Make a video about flash drives. Although nobody talks about them - everyone has a couple of them and are still in use from to time. But they are existing in shadow now. We don't know if they are being phased out or being upgraded like ssds and usb, we don't know their capabilities and modern day uses. We don't know good and bad manufacturers and prices. Its a media blackout. And yet some new device comes in your home and it comes with a flash drive for drivers. We can still plug them and use them on today's machines but soomer or later they will become like CDs and people won't know what to do with them.
They're mostly trash now. It's hard to find a fast one, and if you manage to, they will be both very hot, and relatively large - making a small external SSD a much better choice. The only thing I use USB flash drives for is as boot/os install drive, and that only because I do it rarely. Were I to do it more often, an SSD with ventoy would be the way to go
I find you really have to look at the specs of each flash drive. Cheap ones run around 100mbs and drive me crazy. I look for the 300mbs and up. I still have a use for them, and have a drawer full.
@@rjbook51how many gigabytes are 300 mbs's? I'm making thumb drives from my media player, and even though I use Sandisk, when I put them in my stereo they annoyingly skip. And they're hot when I take them out of my laptop. Is that what causes skipping?
I hate that this video had to be made, but thank you immensely for being the hero we need, lmao. USB was such a cluster for years, and it's going to be years more for it to clear up, with a generation of cables to filter through (regrettably, to the landfill in most cases?). On the other hand, as much as I do appreciate NVMe enclosures, I do somewhat wish you could have touched on traditional USB thumb drives - or I suppose a better name now would be 'keychain drives'? But then, there's practically infinite options with even more greatly varying performance/reliability, so they're certainly not an easy undertaking for reviews. But still, perhaps you could've mentioned a handful that you'd consider. ...On that note, I suppose you could also go in to utilizing (micro) SD cards with adapters, but I doubt many people would actually want to bother with that over the convenience of a self-contained and robust drive that happily sits on a lanyard or keychain without worry of the memory card falling out.
A really great, comprehensive rundown of this complex field. I'm old enough to introduce the introduction of USB 1.0 way back; when. The U stood for "universal". It was promoted as a simple standard that did away with all the complexities of computer connections. I'm sure there are people writing doctoral theses on this subject while we sit here.
Robbie, you make great content! Mark Twain, Dr. Gregory House, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, and maybe even Louis Rossmann all tell us that "everybody lies." That's why we need you to help us build performative systems. Thanks again!
there is a whole world of nuances when it comes to the newer usb c cables. while primarily focused on data in this video, certain cables might be rated at 140 watts while others at 240. one would think getting the highest rated cable would be best to minimise clutter by finding the most versatile, you may still end up with a collection of usb c cables which appear identical but have specific purposes…. over time this can get confusing. in the attempts of usb trying to unify standards and simplifying everything, they’ve done the reverse in having it harder to distinguish one cable from another because all of them have the same appearance but can behave differently on what you want to do. lol
Yeah, I think the tl;dr might be a need for a dedicated charging cable, and a dedicated data cable. But then... there's still so many devices from this interim period that ended up doing their own weird semi-proprietary stuff that were made before official USB standards, so they use their own weird ways of communicating power or data capability. And it seems if you throw those devices on a modern smart charger that theoretically should be able to deliver way above a given devices needs, the charger rejects the device and only outputs near minimum power transfer rates. So you still end up needing half-a-dozen charging cables... Idk, maybe it's just me, but I'm fairly certain I have a variety of devices that only work as advertised with their included cables, and it's so frustrating having to keep track of them.
I recently bought a new MacBook Pro and I wanted an external SSD compatible with Windows and Mac. Some enclosures only work well with Mac, and some only with a Windows PC. A lot of it has to do with the hardware of your PC also. I guess there is more Thunderbolt compatibility with 12th Gen and newer Intel CPUs with Windows. My Acasis enclosure works well with my Mac and Lenovo 7i Pro 11th Gen CPU. It is very picky with the SSD choice though. You have to find the right combination of enclosure and SSD. Reading reviews helps. Also use software to watch your SSD temps. I used premium thermal pads and dropped the temps. My PC accepts USB 3.2 Gen 2, but a Mac won’t. One prebuilt external SSD is the Sandisk Professional Pro-G40.
