Updated Oct-03-08

I thought I'd post a thread regarding flash drives as it seems people don't quite understand all the nitty gritty about them.

Capacity
You get home with your shiny new 8GB flash drive, plug it in and notice that it only has 7.67GB of capacity. What gives? It's all math! There's 1024 bytes per kilobyte, 1024 kilobytes per megabyte, 1024 megabytes per gigabyte. 1GB isn't 1,000,000,000 bytes, it's 931,322,574 bytes. Don't worry, it's not just you and you're not being gypped.

It doesn't matter what capacity you buy but remember that you'll always pay more to be on the "bleeding edge". As of this writing, 32GB is the largest drive on the shelf, but it will cost you around the $130 mark to have that much storage in your pocket. A 16GB drive will set you back $50-70. 8GB and 4GB drives are in the $25-40 and $15-30 ranges respectively. If you're talking bang-for-your-buck averages:

$4.00/GB for a 32GB stick
$3.75/GB for a 16GB stick
$4.00/GB for a 8GB stick
$5.50/GB for a 4GB stick

You can see that they're close but your best bet is a 16GB stick - but remember that's the average. At the top end of the 16GB spectrum, you could pay $90 (which works out to $5.63/GB), but that won't necessarily net you the best drive.

Speed
Many manufacturers test their drives with one large file which skews the results since an operating system can handle one large file faster than many small files. There's also a difference between continuous (sequential) reading/writing and scattered random reading/writing.

As DJs, we transfer multiple folders with files in the 3-15MB range (typical sizes for 320k MP3s). The good thing is a drive's speed won't play much part of the actual DJing process. Why is this?

A 320k MP3 streams data at 320Kb per second (note the small b - that's for BITS). That's 40KB/s (note the large B - that's for BYTES and there's 8 bits per byte), far below the USB1.1 standard of 12MB/s.

The key for a high-speed drive is in the amount of time it takes you to load-up the drive with new music.

Extras
U3, ReadyBoost, SecureStore, etc... these are ALL UNNECESSARY! Encryption software is totally undesirable for DJ purposes and auto-encrypting drives are only going to be more expensive and give you the potential for problems. U3 drives are bad news because they create a virtual partition. Do away with it right away. Go here to get a U3 removal utility specifically designed for your brand of drive. The only good thing to say about ReadyBoost is those devices are typically a bit faster than the rest of the pack.

File Format
No matter what format your drive arrives in, FAT32 is your best bet because it will work with both Mac and PC machines. If it's a new drive, format the thing using a FULL FORMAT (not the "Quick" variety) and do it TWICE. This will help dodge problems down the road.

Housing
Metal, plastic, rubber, waterproof, impact-resistant, folding, no-LED, an LED you could use to land airplanes or blind assailants... there are endless choices as to the housing for the USB drive.

While it doesn't really matter what the memory itself is encased within, you should probably get something durable enough to withstand the rigors of DJ use. Let's face it, we're rough with the gear and no matter how hard we try, something's bound to break.

Having used several different types of drives, I would avoid anything with a retractable USB connector as well as smaller, flimsy housings.

Freebies
We all love freebies but the free flash drives handed out (by what seems like almost anyone these days) are typically garbage. They're meant to be cheap to keep costs low, they're not performance units. Use them for personal stuff, not for DJing (unless you give them out with your mix stored on it, but even then the recipient could just erase it without even listening!). Personally, I keep a couple around with various firmwares stored within for updating or re-flashing hardware while out and about. Perhaps a backup copy of your DJ software or even some PortableApps for working with your own programs and data on the road without your own computer!

Drive Reviews
As I said above, I've used plenty of flash drives so here's a quick review and benchmark of several flash drives I had kicking around.



A) Maxell generic promotional drive (512MB)
- Average Read Speed: 10MB/s (link to graph)
- Status indicator: Ugly green LED
- Retractable USB connector (bleh)

B) Generic promotional drive (Avery labels) (256MB)
- Average Read Speed: 4.8MB/s (link to graph)
- Status indicator: Tiny ugly green LED
- Flip-style cover - nice that it can't be lost but I don't like the pocket clip so much, plus it had a hideous Avery logo on it so I took a Sharpie to the whole thing.

C) Patriot XT (8GB)
- Average Read Speed: 28.6MB/s Fastest of the bunch in real-world testing too! (link to graph)
- Status indicator: Tiny inoffensive blue LED
- Awesome rubber housing but I was disappointed that the lanyard loop is only rubber and not rubberized metal connected to the drive itself. Rubber end-cap.

