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Flashdisks: What should I look out for?

Which manufacturers / flashdisk types do we recommend? What should I look out for?

Flashdisks: What should I look out for?

Which manufacturers / flashdisk types do we recommend? What should I look out for?

In principle, any commercially available PCMCIA Flashdisk can be used. However, the various cards commercially available do differ in terms of their reading / writing speeds, timing and power consumption. In the worst case scenario, data loss can occur.

For this reason, please observe our white paper on the topic “Notes on the use of the removable hard drive”.

Important note: We recommend the use of flashdisks tested at our facilities, since data overflow means loss of measured data!

However, if you wish to use different flashcards you can test them yourself according to the following steps:

1. Testing under Windows

a) Format the flashdisk on your PC

- FAT 16 for the following devices: µ-MUSYCS, SPARTAN (serial numbers 09XXXX), busDAQ (serial numbers 09XXXX), imc CRONOS-PL with aggregate sampling rate 200 kHz, imc CRONOS. These devices have a maximum memory volume of 512 MByte for Flashdisks.

- FAT 32 for the following devices: imc CRONOS-PL aggregate sampling rate 400 kHz, busDAQ (serial numbers 13XXXX), SPARTAN (serial numbers 13XXXX).

b) Run SCANDISK under Windows

c) Write a file which occupies about 90 % of the available card memory to the Disk and measure the time needed. The average data rate should be about >1 MByte/s. If it's significantly less there is a risk that with high reading /writing speeds, some measured data could be lost!

d) Delete the file on the flashdisk


2. Testing in the device

a) Insert the flashdisk into the device and run SCANDISK on it.

(With µ-MUSYCS, SPARTAN (serial numbers 09XXXX), busDAQ (serial numbers 09XXXX), imc CRONOS-PL at aggregate sampling rate 200 kHz, imc CRONOS in the imcDevices File Manager; with imc CRONOS-PL aggregate sampling rate 400 kHz, busDAQ (serial numbers 13XXXX), SPARTAN (serial numbers 13XXXX) in the Windows Explorer shell).

b) Test the writing speed under imc Devices

µ-MUSYCS, SPARTAN, busDAQ, imc CRONOS-PL at aggregate sampling rate 200 KHz: Write 20 channels with 10 kHz apiece (buffer duration 4-5 s) to the disk until the disk is almost full (don't do interval saving), including at least one channel with transfer to the PC (ring buffer memory in order to prevent data overflow on the PC).

CRONOS-PL aggregate sampling rate 400 kHz, busDAQ (serial numbers 13XXXX), SPARTAN (serial numbers 13XXXX): Write 40 channels with 10 kHz apiece (buffer duration 4-5 s) to the disk until the disk is almost full (don't do interval saving), including at least one channel with transfer to the PC (ring buffer memory in order to prevent data overflow on the PC).

If during measurement, the error message "Data overflow while writing to internal disk" is posted (this error message appears on the PC monitor or is signalized by constant blinking of the device's LED-button), the flashdisk is not appropriate for the writing speed!