16:08 I have a mini pc that i use to selfhost some services and it can only power 1 ext drive, when i added another one it had issues staying online. That finally made me get a NAS. I could have probably gotten a powered usb hub to get around it but i dont regret it.
My compliments this is a very clear and instructive video. Although I knew most of the facts individually I had not connected them all together with their consequences. Great holistic overview.
What you said about the headphone jack removal is wrong. The real reason is cost savings by Apple (who sells AirPods) and copycat behavior by the rest of the industry. Samsung int the S8 and S9 era had good IP ratings and a headphone jack. Sony Xperia to this day still manages to offer good IP ratings together with a headphone jack and they were among the first to offer IP ratings way back in 2012 with the Sony Xperia V (as in the letter not the roman numeral) 2012 and it even had a removable battery (that is the same year as the iPhone 5). Removable batteries, SD slots, headphone jacks and IP water and dust protection can all be done together.
Came to watch a trivial video left with way more understanding than was expecting lol lets all be honest usb in 2024 isn't an attractive topic but you did great
Can someone recommend a good M2 2242 enclosure? So far I'm struggling to find an option with good reviews and its frustrating that I have to use one for twice as big SSD.
I had problems finding a short cable for my vr headset because it needs a type c cable. So I try one of my random usb c cables lying around and it turns out it doesn't support the minimum usb 3 required, it was a usb 2 data cable with a type c connector. Completely unlabelled, nothing to differentiate it. What is usb doing.
I would have liked to see some form of test for the claims. You seem to trust the speed claims of a device but not trust the IP rating. Just because you can see the rating is suspicious, doesn’t mean the speed wouldn’t also be suspicious. Also, something missing is that the cable and connector are different specs. You can correctly have a USB-C connector on a USB2 cable with a USB-A connector on the other end and correctly run at USB2 speeds. Re claims, same goes for cables. I find they need testing no matter what the labels say. So much so that I now test with a USB lookback setup (PassMark have USB 3.0)
There's an excellent (a bit more technical) video on YT that will explain in more detail why USB speeds & performance are so different. Look for the video "USB Speeds Are Fake… (But not why you think)". Next to costs (more affordable) and being able to chose your own parts when doing a DIY, there is another reason why one possibly want to avoid (at times) the "regular" off-the-shelf USB drives; There are true scams ongoing (on the common webshops) where the USB's capacity is being faked. If you buy a (relative) expensive USB, buy them from a reputable seller or locally. If it is too cheap to be true, it is most often is. (and that also might be applicable to the USB et al cables, unless you have x-ray vision, the cable (and/or packaging) is clearly labelled what USB it formally supports)
Am I wrong or are USB "standards" just a complete load of tosh? Relying on knowing the spec of a cable by identifying a half worn off printed icon or number is plain stupid. Add to that the plethora of variation and I would suggest that few users could identify the spec of a cable put in front of them. Someone else needs to set standards, the USB-IF are now a failing organisation.
great job.... sadly usb is still such a mess. I am hopeful (the same kind of hopeful that I will win the lottery that I never play) That USB will get their shit together and get at least 1/10th of their advertised speeds.
How to properlly use USB drive or SSD on Windows, if defender goes nuts when it sees anything like USB drive. It ocupies it for hours ifloads of new data is on it. Then the drama begins, copy slow, stopps in between, error fake no write prmission caused by defender scanning, I want to cancel copy ERROR, plese eject, NO WAY, shutdown noooo, Waiting ... hell no than it corupts USB Key if FAT32. USB SSDs are good and fast like 500MBs, they dont corupt likely but how to fix Windows defender from interfering it is serious issue on many w11 pcs. I didnt loose data but i prefer prpper NAS eversince. Any solution for USB drives ON WINDOWS that arent permanently connected?
