You can get the SD Flash card and get the little
usb device that you can slip it into that will allow it to essentially
be a flash drive and have the best of both worlds...something like
this...
http://www.sourcingmap.com/sdmmc-8in1-me…
So for like 8 bucks extra you have both a thumb drive and an SD Card.
If anything goes wrong with the circuitry in the reader you just get
another one. The expensive part is the flash chip. When you have it
embedded on the thumb drive and the circuitry on the thumb drive
goes...there really is no way for you to salvage the flash chip even if
there is nothing wrong with it. Unless you are an electronics expert
like me, of course.
Technically speaking they are pretty much the same. There is a little
more circuitry that goes into a flash drive. It is the EEPROM and the
reader and a light with the usb connector all on one PCB. The SD Card
is pretty much just a EEPROM with some leads on it. There is less to go
wrong with the SD Card.
I hope you realize that after a while your flash drive and sd card will stop working eventually. It is inevitable.
A flash drive or sd card will last for around 100,000 read/write
cycles, so it directly depends on its usage, not necessarilly time...it
could conceivably be usable 50+ years from now. However, if you are
using it 24/7 as you might a normal hard drive it will only last you a
couple years. And, of course, this is barring manufacturer defect and
damage, be it physical or environmental.
If I were you I would get a bunch of the cheaper 2 GB SD Cards and put
different mixes on each one. This way you do not have all your eggs in
one basket. It will not be nearly as expensive if one fails and it will
not be as big a heart break if someone steals it or you lose it. It
will cost you a few dollars more to get 16 2 GB SD Cards but I think
the trade off is worth it.
It will be kinda cool to have a little SD Card case with a bunch of SD
Cards with labels on them for your favorite mixes...don't you think?
It's what I would do Do you realize how many songs you can fit on a 2
GB stick? You definately wont be swapping them out every stop
light...that much is for sure.