I'm going to select either Sandisk or Kingston for my new USB flash drives. Any recommendations?

Avoid any Sandisk drives that are U3 (if they are still on the market). I used both without issues.

The last two I've purchased were PNY.

Why? If the issue is the software that comes with them, that's easy enough to remove.

Is that USB 3.0? No problem there--my ports are USB 2.0 anyway.

If I get a Kingston, it will be a DataTraveler model. Whether the kind in metal or colored plastic, I don't care, because I imagine the drives inside are exactly the same.

About a year or so ago I had some trouble with a usb 3.0 flash. I would fly in windows but just would not allow me to get a linux format and native install on it. Some sort of buffer issue I think.

Try to get a model that is rated faster and maybe on sale would be my suggestion. Not sure one company is better than the other. Compact flash may have some quality brands but usb flash seems to be speed to price driven.

I have some old 128mb flash drives that still work and have thrown away a few 8Gb and 4Gb drives. Guess it is time to worry about the larger drives failing.

Both my USB sticks are Cruzers; they work like champs.

Well, I saw customer reviews at Amazon claiming Cruzers were very slow in writing. Is that not your experience?

It's mostly moot now, because I didn't find what I wanted at Wal-Mart and didn't feel like running around to any better stores, so I went to Amazon and bought a Kingston 16 GB DataTraveler. I haven't bought one for backup yet, because I'm waiting to see exactly how much space my modified antiX operating system takes after I install it on the stick--probably much less than 16 MB. I may have needed only an 8 for the OS alone, and I already have one stick with enough space to back up my /home and my personal papers (which I don't keep in my user account). 16 GB for my backup would probably be wasting a little money.

I use a Transcend 16GB USB 3.0 stick, works perfectly fine, the only USB I have ever had an issue with was a Bytestor 16GB USB.

I've never noticed anything. I don't have any testing data and never was moved to seek any out.

I use samsung or toshiba. Those two brands are mostly the best of the best.

http://pandorawiki.org/SD_compatibility_list

(my experience: Kingston is really very awful for Linux on SD)

Thanks for this sharing it's great...

I got essential 16gb since long time. It is compatible and still runs well.

---------- Post added 05-01-13 at 03:21 AM ----------

I got essential 16gb samsung since long time. It is compatible and still runs well.