Your comments on SSD speeds miss the key point for NAS users that initial speed of an SSD transfer can be very fast BUT sustained speed ie if you are dumping a whole NAS backup is MUCH MUCH slower sometimes an order of magnitude or more slower. For most SSDs speed will drop after only a couple of minutes - this is because they have to copy the data to much slower storage once the fast storage is full. See Toms hardware graphs for sustained performance measures on SSD reviews - they are shocking.
Perfect timing, I need to stop depending on my 2008 D-Link NAS as a backup. It's essentially cold storage, I'm scared to leave it on, or return to a constant failed beep. I should assemble my own 4TB USB drive to ensure the speeds are what I want
Is it just impossible for any industry actually be honest about their products? I have known about the differences for awhile, but when all of the info is placed in one video, it's just depressing. Would it really kill them to actually have the full spec of the device somewhere easy to find, than having to dig around their site or find 3td parties who have done the deep dives to get the full spec. I spend more time looking for information than using the device.
It does actually gives them bad sleep, cold sweat and indigestion. They avoid honesty as the plague. And testers and reviewers are like the exorcist to a demon.
If this talk was summarised on one page . . . it would be far more useful. I spent part of my life producing senior management stategy charts . . . the data had to be understood in seconds SO rather than idoit guides . . . how about guides for very busy people who have only got a few seconds. We would value a summary much more
Make a video about flash drives. Although nobody talks about them - everyone has a couple of them and are still in use from to time. But they are existing in shadow now. We don't know if they are being phased out or being upgraded like ssds and usb, we don't know their capabilities and modern day uses. We don't know good and bad manufacturers and prices. Its a media blackout. And yet some new device comes in your home and it comes with a flash drive for drivers. We can still plug them and use them on today's machines but soomer or later they will become like CDs and people won't know what to do with them.
I'm up with the video idea!
They're mostly trash now. It's hard to find a fast one, and if you manage to, they will be both very hot, and relatively large - making a small external SSD a much better choice.
The only thing I use USB flash drives for is as boot/os install drive, and that only because I do it rarely. Were I to do it more often, an SSD with ventoy would be the way to go
I find you really have to look at the specs of each flash drive. Cheap ones run around 100mbs and drive me crazy. I look for the 300mbs and up. I still have a use for them, and have a drawer full.
@@rjbook51how many gigabytes are 300 mbs's? I'm making thumb drives from my media player, and even though I use Sandisk, when I put them in my stereo they annoyingly skip. And they're hot when I take them out of my laptop. Is that what causes skipping?
@@Romans-nk4wtIt's probably scratched 😅
I hate that this video had to be made, but thank you immensely for being the hero we need, lmao. USB was such a cluster for years, and it's going to be years more for it to clear up, with a generation of cables to filter through (regrettably, to the landfill in most cases?).
On the other hand, as much as I do appreciate NVMe enclosures, I do somewhat wish you could have touched on traditional USB thumb drives - or I suppose a better name now would be 'keychain drives'? But then, there's practically infinite options with even more greatly varying performance/reliability, so they're certainly not an easy undertaking for reviews. But still, perhaps you could've mentioned a handful that you'd consider.
...On that note, I suppose you could also go in to utilizing (micro) SD cards with adapters, but I doubt many people would actually want to bother with that over the convenience of a self-contained and robust drive that happily sits on a lanyard or keychain without worry of the memory card falling out.
A really great, comprehensive rundown of this complex field. I'm old enough to introduce the introduction of USB 1.0 way back; when. The U stood for "universal". It was promoted as a simple standard that did away with all the complexities of computer connections. I'm sure there are people writing doctoral theses on this subject while we sit here.
Robbie, you make great content! Mark Twain, Dr. Gregory House, Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, and maybe even Louis Rossmann all tell us that "everybody lies." That's why we need you to help us build performative systems. Thanks again!
there is a whole world of nuances when it comes to the newer usb c cables. while primarily focused on data in this video, certain cables might be rated at 140 watts while others at 240. one would think getting the highest rated cable would be best to minimise clutter by finding the most versatile, you may still end up with a collection of usb c cables which appear identical but have specific purposes…. over time this can get confusing. in the attempts of usb trying to unify standards and simplifying everything, they’ve done the reverse in having it harder to distinguish one cable from another because all of them have the same appearance but can behave differently on what you want to do. lol
Yeah, I think the tl;dr might be a need for a dedicated charging cable, and a dedicated data cable.
