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1. Embed this notice
   Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag: (ryanc@infosec.exchange)'s status on Sunday, 26-Jan-2025 17:18:30 JST Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag:

   The USB flash drive that I'm using for the root file system on my router is definitely fucked... yet still usable-ish?

   I wonder whether it's counterfeit or if sandisk is just 💩 now.

   • Embed this notice
     Rich Felker (dalias@hachyderm.io)'s status on Sunday, 26-Jan-2025 17:29:19 JST Rich Felker

     in reply to

     @ryanc Can you distinguish if it's corruption at the fs layer (contents) or media layer (ability to reliably read back sectors)?

   • Embed this notice
     Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag: (ryanc@infosec.exchange)'s status on Sunday, 26-Jan-2025 18:10:40 JST Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag:

     in reply to

     • Rich Felker

     @dalias Media layer, bad sectors. Some of them were seemingly remapped by the controller after dding zero bytes.

   • Embed this notice
     A B (ab78702@fosstodon.org)'s status on Sunday, 26-Jan-2025 18:11:34 JST A B

     in reply to

     @ryanc sandisk has definitely gone fecal wrt quality, ime - i stay far away from them now.

   • Embed this notice
     Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag: (ryanc@infosec.exchange)'s status on Sunday, 26-Jan-2025 18:11:34 JST Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag:

     in reply to

     • A B

     @ab78702 Any recommendations for ones in the "low profile" form factor? It needs be plugged into a vertical USB port on the motherboard in a 1U case.

   • Embed this notice
     Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag: (ryanc@infosec.exchange)'s status on Sunday, 26-Jan-2025 18:14:53 JST Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag:

     in reply to

     • Rich Felker

     @dalias I am vaguely recalling buying a three pack and one of them failing a "write with pseudorandom and read back" test right away, but I think I was short on time or something.

   • Embed this notice
     A B (ab78702@fosstodon.org)'s status on Sunday, 26-Jan-2025 18:32:25 JST A B

     in reply to

     @ryanc for most things that are not space constrained, i've moved to crucial pro nvme usbc drives so i don't have a good recommendation from personal experience but my prior read of user reviews and discussions makes me more comfortable recommending samsung for your specific requirement for this application.

   • Embed this notice
     Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag: (ryanc@infosec.exchange)'s status on Sunday, 26-Jan-2025 18:32:25 JST Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag:

     in reply to

     • A B

     @ab78702 I'm not sure there's enough space for the samsung fit plus :-/

   • Embed this notice
     Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag: (ryanc@infosec.exchange)'s status on Sunday, 26-Jan-2025 18:33:56 JST Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag:

     in reply to

     • A B

     @ab78702 the best option would probably be to just stick a sata ssd in there, but i don't have the mounting hardware for one

   • Embed this notice
     Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag: (ryanc@infosec.exchange)'s status on Sunday, 26-Jan-2025 18:36:22 JST Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag:

     in reply to

     • A B

     @ab78702 regardless, i am gonna have to unrack the sucker and it doesn't have rails so that's going to be a pain in the arse

   • Embed this notice
     A B (ab78702@fosstodon.org)'s status on Sunday, 26-Jan-2025 18:44:07 JST A B

     in reply to

     @ryanc ah, I see why - the big plastic key ring slot on there vs the slimmer end of a sandisk ultra fit?

   • Embed this notice
     Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag: (ryanc@infosec.exchange)'s status on Sunday, 26-Jan-2025 18:44:07 JST Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag:

     in reply to

     • A B

     @ab78702 yeah

   • Embed this notice
     A B (ab78702@fosstodon.org)'s status on Sunday, 26-Jan-2025 18:46:19 JST A B

     in reply to

     @ryanc would a nvme usbc like the crucial x9 pro or similar fit assuming the short cable makes placement somewhat flexible? they are expensive though compared to usb low profile drives. also double checking: it has to be usba and not usbc?

   • Embed this notice
     Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag: (ryanc@infosec.exchange)'s status on Sunday, 26-Jan-2025 18:46:19 JST Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag:

     in reply to

     • A B

     @ab78702 USB-A, yeah. I have several unused SATA SSDs, so USB NVMe doesn't make much sense.

   • Embed this notice
     Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag: (ryanc@infosec.exchange)'s status on Sunday, 26-Jan-2025 23:53:46 JST Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag:

     in reply to

     • A B

     @ab78702 the motherboard has sata ports

   • Embed this notice
     A B (ab78702@fosstodon.org)'s status on Sunday, 26-Jan-2025 23:53:47 JST A B

     in reply to

     @ryanc i guess a usba to sata adapter with cable would be it then? it seems the market for usb sticks is dying - my quick peruse of amz just showed sandisk, samsung, pny (have avoided them since 2015 due to their tendency to fail read-only), and kingston (not sure how they are nowadays).

   • Embed this notice
     Stephen Hoffman (hoffmanlabs@infosec.exchange)'s status on Monday, 27-Jan-2025 10:24:58 JST Stephen Hoffman

     in reply to

     @ryanc May well be familiar to many, but there are tools to check for flash drives reporting counterfeit capacities.

     One of various:

     https://fight-flash-fraud.readthedocs.io/en/latest/introduction.html

   • Embed this notice
     Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag: (ryanc@infosec.exchange)'s status on Monday, 27-Jan-2025 21:18:02 JST Ryan Castellucci :nonbinary_flag:

     in reply to

     • Graham Sutherland / Polynomial

     @gsuberland Seems really odd, given that I expect the main issue to be total writes.

   • Embed this notice
     Graham Sutherland / Polynomial (gsuberland@chaos.social)'s status on Monday, 27-Jan-2025 21:18:04 JST Graham Sutherland / Polynomial

     in reply to

     @ryanc USB stick vendors mostly seem to be optimising for occasional large writes these days. so copying some documents, photos, music, movies, etc. once a day will be fine, but a few hundred small writes a day utterly murders them. I'm guessing the write wear levelling is tuned super hard the other way because flash yields are crap otherwise.