Well, small number statistics - not like I've tested dozens (or even half that), and many brands I've not had experience with. But within my very limited sample set:
All those that have failed have been effectively "no name" freebies from trade shows and other giveaway events - all handed (or sent) out by some (non flash manufacturer/seller) vendor, though some lasted an impressive number of years with rather regular use, but others failed in well under 2 years use - even with more moderate write usage. Of those "no name", none of them had actual USB flash manufacturer/seller printed on them. As for the USB data, some had valid vendor IDs for vendors I'd generally never heard of (or branding of a computer store chain), or an invalid vendor value (e.g. all bits clear, or all bits set). Some of 'em also had USB serial numbers of all zeros (all bits clear) - whereas those are supposed to be unique - at least per vendor and product ID (effective make and model).
Brands -not necessarily at all "best", but if we (wildly) extrapolate from my very limited statistics - essentially I've got zero failures on these, and from largest quantity of units to least, and perhaps with a bit of bias on more writes to less, top down, have at least approximately: SanDisk Kingston Technology PNY Lexar and omitting some that may be as good or better, but have qty. 1 and have thus far received rather to quite light write usage, and some of those listed above towards the bottom only have qty. 1 - but have received at least some fair and regular or semi-regular write usage over some years or more without issue.
Perhaps someone knows of good reliable site that's well tested and rated USB flash on reliability? ... I wasn't able to find such with at least a few quick searches. I have seen such reports at least for some SSD units/brands tested - but that may not necessarily correlate to USB flash. Others may have experiences quite different than mine.
From: "Christian Einfeldt" einfeldt@gmail.com Subject: Re: [BALUG-Talk] Flash drives for Lubuntu 14.04 4 bit Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2017 19:13:13 -0700
Hi,
Thanks, Michael. Yes, 64 bit. Just a typo.
Do you have any brand names that you recommend for heavy writes / rewrites? Thanks again.
On Thu, Jul 27, 2017 at 6:50 PM, Michael Paoli < Michael.Paoli@cal.berkeley.edu> wrote:
Most flash drive should work "fine", or well enough, at least if I'm guestimating the intended Lubuntu usage correctly. At least with what I've seen on most failures, it's typically been lower quality flash media, with a fair amount to fairly heavy writes/rewrites. I think failures are more rare when typical usage is read-mostly - and I'm presuming that would be the case for your Lubuntu usage? Would I be correct in presuming ISO images to boot from on USB, and only occasionally updating the image on the USB flash? If so, the overwhelming majority of USB flash out there should work quite well enough for that.
For more regular writes/rewrites, reasonably good quality does seem to matter. And that doesn't always strongly correlate to price, but there's typically at least some fair degree of correlation. Basically, for heavier use - especially lots of writes/rewrites, usually decent name brand stuff works longer and more reliably than cheap no-name/off-brand stuff.
Your mileage may vary, but that's been my general experience.
Also, if one watches sales 'n such, can often get 20% to 30% or more off, at least once in a while - at least for physical stores ... on-line "deals"/sales, may not dip as much in price.
4 bit ... I presume 64 bit?
From: "Christian Einfeldt" einfeldt@gmail.com
Subject: [BALUG-Talk] Flash drives for Lubuntu 14.04 4 bit Date: Thu, 27 Jul 2017 18:26:01 -0700
Does anyone have any recommendations / precautions about which flash drives
to use or to avoid for Lubuntu 14.04? I am assuming that pretty much any flash drive will work. I have never had any problems, but I just wanted to check to make sure. Thanks!