USB sticks and USB SSDs reach 2 GB/s – at least the fast ones. We tested eleven models from 1 TByte and talk about their differences and the various USB and Thunderbolt interfaces – and whether it is still worth installing surplus old SSDs in USB cases. In the second part of the podcast we give tips on what to do if a hard drive or SSD – internal and external – fails, what you can do yourself and when a professional data rescuer could get even more out of it.
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c’t editor Lutz Labs introduces the USB sticks and USB SSDs and explains the differences between the technologies. We’re talking about interfaces and their speeds: USB 3, USB 3.2, USB4, Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4 – what happens when you don’t know exactly what your PC or laptop says. Instead of buying a new USB stick or USB SSD, you can also use surplus hard drives, SSDs or M.2 modules from your PC in a USB housing. We discuss how to differentiate between M.2 SATA and M.2 PCIe/NVMe modules and what speeds you can expect. Oh yeah, we forgot about Thunderbolt 5, but it’s not coming until next year.
c’t editor Peter Siering describes how to proceed in the event of hard drive defects or SSD failures. First you remove the defective medium, well, first of all you might analyze: Is the medium soldered in or can I remove it? If the content was encrypted (with Windows Bitlocker, for example), then there is no chance of recovery without a recovery key? If all important data is in the backup, then I don’t need the defective medium? Then you make the decision whether to attempt a rescue yourself or find a professional data rescuer. Peter gives a lot of tips and details about his own rescue attempts: which tools are best to use to read the medium, how to deal with the resulting images, which tools to use to repair the partition table and the file structures, which tool can puzzle data fragments together into files . And what his freezer and his cats have to do with it.
Also present: Lutz Labs, Peter Siering
Moderation: Jörg Wirtgen
Production: Ralf Taschke
► The c’t articles on the topic (paywall):
Eleven fast USB SSDs and sticks with 1 or 2 TB of storage space
Rescue lost data yourself – how and when at all
(yeah)