Is it safe to buy SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.0 flash drive in any and all sizes for booting from them?

USB Flash Drives All other USB Flash Drives
1

Hello,

I just read about your inconsistent experiences regarding the ability to boot from various Sandsisk drives.

To be more precise, is it safe to buy the above drives (North American model numbers):

SDCZ43-016G-A46 - 16GB

SDCZ43-032G-A46 - 32GB

SDCZ43-064G-A46 - 64GB

SDCZ43-128G-A46 - 128GB

to boot from any of them.

Under Windowss, you can use FAT, FAT32 for sizes 32GB or less, NTFS for 64GB or more. OK.

I always wondered how do you make a 64GB or larger drive bootable under Linux or Mac OS X?

Thanks for your clarification!

2

Under Windowss, you can use FAT, FAT32 for sizes 32GB or less, NTFS for 64GB or more.

Actually for drives 64 GB and larger use exFAT for removable drives.

3

Has your answer taken into consideration that I was asking for a bootable solution? I’m seriously asking, since I’m not sure. Thanks.

4

Well, all of my USB drives are bootable, including my 1 TB hdd, except for my U3 drives…  Most are Windows PE bootable but one is a Linux BIOS/UEFI bootable and the later is not 64 GB, more like 4 GB and it is FAT32 format.

I don’t know what formats MAC supports but there is a series of EXT formats for Linux.

5

To reflect to my OP:

To be more precise, is it safe to buy the above drives (North American model numbers):

SDCZ43-016G-A46 - 16GB

SDCZ43-032G-A46 - 32GB

SDCZ43-064G-A46 - 64GB

SDCZ43-128G-A46 - 128GB

to boot from any of them?

The bottom line is, I’m still clueless if I am safe to buy this model (in any size) and rest assured I can boot from them, because of some tweaks on SanDisk’s part? See reference: http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/All-SanDisk-USB-Flash-Drives/USB-Flash-Drive-showing-up-as-LOCAL-DISK/td-p/309565

Any assurance I can get? Thanks.

6

SanDisk hasn’t made flash drives as hard drives in years.  Are there vendors selling some of the old stock, probably.  Are there vendors selling counterfeit drives, definitely.  Are there vendors selling used drives, definitely. Are there vendors selling drives and not allowing them to be returned if the buyer is unhappy, definitely.

So, rather than worrying about model numbers, worry about buying from a reliable source so if you have a problem you can return it. Quickly & easily.  New SanDisk flash drives are all seen by Windows as removable.   And Easy2Boot will make them bootable., even on new UEFI systems, which should be more of a booting concern than model guarantees.