I need to purchase some USB flash drives with a physical write protection switch. I’ve seen Kanguru be recommended but it is extremely expensive. I searched on AliExpress and found a much cheaper alternative from Netac . When I read about Chinese hardware online, a lot of people trash it for being ri…

What exactly will you be using USB drives you purchase from AliExpress for?

@ihateKYC @anon36940904 Yes, one of my uses is to boot live operating systems off them.

I don’t think it would be an issue. Reformat it for good measure if you want when you receive it and then install a live OS on it. You should be fine.

If it is for LiveOS, you probably can set readonly attribute using windows commandline diskpart (or any linx equivalent) after creating the live CD?

Couldn’t that just be disabled? My reason for requiring physical write protection is to make it practically impossible for malware to infect the USB.

[image] hasslerants: Aside from that, the main concern I see from strangers online is that Chinese flash drives will include malware or backdoors. Is there any merit for that anxiety? Every hardware part with DMA could fully compromise your device. So yes, it is definitely a risk, which is wh…

This might be cheaper but I wonder if the speeds are bearable?

If you were in my position, how would you go about picking a trustworthy USB flash drive with physical write protection?

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Is Chinese hardware from AliExpress actually risky?

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brinerustle January 14, 2025, 3:13am 8

You can get a USB DVD reader and burn the ISOs to DVD.

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