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Comment by craftkiller | Hacker News Reader

Someone please copy the yubikey 5c form factor but make it a flash drive. I've been looking for years for a small, durable, usb type-c flashdrive for my keychain but nothing comes close to the yubikey 5c. The 5c has the metal ring so it won't ever rip off my keychain, the hole is large enough to fit a solid metal ring through it, and it is small enough that I can keep it on my keychain and use it without stressing my usb type c ports.

https://resources.yubico.com/53ZDUYE6/at/cm85k8947jm9g32znfs...

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The best I have found so far with good specs is the "sandisk SanDisk ultra dual drive go". The spinny thing is super annoying but you can glue it in place if you don't need the type-A. It's a bit bigger than the yubikey, but it's smaller than the other alternatives.

That's the one that I use now! I'm weary of the spinny kind because with other brands/models the outer spinner has ripped off the flash drive, but at least so far I haven't had that issue with the "SanDisk ultra dual drive go". The only modification I've had to do to it so far is lubricating the spinny bit because it was all grindy and rough.

when I realised I never use the type-A, I glued it in place with epoxy. Now I don't have to worry about it breaking.

I got the ultra dual drive (non-go), no silly spinny bit, just a sliding mechanism that locks into place in either configuration as well as fully retracted on both sides.

Having a stick with exposed contacts and no USB shell (like the yubikey has) is not possible in USB3 format. It requires springs on the stick itself, no chance of the easy, pretty much unbreakable yubikey format. That only works for USB2. USB3-A (and -C) reversed the part that is springy, what was previously in the receptacle is now in the plug. Of course USB3-A is a mixed standard so the USB2 part is still as it was for backwards compatibility.

The reason is that the springs wear the most. This ensures longevity of USB ports in laptops where they are hard to replace. A USB cable or device is usually much easier to replace, and also a PC is normally used with many devices so the wear is shared between them now. But it does mean the contacts on the plug side are more fragile now.

And without USB3, filling something at current capacity levels is going to be tedious.

Of course for a yubikey that just transfers a few bytes this is not an issue but for a USB key it is.

Are you thinking of the USB A yubikeys? The 5c that I linked has a shell around the connector. It seems no different to me than any usb type c or thunderbolt cables that I own.

Yes the A yubikeys indeed. That's the original yubikey, the C version came much later. And it's still pretty rare at our work so I didn't imagine the poster referred to that. Also because the A version is much more solid. The connector is just a plate and there's nowhere for dust and dirt to accumulate, unlike the C version.

Kingston makes this product line for many years which meets the requirements I think

https://www.kingston.com/en/usb-flash-drives/datatraveler-dt...

That's close, but is USB-A, so much larger than the Yubikey GP is asking about.

I think this is as close as you can get

https://www.walmart.com/ip/PNY-128GB-DUO-LINK-USB-3-2-Type-C...

(OT, but while I was able to find what you were talking about by googling the part name, I couldn't follow that walmart link because I'm apparently "not a human").

Kingston stopped making the one I really liked. A truly small microSD to USB adapter that could fit in a wallet. This was perfect for always having a USB drive around and not taking up space in your pocket.

https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2F...

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/658398-REG/Kingston_F...

Wow that is compact. Wouldn't it be painfully slow since it is microSD ?

You can get pretty darn tiny USB sticks, if you let go of the metal keychain requirement GP had (some of these work with a thin lanyard, think pocket camera strap).

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-128GB-Flash-Drive/dp/B0...

USB-C too, though they stick out much more because of the tinier connector: https://www.amazon.com/128GB-PNY-Elite-X-Type-C-Flash/dp/B0D...

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