1 TB USB sticiks

[Jan Panteltje]

For about 75 Euro (is about the same in US dollars) I bought a 1 TB USB stick...
Very small thing, smaller than my thumb.

Interesting, put Linux ext4 filesystem on it and ran some tests,
sort of half expected it to be fake, but writing a 500 GB test file worked,
so spend some time using it to create backups so as to have something that
you can carry with you....
All of my website, email, code I wrote and one old CD after the other..
Write speed is slow, but read speed seems high enough for HD video.
And it fits in my Raspberry Pi4... or any recent Linux laptop.
http://panteltje.com/pub/1TB_USB_stick_closed_IXIMG_0927.JPG
http://panteltje.com/pub/1TB_USB_stick_open_IXIMG_0929.JPG
Old USB socket!

So also discovered all my CD-R I burned back in about 2002, so 21 years ago (for the mamaticians)
still read 100% and mostly at high speed on my LG M-Disc reader....
All optical media is stored in light proof alu box...

I mean I am used to high capacity, have 2 4 TB harddisks and 2 1 TB harddisks in use,
but those suck current, make a little noise too and are relatively big
and fragile (dropping is not good for drives),
but this is really small and you can drop it as often as you like...

Who needs cloud storage? carry it anywhere,
I have encrypted the USB stick with latest kwantuum particles of course...

Most suckers that find it will run MS windows, not sure that even recognizes ext4 filesystem?
Anyone know?

[Ed Lee]

Don't think so. I would put NTFS on it for both MS and Linux.

[John Larkin]

On Fri, 27 Jan 2023 17:31:18 GMT, Jan Panteltje <al...@comet.invalid>
wrote:

We use several-terabyte USB hard drives for backup, roughly $25 per
tbyte. I guess we could cut over to flash sticks and save some storage
volume. A full backup is just under a tB and creeps up over time as we
release more products.

Aren't the flash drives slower to write?

[John Walliker]

He doesn't want it to work in Windows!

John

[whit3rd]

On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 9:40:15 AM UTC-8, Ed Lee wrote:
> On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 9:35:28 AM UTC-8, Jan Panteltje wrote:
> > For about 75 Euro (is about the same in US dollars) I bought a 1 TB USB stick...
> > Very small thing, smaller than my thumb.
> >
> > Interesting, put Linux ext4 filesystem on it and ran some tests,

> > Most suckers that find it will run MS windows, not sure that even recognizes ext4 filesystem?
> > Anyone know?

> Don't think so. I would put NTFS on it for both MS and Linux.

NTFS was read-only on MacOS; not recommended for broad compatibility.
Apple redesigned HFS+ into APFS to accomodate big flash drives.
ext4 wasn't aimed at flash storage (has to be handled carefully according to
its erase/wear-out characteristics).
There are patents involved, too.
What's wanted, is an open (?ISO) file spec similar to the one on CDs etc. But, what
most flash media comes with, is FAT32 (which is out of patent, I hope?) or exFAT.

[Don Y]

NTFS (et al.) should be avoided for "portable" filesystems
(despite the fact that only FAT32 is really portable, nowadays).

While NTFS will support case sensitive file names, most of
the Windows tools won't. So, Makefile and makefile will
compete for whichever name happens to be created first, on
the medium. Ditto README, readme, ReadMe, etc.

Use NTFS if you created the file hierarchy under windows
and expect it to remain there. Think twice before trying
to migrate a hierarchy created elsewhere *to* NTFS!

Likewise, maximum path lengths are an issue with MS tools.
There are often workarounds but expecting a tool (e.g.,
a decompressor) to be able to build an arbitrary file hierarchy
at an arbitrary point *in* the file hierarchy is a recipe for
disappointment. I.e., create an archive with files from:
/some/really/deep/level/of/the/file/system/hierarchy/.../folder
and try to unpack it into:
/some/other/really/deep/level/of/the/file/system/hierarchy/.../folder

[This problem exists regardless as every file system walker has
limits on MAXPATHLEN]

As far as big thumbdrives are concerned? Wait until one quits because
it's not been sufficiently overprovisioned to handle the write-erase
cycles!

