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PNY 16GB USB installer drives for $3.40

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trs96

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You'll get this price per drive when buying a 5 pack of these. Use one for each macOS version back to High Sierra.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M68GUP8/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

Then when macOS 12.0 comes out you'll still have a clean USB to try out that new version.

If you only need one USB drive then the cost is still an affordable $4.99 for a single drive.

I've always used PNY USBs with no problems as USB installers. Not fast in terms of read write speeds.
For USB installers though, it's not critical that they read/write at over 100 MB/s like some more expensive drives.


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The macOS 12 Monterey installer is just over 13 GB so any 16GB USB flash drive will work for your installer.

If you want something made of metal for longer life, then I'd suggest this Sandisk drive instead. $5.89 .

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00C9Q5PGM/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

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You'll get this price per drive when buying a 5 pack of these. Use one for each macOS version back to High Sierra.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01M68GUP8/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

Then when 12.0 comes out you'll still have a clean USB to try out that new version.

I've always used PNY USBs with no problems as USB installers.


View attachment 519257

Just checked them out. Look good. I can even buy from the US to the UK.:thumbup:

However they are listed on the UK site at £22.30 for 5.
:thumbup:
:thumbup:


Recently I bought Kingston 32GB drives - £4.80 each.

Kingston seem reliable too. My last purchase was a 16GB all-metal USB stick back in 2012. I was using it for extensive boot testing on my latest Hack. Still working if a little sllllooowwww!

:)
 
All of my PNY USBs have held up after many years of use. I've also bought low cost (no name) brands that have fallen apart or not ever worked correctly from the start. Learned that lesson long ago.

Today the market (on Amazon too) is flooded with off brand USB flash drives that are basically fakes. They don't have the stated capacity in GBs. Build quality is very poor too. Just search Amazon for the lowest prices on any size and you'll see what I'm talking about.
 
Here's the kind of drives to avoid. Off brand drives that still cost more than the above PNY models.
It's selling for only $2.32 for 16GB but they also charge over 2 USD for shipping. It does say it's
"High Quality" though so it must be well made. Not sure what U disk means. Brand is Gaweb ?
Not really a household name. Just something dumb they made up. No way you could get any
warranty support if it fails. Just ends up in a trash bin.

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When they still sell these MB sizes, you know this is really old flash
memory.

Here's some examples of forgeries. No company sells a genuine 2TB USB flash drive as it's impossible to fit that onto a thumb drive. Even if you could, there's no way you could sell 2TBs of flash storage at $23.25 per TB.

Screen Shot 11.jpg

A Quick Word on Fake 1TB Thumb Drives

“If it’s too good to be true, it probably is”.

This is a motto you’ll definitely want to have when looking at where to buy a genuine 1TB flash drive. There are unfortunately loads of fake products. And what’s more, some of these sellers are deceptive.

Take this one. Very cheap, tons of verified 5-star reviews, seems legit right? Well, the seller originally sold a 1GB flash drive on this listing, for which all of the positive reviews (2-10 years old) are referring to. Recently it was deceivingly changed to 1TB and is clearly well below the expected price (around $150-250). We’re sorry to say you’re not going to be getting the largest flash drive size for $50 for a long time.

Here's a Sabrent 2TB external SSD. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07ZWLYX5W/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

Costs about $280 USD. How could any co. put 2TB of storage on a flash drive, sell for under $50 and make any money on it ?

If you want the best price/performance 1TB USB flash drive, go for this Sandisk model at Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08GYPZ8GN/?tag=tonymacx86com-20

Has a real, lifetime limited warranty.
Lifetime limited manufacturer's warranty (30-years Germany and regions not recognizing lifetime limited)
 
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USB 3.0 Sandisk Cruzer drives are good too but you'll pay $10 more for the extra speed. These are the brand of drives I buy almost as often for flash drives.

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If you can get free shipping that's an awesome deal.

View attachment 519263

I've got Prime, but I suspect it doesn't reach that far. o_O

I was buying from Amazon US before Amazon UK opened. Great for books and videos. Never tried electronics. I suspect we'd have to pay VAT and import duty nowadays. Rip-off Britain even when you live here.:rolleyes:
 
Have you guys tried putting multiple macOS installers on a single USB flash drive? (i.e., have a single USB flash drive with High Sierra installer, Mavericks installer, Big Sur installer, etc).

Then you can have a single Clover for multiple systems in the EFI folder and have a single USB flash drive to do it all.
 
Have you guys tried putting multiple macOS installers on a single USB flash drive?
Not tried this. How to do it ? Are you using a 128GB USB for all the macOS versions ?
 
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