Many thanks indeed. Was this tested on UFX or UFX II/+?

Hi Joost, are you able to clarify whether you did indeed test these? MC didn’t have such luck. Thanks!

Not personally, but I was just told they are quite good. Generally, SSDs will perform fine, as they don't have these issues with pausing that some USB pen drives do. The same applies to SD card readers.

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

I just put an inexpensive M.2 drive (128 GB, got it for 22 Euros) into a solid external USB 3.0 enclosure (Inateck, 15 Euros). Write speed on a small laptop is arround 150 MB/s, plenty... Should also work fine on a UFX.

Having problems formatting a new Sandisk Extreme Pro USB 3.1 stick on our Mac.  Can anyone advise?

The disk wasn't recognised by the Mac but I managed to format to ExFAT on a Windows PC.  The Mac began reading it okay but our UFX still can't read it.

I tried erasing it again following this Apple thread: https://t.co/LnfccVA0aA

However, it still won't work on the UFX

I used OSX Terminal to format the drive to FAT32 and the UFX still says 'File System Error'. 

Should we be using the GUID partition scheme or Master boot record?

Neither works in FAT32...

Okay I got the new SanDisk Extreme Pro 128GB USB stick to work in my UFX, and unfortunately it shows inferior performance to the previous silver generation of USB stick. 12 channels at 192k pushed it over 100% and produced errors, whereas the old one still manages 16 channels at 192k at a steady 75%.

NB the new one looks like this:

It claims read and write speeds are almost twice as fast as the previous generation, so either I've been sold a fake, or the average write speeds aren't continuously fast enough.

Anyone else managed to make this stick work?

Thanks Gabo.  The stick works at lower capacity, however it would be really helpful if you can test the maximum channel count as described earlier in this thread so I can work out whether my stick is defective or not!

Thanks in advance...

I tried SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.1 Flash Drives today, 32GB and 64GB version, 16 channels @96k on my UFXII: Not a single drop for several hours (load round 35% +/- 15), no issues at file boundaries - and they don't heat up either (I tested 4 pcs in total: 3x 32GB and 1x 64GB). I can highly recommend these, as they are tiny, too, and do not protrude more than 1 cm from the front panel!

PS: They come with FAT32 preloaded from the factory, so no hassle there either...

Bought another one today, 64GB: Same good performance - just for fun I drove it to the limits, 16 channels @192k - operating at 90% HD, but no errors for 15min, not even at file boundaries. Wouldn't call that a save operation mode though, and indeed first errors popped up as 15min recording passed without a flaw... but with 16ch @96k there seems plenty of headroom.

Regards, Tom

16 channels @96k: no drops for many hours on 5 different SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.1 Thumb Drives (3x 32GB, 2x 64GB), HD between 25% and 60%
16 channels @192k: obviously too much (HD average 90%), first errors after 15 min, however it crossed several file boundaries error free before - so file boundaries do not seem to be an issue with these, which is good to know!

Conclusion: I'd call up to 16 channels @96k a safe operation mode with the SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.1 Thumb Drives, but would not want to stretch it any further. The charming thing about these thumb drives is their form factor - for safe operation with highest sample rates / full channel count I'd go with an external Samsung SSD, but for tracking of some songwriting or small live perfomances, the  SanDisk Ultra Fit USB 3.1 should do the job just fine. To note: Their predecessors (3.0) clearly didn't, so watch out what you buy...

Regards, Tom

Here's a periodic reminder that in my experience, even really cheap SD card readers work very well, and data transfer is much more stable and continuous than on many pen drives...

Regards
Daniel Fuchs
RME

@mjfe87:
0) If you are lucky enough to still operate a good old macbook or mac with SD card slot, use this. If you use an external card reader, first make sure it actually works with your mac (Unix-like operating systems as OSX typically have the drivers for such devices integrated in the kernel - or not... if not, there's little you can do on a mac).
1) Open from your Finder: Applications -> Utilities -> DiskUtility.app
2) In the menue on the left side, select your memory to re-format; make sure you chose the correct one since all old data on it will be LOST!
3) From the menue in the upper middle section press the button 'Erase' which is actually a reformat - I stopped trying to understand Apple's logic behind that...
4) From the pop up menue which appeared, chose 'FAT32'. Note you can only chose FAT32 from the pulldown menue in case your memory is not already formated with FAT32. If it is formated in FAT32 already and you want to reformat never the less (for whatever reason), chose something else (for example ExFAT) first, then redo all steps with FAT32 in a 2nd cycle.
5) Double check you selected the right memory before pulling the trigger by pressing the 'Erase' button in the pop up, which is (again) actually a reformat, not a simple erase of data... ALL OLD DATA ARE LOST NOW on this device...
6) Once DiskUtility succeeded it will prompt you so.

