USB Flash Drive Roundup - 10/2005
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 4, 2005 11:28 AM EST- Posted in
- Memory
What about NTFS?
By default, Windows XP disables write caching on all USB flash drives, and most of these drives will only allow you to format them as FAT16 or FAT32 with write caching disabled. The benefit of disabling write caching is that you can remove the USB drive as soon as it is done reading/writing, without having to go through Windows' safe removal process - you just simply unplug the drive.
Enabling write caching will let you format the drive as a NTFS partition, but it will also force you to go through the safe removal process before unplugging the drive. There is no performance benefit to enabling write caching under Windows XP on these drives.
If you are willing to deal with the added pain of having to click to stop the USB flash device before unplugging it, formatting one of these drives using NTFS will yield a huge performance increase when dealing with very small file sizes.
In Sandra's 512-byte test, performance generally improves anywhere from 2x - 6x over FAT16. However, the performance advantage isn't nearly as constant as FAT16 over FAT32, as you end up dropping performance with larger file sizes.
Many have cited that NTFS' journaling will increase wear on flash memory, which has a limited number of write cycles before it can no longer be used, but given that that limit is generally about 1,000,000 erase/write cycles, simply using NTFS is not going to make a huge dent in the life span of these drives. You will more than likely upgrade to a larger drive by the time you hit that limit.
In any case, the benefits of NTFS, for the most part, are outweighed by the downsides - so our recommendation continues to be to stick with FAT16 if you can. Otherwise, go with FAT32 and keep write caching disabled under Windows XP.
We mentioned that almost all drives require you to enable write caching under Windows XP in order to allow you to format them using NTFS. There was one exception to that rule in our testing. For whatever reason, the Lexar JumpDrive Lightning would let you format it as a FAT16, FAT32 or NTFS drive with write caching disabled under Windows XP.
By default, Windows XP disables write caching on all USB flash drives, and most of these drives will only allow you to format them as FAT16 or FAT32 with write caching disabled. The benefit of disabling write caching is that you can remove the USB drive as soon as it is done reading/writing, without having to go through Windows' safe removal process - you just simply unplug the drive.
Enabling write caching will let you format the drive as a NTFS partition, but it will also force you to go through the safe removal process before unplugging the drive. There is no performance benefit to enabling write caching under Windows XP on these drives.
If you are willing to deal with the added pain of having to click to stop the USB flash device before unplugging it, formatting one of these drives using NTFS will yield a huge performance increase when dealing with very small file sizes.
In Sandra's 512-byte test, performance generally improves anywhere from 2x - 6x over FAT16. However, the performance advantage isn't nearly as constant as FAT16 over FAT32, as you end up dropping performance with larger file sizes.
Many have cited that NTFS' journaling will increase wear on flash memory, which has a limited number of write cycles before it can no longer be used, but given that that limit is generally about 1,000,000 erase/write cycles, simply using NTFS is not going to make a huge dent in the life span of these drives. You will more than likely upgrade to a larger drive by the time you hit that limit.
In any case, the benefits of NTFS, for the most part, are outweighed by the downsides - so our recommendation continues to be to stick with FAT16 if you can. Otherwise, go with FAT32 and keep write caching disabled under Windows XP.
We mentioned that almost all drives require you to enable write caching under Windows XP in order to allow you to format them using NTFS. There was one exception to that rule in our testing. For whatever reason, the Lexar JumpDrive Lightning would let you format it as a FAT16, FAT32 or NTFS drive with write caching disabled under Windows XP.
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sprockkets - Thursday, October 6, 2005 - link
Although not reviewed here, I got the A Data key from newegg.com simply because they say it works with Linux on the package. I know any key will, but they are the only ones to have the guts to say it. Thanks for admitting Linux exists. Lifetime warranty too.jgh - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link
here is a link for another link, to an app that can make many (but probably not all) usb drives bootable and a couple of other hints/tips.http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/5735">link
O.T. - for some reason i get a message that says i do not have permission to access this forum when i tried to create a new login with my e-mail address. did i get banned or something? i have only posted once (it was about the gta:lcs website). i also cannot log in with the origianl user name and password.
p.s. - it is o.k. to post links like this right?
Toolsac - Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - link
I just wanna say thanks to anand for bring us all so much info on every nook and crany of computing. When ever I am getting ready to upgrade or have a problem with my computer, Anand can help me. THANKS GUYS YOU ROCK!!!GameManK - Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - link
also curious about the memorex drives like the m-flyerhoppa - Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - link
Cool article, and a nice summary of the market (the intro stuff), but seriously, who really cares that much about the perfomance of these things when the entire thing can be written or read in <1 minute anyway. I do love benchmarks though (born and will die a stat-whore)!I have a suggestion for the article: can you post a single picture of all the drives (preferably with a key). I'd like to see what they all look like but I wasn't too crazy at all about clicking through 20 pages. In fact, I only made it through 4.
-andy
vexingv - Friday, October 21, 2005 - link
its an iomega 256mb and claims to be usb2, but is ridiculously slow compared to a generic 64mb drive i have. i've tried transferring about 20mb worth of portable firefox on the two drives side-by-side and the iomega drive took close to 5 minutes while my other drive took less than a minute.these benchmarks are really useful for that purpose of finding drives w/ faster flash memory controllers.
Souka - Wednesday, October 5, 2005 - link
REad the article....less than 1 min? Read it....not happening.Write times had the biggest delta....upto 20x speed difference....
So would you rather watch your drive write data for 3.5mins, or almost an hour?
Far as "clicking through 20 pages" Click once on the "Print this Article"....then you just use page down(or equivalent button) to scroll through
Chriz - Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - link
This was a good roundup, but I was also curious on some other drives that can be found on Newegg. Mainly interested in the Apacer drives and also the Memorex M-flyer...which got a good review in Maximum PC because of the retractable USB connector which seems convenient to me, but I am really not sure on the performance compared to other drives.intellon - Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - link
And why was iPod Shuffle excluded? Is it cuz of security matter/ bigger size/ higher cost? Cuz I use half of my shuffle for transfering files to and from - work, home and school.jkostans - Tuesday, October 4, 2005 - link
Because its an mp3 player. There are plenty of ipod shuffle type players out there which aren't included, some smaller and more compact. I'm sure they would be with the slowest of the slow.