>> UPDATE >> I have to point out that this unit has one serious flaw and that's the build itself. The rubber housing sits outside a plastic shell which encases the electronic components. If you should be as stupid as I am and accidentally pull the lanyard and the housing of the flash drive away from the computer while diving to answer the phone, you may end up doing what I did which is to tear the outer casing completely off the innards and breaking the USB connector from the circuitboard in the process. Yes, I wrecked this flash drive by accident and I'm not proud of it. Yes, it had data on it but I will be able to recover it by re-soldering the connections, but it will be retired immediately following that. It is with regret that I lower my opinion of this drive -- my current picks are the OCZ drives (all metal enclosure) and the Corsair Survivor.

D) SanDisk Cruzer Mini (512MB)
- Average Read Speed: 15.1MB/s (link to graph)
- Status indicator: Ugly green LED at the end of the unit
- Simple, came with 3 plastic end-caps so I can always replace it.

E) OCZ Rally (512MB)
- Average Read Speed: 28.5MB/s (link to graph)
- Status indicator: Inoffensive blue LED at the end of the unit.
- Metal housing takes a beating (as mine has), a very solid unit. Metal end-cap.

F) OCZ Rally2 (4GB)
- Average Read Speed: 27.7MB/s (link to graph)
- Status indicator: A freaking LIGHTHOUSE-power orange LED at the end of the unit - I wish it weren't so bright.
- Metal housing looks as solid as my old Rally unit. Metal end-cap.

G) Pioneer generic promotional drive (1GB)
- Average Read Speed: 13.9MB/s (link to graph)
- Status Indicator: A little red LED which is hard to see on off-angles.
- Metal swivel cover and rubber housing is decent, loop isn't big enough for a key-ring though.

H) Lexar JumpDrive Firefly (4GB)
- Average Read Speed: 11.8MB/s (link to graph)
- Status Indicator: The entire end of the unit lights up blue, verges on annoying but not too bad.
- Plastic housing with a removable plastic cap. The lanyard loop is on the cap which I find a bit useless. It's a tiny little unit but the performance is lacking.

I) OCZ Roadster (1GB)
- Average Read Speed: 10.0MB/s (link to graph)
- Status Indicator: None
- This unit is so tiny that the entire drive is barely larger than the USB connector! It's the kind you NEED a lanyard on so you won't lose it. It's too bad the performance isn't as cool as the size of this minute drive.

J) SanDisk SD Card (1GB) in generic reader
- Average Read Speed: 6.4MB/s (link to graph)
- Status Indicator: Depends on the reader, mine has a little green LED
- I don't think this is really a great solution but I figured I'd test this out as someone would be bound to try it. As a standard SD card, it's not tremendous for speed but you can certainly get higher-end cards.

K) Corsair Survivor (16GB) [Not Pictured]
- Average Read Speed: 20.3MB/s (link to graph)
- Status Indicator: A little blue LED just below the threads for the cap.
- This unit is supposed to be one of the toughest on the market. When encased in its outer "armor", the drive is water resistant to 200M, drop-proof (I think that means it won't be affected by any impacts) and even carries a warranty which will last longer than the usefulness of the drive itself - 10 years. When the sleeve is over the drive, it's big and heavy, I won't deny that, but it also does really seem to be durable and rugged. I'd feel confident having my data on this drive provided the lid is on tight. The speed isn't too shabby so it was well worth the sale price.

Closing Comments

I'm sure others would appreciate your own reviews in addition to mine. If you want to benchmark your own drives and provide information and feedback similar to what I've done, you can download theenchmarking software here and post a reply!

<update 2008-12-23> I just found a FANTASTIC review by TestFreaks, it reviews 21 drives and shows them with much better speed comparison charts than my tests do. Check out the test results here.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Pulse,

hi

really useful info. just wondering though, does the 40GB Lacie USB key qualify as a 'flash drive', or does the high capacity mean that it might run into similar power consumption problems as USB powered hard drives? there's just not enough space on a flash for all my music files, but i'm trying to avoid two extra plugs and adding extra meesiness to my setup by using two mains-powered hard drives.

cool gadget all the same:
http://www.lacie.com/ie/products/product.htm?pid=11039

cheers

steve

I wouldn't get it - that is an external hard drive. It's got a 3600RPM platter = low speed = slow seek times = problems later.