If you can tolerate the slower speeds of thumb drives, then a commercial
multiterabyte disk is a no-brainer (~8TB for $120 with sustained write
rates of 100+MB/s)

[Don Y]

On 1/27/2023 12:00 PM, whit3rd wrote:
> On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 9:40:15 AM UTC-8, Ed Lee wrote:
>> On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 9:35:28 AM UTC-8, Jan Panteltje wrote:
>>> For about 75 Euro (is about the same in US dollars) I bought a 1 TB USB stick...
>>> Very small thing, smaller than my thumb.
>>>
>>> Interesting, put Linux ext4 filesystem on it and ran some tests,
>
>>> Most suckers that find it will run MS windows, not sure that even recognizes ext4 filesystem?
>>> Anyone know?
>
>> Don't think so. I would put NTFS on it for both MS and Linux.
>
> NTFS was read-only on MacOS; not recommended for broad compatibility.

Ditto on NetBSD. OTOH, there are tools that will allow you to read
(mount?) UN*X filesystems under Windows.

Or, access them via a network share, HTTP/FTP server, etc.

[IIRC, Windows has some problems with their SMB implementation
that manifest when you try to hammer on a share -- like copying
a folder (and subfolders) with a few hundred thousand objects
to a new destination]

> Apple redesigned HFS+ into APFS to accomodate big flash drives.
> ext4 wasn't aimed at flash storage (has to be handled carefully according to
> its erase/wear-out characteristics).
> There are patents involved, too.
> What's wanted, is an open (?ISO) file spec similar to the one on CDs etc. But, what
> most flash media comes with, is FAT32 (which is out of patent, I hope?) or exFAT.

If you treat the medium as R/O, then I've found bundling disk (or
project) images into .ISOs to be an effective way to port them to
other platforms. It preserves case and trims pathlengths (a bit)
but still leaves you vulnerable to client file systems that don't
support the same character sets or preserve case.

VMDKs (and their ilk) are a possible alternative (though not as
widely supported).

[Ricky]

FAT32 has a 4 GB limit on file size, so I format all of my flash drives as exFAT... until I tried to print a file at a office supply store (don't recall which one). It would not read exFAT! WTF??? Talk about the lowest common denominator.

--

Rick C.

- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

[Carlos E.R.]

On 2023-01-27 21:27, Ricky wrote:
> On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 3:00:26 PM UTC-4, whit3rd wrote:
>> On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 9:40:15 AM UTC-8, Ed Lee wrote:
>>> On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 9:35:28 AM UTC-8, Jan Panteltje wrote:


>> What's wanted, is an open (?ISO) file spec similar to the one on CDs etc. But, what
>> most flash media comes with, is FAT32 (which is out of patent, I hope?) or exFAT.

There was a filesystem designed by the media manufacturers (I forgot its
name), which hasn't gained traction. There are problems because they
were still changing the specs and there is no way to know which exact
version the media you have in your hand is using.

> FAT32 has a 4 GB limit on file size, so I format all of my flash drives as exFAT... until I tried to print a file at a office supply store (don't recall which one). It would not read exFAT! WTF??? Talk about the lowest common denominator.

I have TV sets that do not read exFAT. And I may need big files there.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

[Sylvia Else]

These days I store important stuff, strongly encrypted, on Amazon, with
the advantage that it can be automated, and is off site, so I'm OK even
if the house burns down.

Sylvia.

Sylvia.

[John Walliker]

But will you still have the encryption key if that happens?

John

[Don Y]

On 1/27/2023 2:43 PM, Carlos E.R. wrote:
> I have TV sets that do not read exFAT. And I may need big files there.

Use the display as a monitor and put an external media server
in place for the stored content. Chances are, the TV won't keep
pace with changes in CODECs over the years, etc. but the
media server likely will (or can be made to, long after
the TV vendor stops supporting your model).

[Carlos E.R.]

I'm actually doing that. It is an old TV set, used with a new digital
tuner. The *new* digital tuner doesn't accept exFAT.

--
Cheers, Carlos.

[Ricky]

I recall a friend bought a video camera a few years back, and it would stop recording when the file reached 4 GB. LOL!

--

Rick C.

+ Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
+ Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

[Don Y]

On 1/27/2023 2:54 PM, Sylvia Else wrote:
> These days I store important stuff, strongly encrypted, on Amazon, with the
> advantage that it can be automated, and is off site, so I'm OK even if the
> house burns down.

I suspect that, if the house burns down, your files will likely be
the least of your concerns! Will you have the encryption key,
your account details and access to a secure machine to pull down
that content? (how soon?)

We keep thumbdrives with "essentials" on hand -- account numbers,
policy numbers, legal documents, etc. So, they can be accessed
as soon as needed. ("Gee, what was the policy number and contact
info for my homeowner's insurance?")