But then... there's still so many devices from this interim period that ended up doing their own weird semi-proprietary stuff that were made before official USB standards, so they use their own weird ways of communicating power or data capability. And it seems if you throw those devices on a modern smart charger that theoretically should be able to deliver way above a given devices needs, the charger rejects the device and only outputs near minimum power transfer rates. So you still end up needing half-a-dozen charging cables... Idk, maybe it's just me, but I'm fairly certain I have a variety of devices that only work as advertised with their included cables, and it's so frustrating having to keep track of them.
Great video! Especially for who is not very familiar with storage devices
I recently bought a new MacBook Pro and I wanted an external SSD compatible with Windows and Mac. Some enclosures only work well with Mac, and some only with a Windows PC. A lot of it has to do with the hardware of your PC also. I guess there is more Thunderbolt compatibility with 12th Gen and newer Intel CPUs with Windows. My Acasis enclosure works well with my Mac and Lenovo 7i Pro 11th Gen CPU. It is very picky with the SSD choice though. You have to find the right combination of enclosure and SSD. Reading reviews helps. Also use software to watch your SSD temps. I used premium thermal pads and dropped the temps. My PC accepts USB 3.2 Gen 2, but a Mac won’t. One prebuilt external SSD is the Sandisk Professional Pro-G40.
16:08 I have a mini pc that i use to selfhost some services and it can only power 1 ext drive, when i added another one it had issues staying online. That finally made me get a NAS. I could have probably gotten a powered usb hub to get around it but i dont regret it.
Very good Information that sooo very many do not know. Nor am I able to keep up with all the industry changes. Thanks again,
My compliments this is a very clear and instructive video. Although I knew most of the facts individually I had not connected them all together with their consequences. Great holistic overview.
What you said about the headphone jack removal is wrong. The real reason is cost savings by Apple (who sells AirPods) and copycat behavior by the rest of the industry. Samsung int the S8 and S9 era had good IP ratings and a headphone jack. Sony Xperia to this day still manages to offer good IP ratings together with a headphone jack and they were among the first to offer IP ratings way back in 2012 with the Sony Xperia V (as in the letter not the roman numeral) 2012 and it even had a removable battery (that is the same year as the iPhone 5).
Removable batteries, SD slots, headphone jacks and IP water and dust protection can all be done together.
Love your videos and always fascinated with your watches. 😀😀
I hope you've got some links in the description or on your website that helps buy the right drive and cable. Thanks Rob
Came to watch a trivial video left with way more understanding than was expecting lol lets all be honest usb in 2024 isn't an attractive topic but you did great
I looked at the title and I saw that this video was foe those like me. Great video.
Nice explanatory video!
Very nice job. A table of the various connections all the way through including the computer would be helpful. I love videos like this one!
This is useful particularly to elderlies, thanks😊
Can someone recommend a good M2 2242 enclosure? So far I'm struggling to find an option with good reviews and its frustrating that I have to use one for twice as big SSD.
It was only last week when I came across my 512MB flash drive I bought in 2005. Still has the files on it. 😮
I had problems finding a short cable for my vr headset because it needs a type c cable. So I try one of my random usb c cables lying around and it turns out it doesn't support the minimum usb 3 required, it was a usb 2 data cable with a type c connector. Completely unlabelled, nothing to differentiate it. What is usb doing.
The real issue is when using many usb devices, 10Gbps+ hubs are finicky and so are the cables.
Remember when Kirk explains Fizzbin?
You are correct...except on a Tuesday.