Get at least a 5400RPM external drive (for the small size), 7200RPM for the large ones.

timely advice, i was about to enter a max bid on ebay for one of these, i'll hold off now :-) great advice on the necessary rpm and stuff too, really helpful and much appreciated...i know what i'm looking for now.

cheers

steve

...been looking at Lacie and WD (Western Digital) drives as these ones have been given the thumbs-up for use with CDJ400s on this forum....but i can't seem to find any running higher than 5400rpm. i have a fairly large mp3 music collection, about 15GB or so, so i guess 7200 would be best. both the lacie 'rugged' drive - which is the cool-looking one with orange ribber round it - and the WD 'passport' can run off mains power supplies (sold seperately), but so far as i can can see all of the lacie drives are 5400rpm! not sure what the rpm is on the WD passport yest though, gotta do more digging. pulse, do you know of or can you recommend any 7200rpm drives that will run off mains power.

i'll keep digging and post any relevent findings as i get 'em, i'm sure other headz are looking storage and access to music collections larger than that offered by smaller capacity flash drives...

cheers

sk

ok, answering my own questions a bit here, but if anyone else is looking for a 7200rpm drive with mains power supply then check the western digital 'elements' range,

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=325&language=en

cheers

sk

hi

i came across a 16gb sony microvault flash drive - details at http://www.elara.ie/products/detailsfull.asp?productcode=ECE1553350 - and just wondered if anyone has come across these and/or used them with a cdj400?

i'm also looking into the possibility of getting a SD/MMC card reader and slotting in a 16gb SD card. i noticed that there is a card reader in the reviewed products on this page but i just wondered if 16gb might be a bit much and might lead to ridiculously long read times. again any advice or input at all would be very much appreciated as i'd love to have access to at least 16gb of stored music without having to mes about with powered external hard drives, extra stuff to carry to gigs, even more power leads etc etc etc

cheers all

steve k

16GB should be no problem but what I'd expect to be the issue is cost. It seems that highspeed SD cards are more expensive than comparable size USB flash drives.

I haven't tested out the CDJ400 with any of the HC (high capacity) rated SD cards but I would assume it would work without any issue.

Hi,

I wouldn't bet on using a 16GB drive. Whether it's a USB-stick of cardreader, the only thing I read is that the size of the FAT-table is too big for the CDJ-400.

My CDJ-400 is busy for about almost 10 minutes only reading a 4GB stick.
This weekend I will try a 2GB stick.

Couldn't this problem be solved by a firmware update??
I'm reading a lot of forums where people have these "problems"....

Greetzz

Teon

As I said above, a 16GB drive will work without issue, and no, the FAT-table isn't too big since you format at FAT32, same as hard drives (and we've used large FAT32 formatted HDs without issue).

The "problems" are usually people storing more than 100 tracks in a single folder. As far as I'm concerned, that's bad file management. This will cause the device to load slower than anything else, including slow read/write speeds inherent in the device (flash drive) itself.

hi

great advice on the flash drives...i bought a patriot xt stick (16gb), did a full format (twice, as suggested), checked that none of my folders held more than 100 files (as suggested) - averaged about 40 or 50 files in each folder - and finally made sure i had a fairly simple two-level folder structure organised by year and then artist name...dumped just over 14gb of tunes on the stick (in one go) and the cdj400 read it in less than a minute with tracks loading just as quickly as they would from an mp3 cd-r (faster actually). excellent...i can now spend more time mixing and less time fumbling around in my slappa case for cd-r discs :-)

many thnaks for the advice...two full formats (FAT32), less than 100 files in each folder, simple-as-possible folder structure...sorted! second partriot stick already ordered and in the post (it would be nice if two cdj400 units could share the same memory stick or drive though...minor gripe though becuase other than that they are cool as :-)

peace and beats

sk

Great to hear - thanks for posting.

:-) no worries, thanks for helping!!!

sk

ps can we have a cdj1000 with usb connectivity and controller capbilities now please mr. pioneer? ah g'won, please...maybe a mini-plasma display too....hmmmmm....

skinzi is totally right!
I WAS kind of getting crazy with the USB-stick, but I changed the number of songs in 1 dir from over 200 to less then 100, and that worked!

Sharing of 1 USB-drive would be VERY cool!

BTW: Is connecting a drive to the USB-connector on the back of the player supported???

No - the rear connector is for the host connection, not a device connection.

Pulse, can you give me some info on how long it takes for USB keys of various sizes to load on the CDJ400? Like 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16GB filled with mp3 files?

Thanks in advance

peace, Ari

It all relates to the number of MP3 files you have on the drive and how you've sorted them.

A full 1GB drive with all the files in 1 folder will load a helluva lot slower than a full 8GB drive with files split into various folders.

Ok, can you give me a best and worst case sceneario? If you have it all properly sorted, not too many files in each folder, how long would for example an 8GB stick take to load? I just wanna get a basic feeling for what kind of time we're talking about. Thanks.

peace, Ari

8GB full is around 12s.

Updated the original post:

- Added Drive K (Corsair Survivor) to the test list
- Updated my comments for Drive C (Patriot XT)