Are there any faster USB flash drives?

Question

I have a high speed USB port on my computer.  It takes me about 4.5 minutes to backup my retail database (250 mb) on a 1 gig flash drive....I need to do this inbetween customers at least 1 time during the day.  Any suggestions to make this quicker?  Is there a super fast flash drive I could purchase?

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

Check the write speed rating of your USB memory stick. Some are write speeds were as low as 2 MB/sec and as fast as 14 MB/sec, you will need USB 2.0 to realize these speeds. The fastest USB drive tested by arstechnica.com was the Lexar JumpDrive Lightning
http://www.lexar.com/jumpdrive/lightning.html

See performance graphs
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/flash2005.ars/9
http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/flash2005.ars

Make sure computer has USB 2.0. If it does not, there are PCI USB 2.0 cards for around $10 -$20 you can add to your computer.
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?keywords=usb%20pci&image1.x=0&image1.y=0&sort=Price%20asc
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=usb+pci&x=0&y=0

USB Buss Speed
http://www.everythingusb.com/usb2/faq.htm
USB 1.0 (Intel) 1.5 MBps
USB 2.0 (Intel) 60 MBps

Flash drives are not a good backup medium. 
A better solution would be to back up to a server. Equip both with 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet card/routers.

1000 Mbps.Ethernet =  9 to 62 times faster  than USB memory

USB memory sticks write speed = 2-14 MB/s 
= 16 to 112Mb/2 (1B=8b)

decker · Answer

Well nothing is going to transfer your database in an instance but you can look for Readyboost drves as they are USB2.0 and have to transfer data at a fast data rate. They are called Readyboost as they can be used as a special cache drive in Windows Vista, but in reality are just fast flash drives. The good news is that you do not have to pay a premium for the Readyboost drive. Here is a link to some Readyboost drives at good prices:

http://www.gamegiants.net/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=readyboost&x=0&y=0

jacob c · Answer

if you are running off a usb version 1 port then yes upgrade you usb card to a version 2 its like 2 times faster. if you are running off a usb v2 then make sure the flash drive is capable of usb v2. if so then no their is no faster way.

livesay · Answer

The externalpersistent velocity would be limited with the aid of the USB. in line with threat you do no longer ought to purchase a SSD, yet flash drives do fail. Please be conscious that SSD technologies remains in its early states and there are obstacles that must be seen. it is likewise very costly.

matenzi · Answer

just make sure its in a high speed port
they should just tear through 250MB of data

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Are there any faster USB flash drives?

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