[Don Y]

It's just a matter of time for ALL consumer kit to "go out of date".
I use HDHomeRuns for tuners -- so not tied to a host computer's
hardware AND accessible "everywhere". And, the "recorder"/tank can
evolve without necessitating new tuner investments.

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Fri, 27 Jan 2023 09:40:10 -0800 (PST)) it happened Ed Lee
<edward....@gmail.com> wrote in
<40098d7b-8d95-42bb...@googlegroups.com>:

Good, that makes it more secure :-)
I have been thinking about how to encrypt it, one idea was to XOR every byte with the digits in PI
However I could not immediately find PI to 1,000,000,000,000,000 digits,
then thought about calculating that, but putah power and time .. went full circle so to speak...:-),
I publish here as I know you are a most reliable bunch and won't tell anyone..

Have some simpler ideas, will let you know, suggestions welcome too.
Wanted to put reiserfs on it, but mkreiserfs took very very long, so aborted that, not even sure it supports that size.

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Fri, 27 Jan 2023 19:04:23 -0700) it happened Don Y
<blocked...@foo.invalid> wrote in <tr1vrg$1ulct$1...@dont-email.me>:

Yes, HD pictures of all documents also on the USB stick.

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Fri, 27 Jan 2023 11:00:19 -0800 (PST)) it happened whit3rd
<whi...@gmail.com> wrote in
<5aeb50d5-fed2-4b66...@googlegroups.com>:

This one came with that latest Microsoft filesystem that allows big files
cannot remember the name exFAT?

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Fri, 27 Jan 2023 17:44:04 -0800 (PST)) it happened Ricky
<gnuarm.del...@gmail.com> wrote in
<fb6cc11b-c0d7-48e9...@googlegroups.com>:

My terrestrial and satellite receiver boxes will just start a new recording every 4 GB,
on playback it automatically moves to the next directory entry.
It does keep some control file per recording that regulates that.

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Sat, 28 Jan 2023 08:54:11 +1100) it happened Sylvia Else
<syl...@email.invalid> wrote in <k3ivg3...@mid.individual.net>:

Amazon, Microsoft, all US Big Brother reading everything.
If the house burns down I have this USB stick im my pocket....
:-)

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Fri, 27 Jan 2023 09:58:08 -0800) it happened John Larkin
<jla...@highlandSNIPMEtechnology.com> wrote in
<4j38th953mtiop5d0...@4ax.com>:

These are, I found some compare and tests at tomshardware.com
But this one was so cheap because of the slow write times,
But for writng date from CDs or Bluray and mainly storage use, this is just fine.
For a HD camera recording likely not.
The newer ones mostly seem to have those small USB connectors that fit into you smartphone.
Some also have memory buffers..

[Ricky]

I hope you are able to escape your burning home with pockets.

--

Rick C.

-- Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging
-- Tesla referral code - https://ts.la/richard11209

[Sylvia Else]

Since my data is encrypted before it's sent, good luck to Amazon reading it.

Sylvia.

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Sat, 28 Jan 2023 19:04:56 +1100) it happened Sylvia Else
<syl...@email.invalid> wrote in <k3k398...@mid.individual.net>:

Never underestimate the power of US decryption facilities.
But even then they likely see who you communicated with and when.
And where you was at any time from your cellphone
where and what you bought or sold from your bank.
All data sold to the highest bidder of course, to target you with advertising.

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Fri, 27 Jan 2023 23:53:54 -0800 (PST)) it happened Ricky
<gnuarm.del...@gmail.com> wrote in
<9bafa74c-693c-4f2c...@googlegroups.com>:

>> If the house burns down I have this USB stick in my pocket....

>> :-)
>
>I hope you are able to escape your burning home with pockets.

Long time ago I had training in how to handle fires, required with a studio full of artists.

In my upstairs bedroom I created an escape path, even some rope present to let yourself down
USB stick and some other stuff is close to me, fire detectors with alarms on each floor,
tool to open windows..
Downstairs exit is much easier.

But OK if a F35 lands on the house... but then 5 of those from here have just left for Poland
says the news... To help the US Military Industrial Complex make more money burning Ukrainian and Russian lives.

So less F35, more quiet (its a noisy piece of crap, noisy is a sigh of a bad design).

By the time the nukes fall well hide under the table..
?

[Carlos E.R.]

And where do you keep the encryption key and software? :-D

If it is strong encryption, they key has to be big, so not to be kept in
neurones based memory :-DD

--
Cheers, Carlos.

