2

Are there any modern (USB 3.0/3.1) USB flash drives with indicator lights out there?

It seems like it became “trendy” to manufacture USB flash drives nowadays without any indicator light on them. Why the heck did they ditch the indicator/activity lights?

So the question is asking for recommendations for USB (USB-A/USB-C) flash drives with indicator/activity lights on them. There were definitely drives like the Lexar Firefly line that had indicator/activity lights on them; see picture below. But those Lexar Firefly drives have long been discontinued and were only USB 2.0.

I find indicator/activity lights to be useful when gauging whether a USB flash drive are active and being written to. They are also useful when booting up headless systems to see of power is going to the USB port. Why they are getting near impossible to find? Who knows. But I miss them.

enter image description here

0

2 Answers 2

1

Corsair Flash Voyager Slider X1 - $14.99 (64 GB) to $44.99 (256 GB)

enter image description here

It's USB-A, and it's got a blue activity LED. It's not otherwise a terribly notable drive, nor terribly fast—it maxes out at 151 MB/s write and 22 MB/s read—but it is reasonably affordable.

Kingston DataTraveler Max - $37.99 (256 GB) - $119.99 (1 TB)

enter image description here

The Kingston DataTraveler Max is a bit more of a premium offering, but for the capacity, it's still a pretty solid deal—especially since it can easily be found on sale for less than the retail price. It's also got great performance numbers, with sequential reads and writes in the 1000 MB/s range and random 4K reads and writes in the 250-300 MB/s range. It also conveniently comes in both USB-A and USB-C versions, both of which include a blue activity LED.

1
  • 1
    They are a little on the larger side; part of that is down to them using more premium flash and (more importantly) a relatively premium Silicon Motion SM2320 controller, and part of that is down to the relatively bulky housing. If you look at the bare PCB, it's less ridiculous; if you really wanted to, you could probably reduce the size by maybe 10-25% by printing your own enclosure.
    – JMY1000
    Commented Jan 8 at 23:32
1

Lexar 128GB JumpDrive M900 USB Flash Drive 3.1

The Lexar 128GB JumpDrive M900 USB Type-A Flash Drive has a little LED light, which according to the Amazon reviews and the video on the Amazon listing, is actually a basic activity LED. It has a fairly rugged metal design.

0

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge you have read our privacy policy.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.