@Daniel: I understand that from a performance perpective recent SD cards are typically better suited for continous write workloads, especially the video grade ones, but as long as a small USB thumb drive will do the job, it is much more convenient, since it does not require an additional external card reader. In that regard, an SD card slot on the next generation of UFXs would be very convenient...

regards, tom

Hello!
I have recently tried using SanDisk SD cards with success (which were originally purchased for another purpose).
These were the 64GB type with the 95MB/s transfer and with 28 channels running at 96kHz was a maximum of UFX 70% transfer with no errors

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-Extrem … 01J5RH06K/

However, I would like to purchase 128GB or even 256GB SD cards now I have proved this works.  Should I go for the higher spec 170 MB/s transfer (which are not THAT much more expensive!) or am I fine to stick with the 95 MB/s as they seemed to work just fine?

Please let me know any thoughts!
Daniel

Hello,
Yes no problem.  The reader is a UGREEN one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/UGREEN-Adapter … 01EFPX9XA/

I use a Windows PC (either running Windows 7 or Windows 10) machine to format these cards to FAT32, using "GUIformat" from Ridgecrop Consultants.  I hope this helps.

Daniel

UPDTED 06.01.20: Turned out that it does not work reliable :-(

Last week it stopped two times the DURec recording unexpectedly with only around 8 tracks @44.1 kHz.
Its assumed that the drive did some kind of maintenance or whatever and then UFX+ can not buffer audio
long enough. Very sad, but this way it is not a replacement / extension to my old Sandisk Extreme USB stick.

Not recommended:

Samsung Portable T5 - 1TB - USB 3.1 gen2 UASP - Price: €177,90 @amazon.de

shipped with:
- quick start guide
- some software
- 2 USB3.1 cables included:
   - USB Type C to C
   - USB Type C to A (ideal for connecting the device to the UFX+)

- Height only 10,5 mm (can be put very nicely between devices in a rack)
- 3y Warranty

https://geizhals.de/samsung-portable-ss … 43831.html

AS SSD Bench results on USB 3.1 gen 2 controller:
Connected to this USB 3.1 Controller: https://www.heise.de/preisvergleich/sta … 03149.html
StarTech Dual Port USB 3.1 Karte - 10 Gbit/s per Port - 2x USB-A - PCIe, ASM2142 (PEXUSB311A2)

Disk preparation:
- created one partition without formatting it
- Formatted with h2format as Administrator (one big FAT32 partition: 927 GB)
- Initialization of the device with lasts 2m15sec on an UFX+ when pluggin it to the device
  927 GB take a while, I think I will therefore partition the SSD later, a smaller one for DURec, rest for other purposes

Test results:
- Recorded maximum amount of channels (76 @44.1 kHz)
- DURec recording runs very reliable at SSD loads of 73-74%
- Zero Errors after ~6h of recording up to the maximum possible length (~200 GB)
- Temperature on the surface 32°C (becomes warmer if you put it between Rack devices when there is not enough airflow

Optimization of partition layout:
The initialization time for such a big volume took me too long (02m15s) for quick recordings. So I repartitioned the drive with an old version of EaseUS partition master to create a smaller 100 GB FAT32 partition as 1st primary. By this the time for initialization decreased down to 15 seconds which is fine.
By this layout I have still the possibility to use the 2nd 831GB FAT32 partition for big DURec recordings, alternatively I can use the big filesystem for backup purposes of my PC or quick data exchange.

Benefits of the optimized DURec version for UFX+/UFX II:
I'ts very nice that the new version of DURec (UFX+/UFXII) supports multiple FAT32 partitions. It's possible to select the partition. The last active partition is remembered by the device which is extremely cool.

You need to partition the disk into a primary partition and leave approx 10% free for overprovisioning.
Format the primary partition with FAT32, I used h2format for this purpose.

Alternatively you could try Easeus Partition Manager Free Version, therein it could be easier to perform
the partitioning and formatting in one step.

It depends on the SSD controller some people say whether or not you need overpartitioning.
But to be on the safe side I would leave 10% free at the end of the SSD, just in case its needed.

Easeus Partition Manager Free Version asks me what clusters size ?

My Totalmix Record still shows an FS error.
I've formatted the ssd to fat32 format (no ExFat,but real fat32).
I use a samsung Evo 860 SSD.
I have created 2 partitions but it's still showing this SF error message.
Isn't the usb front port usb3 compatible as mentioned in the manual ?
I use this drive enclosure : Storeva AluSlim Silver SATA3 to USB 3.0 (USB2 compatible)
Thanks for your time guys.
Cheers,
Andre.

I'm talking about the front port too.

I did with a san disk extreme pro 32gb, it never worked. I must be doing something wrong with the ssd but i've created 2 partitions, left 10% free, still not working.

I did nothing in particular, i just plugged the ssd in for the 100th time, guess what ... initialise disk ok.
The drive must not have a overprovisioning space & be in MBR & not GPT.
Mine was GPT, so i've reformatted in MBR main partition.
Thanks for your help guys.

BTW .. it was surprising for me that this happened, because I tested this SSD with max channel count and if I remember right performed this test for a longer time period where the USB load was low. Next time I will perform such tests even longer and maybe repeatedly.

Its a pity how bad some devices work like i.e. doing maintenance (or whatever caused interruption) when the unit is still doing something. There is something like a "audio" bit missing telling the controller, hey we are processing audio which may not be interrupted "do your maintenance or whatever later".

URL please