I would have liked to see some form of test for the claims. You seem to trust the speed claims of a device but not trust the IP rating. Just because you can see the rating is suspicious, doesn’t mean the speed wouldn’t also be suspicious. Also, something missing is that the cable and connector are different specs. You can correctly have a USB-C connector on a USB2 cable with a USB-A connector on the other end and correctly run at USB2 speeds. Re claims, same goes for cables. I find they need testing no matter what the labels say. So much so that I now test with a USB lookback setup (PassMark have USB 3.0)
I came to this video because I’m subscribed. Also I’m a geek
There's an excellent (a bit more technical) video on YT that will explain in more detail why USB speeds & performance are so different.
Look for the video "USB Speeds Are Fake… (But not why you think)".
Next to costs (more affordable) and being able to chose your own parts when doing a DIY, there is another reason why one possibly want to avoid (at times) the "regular" off-the-shelf USB drives;
There are true scams ongoing (on the common webshops) where the USB's capacity is being faked.
If you buy a (relative) expensive USB, buy them from a reputable seller or locally.
If it is too cheap to be true, it is most often is.
(and that also might be applicable to the USB et al cables, unless you have x-ray vision, the cable (and/or packaging) is clearly labelled what USB it formally supports)
Am I wrong or are USB "standards" just a complete load of tosh? Relying on knowing the spec of a cable by identifying a half worn off printed icon or number is plain stupid. Add to that the plethora of variation and I would suggest that few users could identify the spec of a cable put in front of them. Someone else needs to set standards, the USB-IF are now a failing organisation.
This even becomes more complicated when you use a hub, LOL
Annnnnnnnnnd Migraine!
They need to standardize color coding the connectors for USB types.
USB IF needs to do a lot of things on top of that. Look into the mess that is the USB 4 "standard".
great job.... sadly usb is still such a mess. I am hopeful (the same kind of hopeful that I will win the lottery that I never play)
That USB will get their shit together and get at least 1/10th of their advertised speeds.
How to properlly use USB drive or SSD on Windows, if defender goes nuts when it sees anything like USB drive. It ocupies it for hours ifloads of new data is on it. Then the drama begins, copy slow, stopps in between, error fake no write prmission caused by defender scanning, I want to cancel copy ERROR, plese eject, NO WAY, shutdown noooo, Waiting ... hell no than it corupts USB Key if FAT32. USB SSDs are good and fast like 500MBs, they dont corupt likely but how to fix Windows defender from interfering it is serious issue on many w11 pcs. I didnt loose data but i prefer prpper NAS eversince. Any solution for USB drives ON WINDOWS that arent permanently connected?
Your comments on SSD speeds miss the key point for NAS users that initial speed of an SSD transfer can be very fast BUT sustained speed ie if you are dumping a whole NAS backup is MUCH MUCH slower sometimes an order of magnitude or more slower. For most SSDs speed will drop after only a couple of minutes - this is because they have to copy the data to much slower storage once the fast storage is full. See Toms hardware graphs for sustained performance measures on SSD reviews - they are shocking.
Perfect timing, I need to stop depending on my 2008 D-Link NAS as a backup. It's essentially cold storage, I'm scared to leave it on, or return to a constant failed beep. I should assemble my own 4TB USB drive to ensure the speeds are what I want
Is it just impossible for any industry actually be honest about their products? I have known about the differences for awhile, but when all of the info is placed in one video, it's just depressing. Would it really kill them to actually have the full spec of the device somewhere easy to find, than having to dig around their site or find 3td parties who have done the deep dives to get the full spec. I spend more time looking for information than using the device.
It does actually gives them bad sleep, cold sweat and indigestion. They avoid honesty as the plague. And testers and reviewers are like the exorcist to a demon.
@@id104335409 that is too funny, but an accurate description.
You rang?
You range?
If this talk was summarised on one page . . . it would be far more useful.
I spent part of my life producing senior management stategy charts . . . the data had to be understood in seconds
SO rather than idoit guides . . . how about guides for very busy people who have only got a few seconds. We would value a summary much more
Explaining Computers channel has a video with similar content that is more concise.
Those bags are NOT cool to wear. They still look stupid even on my 80 yr old mom.