USB sticks and USB SSDs reach 2 GB/s - at least the fast ones. We tested eleven models from 1 TB and talk about their differences and the various USB and Thunderbolt interfaces - and whether it is still worth installing surplus old SSDs in USB cases. In the second part of the podcast, we give tips on what to do if a hard drive or SSD - internal and external - fails, what you can do yourself and when a professional data recovery service could get even more out of it. c't editor Lutz Labs introduces the USB sticks and USB SSDs and explains the differences between the technologies. We talk about interfaces and their speeds: USB 3, USB 3.2, USB4, Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 4 - what happens when you don't really know what your PC or laptop supports. Instead of buying a new USB stick or USB SSD, you can also continue to use surplus hard drives, SSDs or M.2 modules from your PC in a USB case. We discuss how to differentiate between M.2 SATA and M.2 PCIe/NVMe modules and what speeds you can expect. Oh yes, we forgot Thunderbolt 5, but that won't be available until next year. c't editor Peter Siering describes how to proceed in the event of hard drive defects or SSD failures. First, you remove the defective medium. Well, first of all, you might analyze: Is the medium soldered in or can I remove it? Was the content encrypted (with Windows Bitlocker, for example), then is there no chance of rescue without a recovery key? If all important data is in the backup, then I don't need the defective medium? Then you decide whether to attempt a rescue yourself or how to find a professional data rescuer. Peter gives a lot of tips and details about his own rescue attempts: which tools are best for reading the medium, how to handle the resulting images, which tools can then be used to repair the partition table and the file structures, which tool can piece together data fragments to create files. And what his freezer and his cats have to do with it. Timecodes 0:00 Intro c't uplink 1:34 Fast USB sticks and SSDs 21:07 Installing old SSDs in USB empty housings 26:20 Durability of old SSDs and hard drives 32:20 Saving defective hard drives and SSDs 42:00 What professional data rescuers can do 44:30 Encrypted data carriers 48:20 Tools: ddrescue, TestDisk, PhotoRec With: Lutz Labs, Peter Siering Moderation: Jörg Wirtgen Production: Ralf Taschke ► The c't articles on the topic (paywall): Eleven fast USB SSDs and sticks with 1 or 2 TB of storage space https://www.ct.de/select/ct/2023/21/2... Saving lost data yourself - how and when https://www.ct.de/select/ct/2023/21/2... ► c't Magazine: https://ct.de ► c't on Mastodon: https://social.heise.de/@ct_Magazin ► c't on Instagram: / ct_magazin ► c't on Facebook: / ctmagazin ► c't on X/Twitter: / ctmagazin ► c't on paper: everywhere where magazines are sold! #usbssd #usbstick #datarecovery