USB ThumbDrive as Laptop HDD Replacement

[Chozo4]

1) What brand is the most reliable (Long lasting and can handle longterm use)?

2) What brand/model is the best performer (Quick access/response times)?

3) Of the ones mentioned in 1&2, which would be the best choice price wise (under $40)?

4) What is it's storage size? (4gb+ preferred)

Main reason for the questioning is due to my getting tired of spending $120+ replacing the hard disk drive almost yearly due to heat and heavy use chewing them down. I managed to build a boot-cd to provide USB2 Storage support through DOS to load Windows off of it no problems so the setup is smooth. Just seeking a good replacement so I won't need to use a 'loaner' 4gb thumbdrive anymore (was for testing purposes) and don't want to spend on a slow stick with poor access/transfer times.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Edited November 1, 2007 by Chozo4

[Zxian]

Your USB drive will wear out faster than the hard drive will. Flash memory has a limited number of I/O operations, and using it for an active system drive is a no-no.

If your hard drives are dying constantly, then you've got some other problem happening. Either you're not providing them enough cooling, or you're buying the wrong drives.

[PC_LOAD_LETTER]

IF your seriously thinking about using a non hard drive device as a hard drive, you should probably buy a device thats at least designed for the stresses youll be subjecting it to. As Zxian mentioned, Flash memory has a limited amount of read/writes built in and will likely fail faster than your current drives.

I would recommend downloading a HDD temp monitor program such as hdd-thermometer and see what temps your reaching. If your burning through drives and keeping your temps right, then switch manufacturers I use Maxtor, Seagate, or Western Digital and avoid everything else (Especially IBM 'Deathstars')

But in the interest or answering your question: Sandisk. period. thats the only manufacturer I would consider trusting for the type f use youre looking for

[Chozo4]

I'd forgotten to mention this is being done with a laptop. Mentioned it before but somehow removed it without realizing it during an edit (Corrected now). Being a laptop I have no cooling options at all and the harddisk in mine sits about 1/4" from the CPU/Heatsink with no ventilation for the drive itself.

I had used MBM long ago and during normal use the HardDisk was stated to be around 140F (which personally is too hot for even my tastes). I've been replacing the disks with manufacturer drives (toshiba) and haven't too many choices in drives. Many equivalent sized disks aren't the exact same in thickness and so will be just that little hair too thick to fit in. Even the manufacturer drives for my specific model (Toshiba Satellite A15-S157) I've been using are a tight fit.

Thanks for the point toward sandisk, Geek. I'll check into them next time I'm out Those solid state disks right now are a tad far out of my price range

Knowing that they won't last as long due to limited I/O Operations, I'll start redoing my windows setup a small bit. SmartDrv Disk Cache with a large buffer should help reduce read/write's to the drive itself. As well as relocating some of the frequently accessed programs/files to a ramdisk,

Edited November 1, 2007 by Chozo4

[puntoMX]

There are laptop coolers, did you check them out?

Are you still using the 512MB RAM? I don’t know how much you use your memory but I would check if a RAM upgrade would do some good .

[IcemanND]

if your drives are only lasting a year, buy one with a 3-5 year warranty. You get what you pay for.