[Jan Panteltje]

On a sunny day (Sat, 28 Jan 2023 02:29:10 +0100) it happened "Carlos E.R."
<robin_...@es.invalid> wrote in <6caeajx...@Telcontar.valinor>:

>If it is strong encryption, they key has to be big, so not to be kept in
>neurones based memory :-DD

Right
I have been using Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
for all my accounts
Cannot remember how to spell it either, but google always finds it...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

None of the auto-bots has tried it yet according to my logs.

So I am safe!

[Joe Gwinn]

On Sat, 28 Jan 2023 19:04:56 +1100, Sylvia Else <syl...@email.invalid>
wrote:

I would also worry about Amazon (or Google) losing the data in an IT
incident. It does happen.

So I'd retain a physical copy on an encrypted thumb drive or the like.
Or have two cloud backup providers. On different continents maybe?

Joe Gwinn

[Joe Gwinn]

Not necessarily. The current approach is to use a very long
passphrase that is easily remembered because it isn't a long string of
random letters.

Being long enough eliminates the need to be complex or random.

MS BitLocker works that way; I assume their competitors do as well.

.<https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/information-protection/bitlocker/bitlocker-device-encryption-overview-windows-10>

Joe Gwinn

[Don Y]

How many of these do you "commit to memory"? And, how good will that
memory be in times of stress?

"Strong secrets" really only work if you don't have many of them.
(because you don't want to reuse ANY of them).

Otherwise, you have to start jotting them down, somewhere.

[whit3rd]

On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 10:43:25 PM UTC-8, Jan Panteltje wrote:
> On a sunny day (Fri, 27 Jan 2023 09:40:10 -0800 (PST)) it happened Ed Lee
> <edward....@gmail.com> wrote in
> <40098d7b-8d95-42bb...@googlegroups.com>:
> >On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 9:35:28 AM UTC-8, Jan Panteltje wrote:

> >> I have encrypted the USB stick with latest kwantuum particles of course...

> I have been thinking about how to encrypt it, one idea was to XOR every byte with the digits in PI
> However I could not immediately find PI to 1,000,000,000,000,000 digits,
> then thought about calculating that, but putah power and time .. went full circle so to speak...:-),

If you compress files first (to increase the info concentration) then XOR,
there won't be as much tolerance; one bit wrong in your XOR standard, though,
will clobber the compression.
To get long multibyte randoms, an old UHF receiver tuned to static will
video-capture a nice hash; a non-repeatable 'seed' to fit a DVD-ROM can
be replicated, and copies kept in multiple sites... and if you don't store
all the instructions for use in the same place, decryption by passers-by is unlikely.

[Don Y]

On 1/28/2023 11:51 AM, whit3rd wrote:
> On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 10:43:25 PM UTC-8, Jan Panteltje wrote:
>> On a sunny day (Fri, 27 Jan 2023 09:40:10 -0800 (PST)) it happened Ed Lee
>> <edward....@gmail.com> wrote in
>> <40098d7b-8d95-42bb...@googlegroups.com>:
>>> On Friday, January 27, 2023 at 9:35:28 AM UTC-8, Jan Panteltje wrote:
>
>>>> I have encrypted the USB stick with latest kwantuum particles of course...
>
>> I have been thinking about how to encrypt it, one idea was to XOR every byte with the digits in PI
>> However I could not immediately find PI to 1,000,000,000,000,000 digits,
>> then thought about calculating that, but putah power and time .. went full circle so to speak...:-),
>
> If you compress files first (to increase the info concentration) then XOR,
> there won't be as much tolerance; one bit wrong in your XOR standard, though,
> will clobber the compression.

Store ISOs and the hashes of their contents. So, if the ISO structure is
munged, you can (potentially) retrieve the individual files within.

My archive takes this approach -- storing hashes of every file in
a separate RDBMS. This allows a script to routinely "patrol" the
archive and verify the contents are 1) accessible and 2) not corrupt.

Additionally, it allows for the rapid identification of likely
duplicates of files (helpful if a file is found to be inaccessible
or corrupt).

(most) Compression leaves you more vulnerable to data loss for small errors.

And, given the storage densities available, today ($/byte), it's almost
a silly exercise.

> To get long multibyte randoms, an old UHF receiver tuned to static will
> video-capture a nice hash; a non-repeatable 'seed' to fit a DVD-ROM can
> be replicated, and copies kept in multiple sites... and if you don't store
> all the instructions for use in the same place, decryption by passers-by is unlikely.

This is the equivalent of a one-time pad. Wonderful at concealing
the contents. But, usually adds considerably to the storage requirement
(for the pad, itself)