flash-Drives

You could use something like Windows Bitlocker as noted by Lono, or something like Truecrypt.

-john

IronKey is over priced IMHO.
ESP. considering once you get larger they charge way too much!