A thought on USB drives: Since the arrival of SD Cards, I relegated my USB drives to the back of my pc supply drawer. I was under the opinion that USB drives were nearing the dinosaur...

Billbobboy42 Loc: Center of Delmarva

Since the arrival of SD Cards, I relegated my USB drives to the back of my pc supply drawer. I was under the opinion that USB drives were nearing the dinosaur status. For curiosity I went to B&H website and searched SanDisk USB drives. To my surprise were listed a number of USB SSDs having up to 2Tb. Not cheap, but they are there. Thus, am I wrong believing USBs are outdated technology? I would expect the SSD version to be faster than the older version. As a curiosity I bought a 1tb version, but have not tried it yet until I figure out how to reformat it to fat32. It comes formatted to xfat. I have a few audio players that will only accept fat32. I read somewhere that fat32's maximum memory capacity is 2tb. Guess xfat is ready for larger capacities.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

There's SO much USB stuff out there. (What's NOT USB anymore?)
I can't see it going away in the foreseeable future.
They've changed connector styles a few times over the years, but still USB.

(Don't forget NTFS format...

)

edrobinsonjr Loc: Boise, Idaho

Billbobboy42 wrote:

Since the arrival of SD Cards, I relegated my USB ... (show quote)

I usually buy USB sticks by the 10 pack. They are very handy for backing up projects I am working on and you can copy music and books to them to play back in the car.

I suspect the innards of an SD card and a USB stick are very similar...

Ed

BigOldArt Loc: Seminole, FL

Billbobboy42 wrote:

It comes formatted to xfat. I have a few audio players that will only accept fat32. I read somewhere that fat32's maximum memory capacity is 2tb. Guess xfat is ready for larger capacities.

I am a little confused by the above. Data is usually transferred between storage media. I do not see how the storage format on one device is related to the storage format on the other device?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Billbobboy42 wrote:

Since the arrival of SD Cards, I relegated my USB ... (show quote)

I have a dozen or more, and I find them handy for transferring files - between computers or between people.

Billbobboy42 Loc: Center of Delmarva

BigOldArt wrote:

I am a little confused by the above. Data is usually transferred between storage media. I do not see how the storage format on one device is related to the storage format on the other device?

My two audio recorder/player decks states in owners manuals that USB drives must be fat32 formatted. For reference, I have a Brennan B3 and a Denon 3000R-MarkII. I am not technically advanced to understand the reasons for that specification. I just try to follow directions, which challenges me at times.

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

Many of the USBs have partitioned files and will not accept a file larger than the partition even though there is much more room in the USB. I simply reformat and remove the partitions to get around this

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

sodapop wrote:

Many of the USBs have partitioned files and will not accept a file larger than the partition even though there is much more room in the USB. I simply reformat and remove the partitions to get around this

Nothing will accept a file larger than the partition size.

All of my USB HDs and fobs have only one partition, which is the size of the drive (space less the system overhead like for the FAT table).

I'm missing something - What's a partitioned file?

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

Longshadow wrote:

Nothing will accept a file larger than the partition size.

All of my USB HDs and fobs have only one partition, which is the size of the drive (space less the system overhead like for the FAT table).

I'm missing something - What's a partitioned file?

The USB sticks have a number of partitioned areas and will not hold any single file larger than that partition part. Even if there is a lot more room on the file. A right-click on the file will show
'format", and a click on that will give you a choice of how large you want to make the partitions. I always pick the largest which is no partitions

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

sodapop wrote:

The USB sticks have a number of partitioned areas and will not hold any single file larger than that partition part. Even if there is a lot more room on the file. A right-click on the file will show
'format", and a click on that will give you a choice of how large you want to make the partitions. I always pick the largest which is no partitions

You keep referencing "file", do you mean "drive"

sodapop Loc: Bel Air, MD

Longshadow wrote:

You keep referencing "file", do you mean "drive"

Yes, sorry

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

A "partition" precludes a logical drive.
If a device has two partitions, say a system disk, it will usually show up as something like C: and D:.
If a USB device only shows up as J: for example, last I knew it was one partition on the device.
I've never seen an off-the-shelf USB device as having more than one partition.

Soul Dr. Loc: Beautiful Shenandoah Valley

Longshadow wrote:

There's SO much USB stuff out there. (What's NOT USB anymore?)
I can't see it going away in the foreseeable future.
They've changed connector styles a few times over the years, but still USB.

(Don't forget NTFS format...

)

It's like the two blade plug on power cords. It ain't going away in the near future as far as I can see.
Like the old saying, if it's not broke don't try and fix it.

will

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Billbobboy42 wrote:

My two audio recorder/player decks states in owners manuals that USB drives must be fat32 formatted. For reference, I have a Brennan B3 and a Denon 3000R-MarkII. I am not technically advanced to understand the reasons for that specification. I just try to follow directions, which challenges me at times.

It's the way they wrote the storage interface (I/O program to the storage device), based on a certain file recording/management format/structure.
It cannot handle (accommodate) different filing structures.
Mostly being not forward compatible.

achesley Loc: SW Louisiana

I have a couple USB Mini drives that has all the music I play in my vehicle . Probably about a 1000 songs in around 9 different categories and it's only 1/4 full.