Looking for a nice flash drive to do encrypted back-ups on it?

[Fking]

I'm tired of external HDDs, i'm thinking about getting 32 or 64GB flash drive and doing my back-ups on it.
But since i don't know much about them, have few questions

1 - How does the encryption work? I see that some advertise that they support encryption other doesn't mention anything. Does that mean that some have hardware support (and how does it work) for encryption? And for the others you will have to count on software and do it much slower?

2 - What software you would recommend for automating the back-ups as much as possible. For example auto back-up upon insertion of the drive of pre-selected folders would be great! Encrypted of course

3 - Can you split in couple of partitions (encrypted and not) any drive or you need to get specific one supporting it?


4 - Can you recommend a specific model that's small enough to fit comfortable on a key chain but is 32 or more GBs and good enough for the tasks?


Thanks

 

[King X13]

Use any flash drive plus this TrueCrypt - Free Open-Source On-The-Fly Disk Encryption Software for Windows 7/Vista/XP, Mac OS X and Linux Its FREE.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

I'd be extremely wary about using a flash drive for backups, larger units are notoriously easy to corrupt.

 

[Fking]

I'd be extremely wary about using a flash drive for backups, larger units are notoriously easy to corrupt.

I wasn't aware of that. Would you share more info about it?


What about the high end ones like the Lacie SSD, which is supposed to be just like SSD hard drive, just in the form factor of a thumb drive?
LaCie is the premier manufacturer of high quality digital storage.

Too bad, it won't fit on a keychain though (not that it will be smart to carry few hundred $ thumb drive on a keychain anyway )

 

[MindoverMaster]

Get a 2.5" external. It's better than those fat things. They normally do not need external power, just USB.

I have a 2.5" SSD in this IcyDock:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...8040&cm_re=icydock_2.5-_-17-198-040-_-Product

I reviewed it on TF, here, as well.
http://www.techist.com/forums/f37/icy-dock-240437/

Just a suggestion.

 

[King X13]

I'd be extremely wary about using a flash drive for backups, larger units are notoriously easy to corrupt.

Notoriously easy is a bit... is a great exaggeration. I've been using flash drives of 16, 32 and 64 gigs... on my car key chain. Banged around and everything where I go and have never had a problem with corrupt data. It does happen... I've seen it happen. I've seen it since there were 256 meg thumb drives so its not related to the space. Its like saying a hard drive goes bad... or a motherboard. Things happen, things go bad. But notorious is a bit strong of a word for something that is in the end very well reliable.

FYI I have had every type of backup media go bad and get corrupt... even tape drives. Nothing is 100%. If that data is crucial, you will want to backup your backup.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Ok lol, I'll downgrade 'notoriously easy' to 'much easier than a 2.5" external drive'. Flash drives are more susceptible to sudden failure than external disks, and when they do fail it's harder to get the data off them as well. If you get a faulty USB port, it's gonna fry the flash drive. External drives will also usually tolerate bigger variances in power, thanks to the extra space available to the PCB designers that the 2.5" form factor gives.
Even then, all you have to do to fix the thing most times is swap the case or plug the drive in internally to access the data again.

 

[JoshSB]

Much easier than a 2.5 external drive?

Are you kidding me?

Hard drives have movable parts, platters etc. A flash drive is just that, a flash drive, solid state memory.

I want you to cite your claim that the movable drive is more reliable than a solid state drive, because I call bullcrap.

I will agree if you have a faulty motherboard that gives out power fluctuations then yeah it may help out some, but it doesn't lower the total reliability of the drives.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Hard drives have lifespans usually over 10 years. Heck, I've got some IDE drives in a RAID here that've been working nearly 24/7 for 8 years and they're only now starting to fail.
On the contrary, reading and writing to a flash drive that much would cause it to give out a **** of a lot faster than 8 years. I doubt it'd even last a year. So yes, I'm saying a movable drive is more reliable than a flash drive.

A traditional hard disk is also less likely to outright fail like a flash drive will, I'm sure you don't need me to prove that. Google around, or get some experience yourself helping other people with hard drive/flash drive problems. Most people who bring in a broken hard drive usually knocked it off the desk while it was being read/written to, and even then I can get the data off easy. People who bring in a flash drive often just say it 'just stopped working', and it's often impossible to get the data off without some serious hardware hacks.

I'm not about to put any important backups on a usb stick, total catastrophic failure for no apparent reason doesn't sit well with me most times...

 

[Fking]

ok what about the solid state hard drives which are the "thing" right now? Aren't they reliable?

as far as i know flash drives use the same technology, just the NAND flash chip has less channels 1 or 2 while the solid state drives have 8,12 channels or so.
And there are solid state flash drives out there now, which are basicly solid state drive just in a flash drive form factor and connecting via USB 3.0 instead of the SATA interface.
For example the Lacie fastkey SSD usb 3.0 flash drive which i've linked to above

what about those as reliability? Don't you get the best from both worlds?

I'm not argueing here, just asking, cause that seems like the ultra best solution for me right now.
Super fast, super mobile 120gb solid stade drive in a flash drive form factor, the only "minus" is it's price, about $500