16gb thumb (flash) drives?

MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
edited January 2008 in Hardware
I bought a 4gb flash drive about 6 months ago and that was the largest one available (AFAIK) at the time. I have since lost it! :( Now I'm seeing 8gb and 16gb flash drives on eBay, but I also see people saying they're fake.

Does anyone have a flash drive larger than 4gb or know if real 16gb drives are available now?

//edit: Link to 16gb drive on eBay

TIA,
Bill

Comments

  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited January 2008
    Yes, and I own one. This one, in fact. Great drive. (Actually about 15.1 formatted, of course.) Corsair also just came out with a 32-gigger. Fun times.
  • ThelemechThelemech Victoria Icrontian
    edited January 2008
    I bought a 8 GB Thumbdrive for an employer about three months ago.
    I think we may even have a shorty here at Icrontic by BuddyJ about a 32 Gb Flash Drive!
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited January 2008
    MJancaitis wrote:
    Yes, and I own one. This one, in fact. Great drive. (Actually about 15.1 formatted, of course.) Corsair also just came out with a 32-gigger. Fun times.
    WOW.... $190

    Thanks for the reply MJancaitis!
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited January 2008
    Thelemech wrote:
    I bought a 8 GB Thumbdrive for an employer about three months ago.
    I think we may even have a shorty here at Icrontic by BuddyJ about a 32 Gb Flash Drive!
    Thank you. I didn't see anything bigger than 4gb at the local Walmart. :)
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited January 2008
    Yeah, I got it for 180 at Frys. Waterproof and shockproof ftw! I move lots of video files and images, I can use the space. But really that's just fake justification, I got it because I could. Comes with a neat Corsair dog tag, I guess...
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited January 2008
    I bought a 16gb no-name one on eBay for $59 including shipping and insurance. It says it's made with Samsung memory so we'll see if it's any good when it gets here.
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited January 2008
    Yikes. Good luck with that. The combination of "ebay" and "no-name" and "way below market value pricing" is always a good equation though, I hear.
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited January 2008
    MJancaitis wrote:
    Yikes. Good luck with that. The combination of "ebay" and "no-name" and "way below market value pricing" is always a good equation though, I hear.
    LOL! This seller has a LOT of positive feedback regarding these drives. We'll see...
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited January 2008
    We make more 16mb parts than any other at the Manassas and Lehi fabs at Micron and I am sure the same probably goes for Samsung and Toshiba. Too bad a single chip probably sells for WAAAYYY less than 180 or w/e. According to DRAMExchange it was an average price to today of a meager $5.63...
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2008
    Bill, thumb drives at eBay is one of the biggest minefields there. Ebay is already a zoo, but the memory stick arena is populated by quite a few monkeys. I would imagine you'd be OK with a vendor who has a long history with at least a 95% positive evaluation rating. I would also not buy anything that's not a major brand. 16GB is the upper limit right now for thumb drives, so you pay for the novelty. 8GB sticks generally will give a lot more storage per dollar.

    I repeat, eBay is a minefield.

    Sorry, just saw your post:
    I bought a 16gb no-name one on eBay for $59 including shipping and insurance.
    I've got my fingers crossed for you. I hope you don't end up with a 1GB stick of super molasses DDR1.
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited January 2008
    Leonardo wrote:
    Bill, thumb drives at eBay is one of the biggest minefields there. Ebay is already a zoo, but the memory stick arena is populated by quite a few monkeys. I would imagine you'd be OK with a vendor who has a long history with at least a 95% positive evaluation rating. I would also not buy anything that's not a major brand. 16GB is the upper limit right now for thumb drives, so you pay for the novelty. 8GB sticks generally will give a lot more storage per dollar.

    I repeat, eBay is a minefield.

    Sorry, just saw your post:I've got my fingers crossed for you. I hope you don't end up with a 1GB stick of super molasses DDR1.
    Got the drive today and it's 16gb. Also, seems pretty quick, but I don't know what the test results below actually mean.
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited January 2008
    Grats. Does anybody know if NTFS takes more header room than FAT32, and that's why I'm sitting on 15.1 formatted, or did his manufacturer just put in the right number of bytes for once?
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited January 2008
    MJancaitis wrote:
    Grats. Does anybody know if NTFS takes more header room than FAT32, and that's why I'm sitting on 15.1 formatted, or did his manufacturer just put in the right number of bytes for once?
    I tried to format it NTFS to see if that would answer your question, but the format failed. Scared the crap out of me as it showed 0 bytes used and 0 bytes available afterward. I was able to format it FAT32 and it's back like it was.

    Now I wonder why the NTFS format failed. Before it would even try, I had to change the policy from "optimize for quick removal" to "optimize for performance". I didn't even know that was an option.
  • mmonninmmonnin Centreville, VA
    edited January 2008
    MJancaitis wrote:
    Grats. Does anybody know if NTFS takes more header room than FAT32, and that's why I'm sitting on 15.1 formatted, or did his manufacturer just put in the right number of bytes for once?

    You do know that ALL drive manufactures label the size based on 1000 bytes = 1 kB even though 1024 bytes = 1kB right? Thats the reason for the 'lost' size after formatting.
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2008
    Just like hard disk drives.
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited January 2008
    Hence why I asked if his manufacturer actually put in the right number of bytes for once.

    Did I say it in Japanese or something?
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited January 2008
    Swahili
  • MrBillMrBill Missouri Member
    edited January 2008
    MJancaitis wrote:
    Grats. Does anybody know if NTFS takes more header room than FAT32, and that's why I'm sitting on 15.1 formatted, or did his manufacturer just put in the right number of bytes for once?
    mmonnin wrote:
    You do know that ALL drive manufactures label the size based on 1000 bytes = 1 kB even though 1024 bytes = 1kB right? Thats the reason for the 'lost' size after formatting.
    Leonardo wrote:
    Just like hard disk drives.

    MJ is referring to us both having 16gb drives, but his shows 15.1 formatted NTFS where mine shows 15.9 formatted FAT32.
  • SnarkasmSnarkasm Madison, WI Icrontian
    edited January 2008
    And I checked again, and remembered that after NTFS, I had to put it back to FAT32 for something else, and it's still 15.1. So you just got lucky, it seems. Congrats, let us know about longevity.
  • manulekamanuleka
    edited January 2008
    16GB man... thats crazy... just means easier to lose heaps of data if one drops or misplaces the key
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