Question CrystalDiskMark related questions

[tablespoon]

Hello, I used CrystalDiskMark to obtain data about performance of some USB flash drives. I went to its website but couldn't find any information on how to interpret the data. When comparing performance of flash drives, which of those eight numbers are more important and should be used as basis for comparison?

Also, is it better to keep at defaults of 5 and 1GiB? What do they mean?

 

[Tech Junky]

5/tests
1gb file size

Overall numbers matter. Depends on what you're doing with the flash drives I which numbers are more important. Top two lines of you're copying data all different the time. Bottom two of they're all small files.

 

[tablespoon]

What about the case of running OS directly from the flash drive and needing to do fast read/write text data files? In these two cases, which numbers are important?

 

[mxnerd]

Use ATTO benchmark, you get a better picture of performance of your drive.

4K read/write performance is the most important number.

A cheap USB flash won't suffice, Windows 10 to Go installation (I use Rufus) almost killed my 64G Kingston Data Traveler (I have to reformat the drive to get speed back a bit). It took almost 15 minutes to boot. YMMY, test yourself.

Use SSD or NVME in a mobile enclosure or buy superfast and super expensive flash drive. Even a 2.5" mobile HDD performs better than cheap flash drive. And be noted, a flash drive usually have a very short life span, Windows's constant read/write will destroy the drive in no time. Jus don't use a flash drive, period.

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Found a similar Superuser post

Slow speed of a 64GB USB flash when using Windows To Go

I would like to install Windows on a 64GB USB flash drive, with Rufus, and using windows To Go. I already did this with an other key, a SanDisk key of 32GB, USB 3.0. On this "small" key, the OS is

superuser.com

 

[Tech Junky]

For booting and running an os it depends on which one. Linux will run off a $10 drive because it loads to ram. Windows needs more speed and to appear as an internal drive or it will bsod. I can run windows using a TB enclosure and nvme though. Might cost about $200 to put together but it will do it if you have TB on the system.