Over the years of installing USB emulators in Disklaviers, I’ve become increasingly choosy about my USB sticks for Nalbantovs.
My current recommendation is the Kingston 64GB DataTraveler. These are all-metal USB sticks that dissipate heat very nicely, and are durable in the event of an impact. I’ve found them to be both durable and reliable. The 64 GB size is recommended by Nalbantov, as speed with USB sticks correlates with their size, and smaller disks are more likely to cause hiccups with slower speeds.
My previous recommendation: Previously, I recommended the SanDisk Ultra Fit 64 GB. As a smaller USB stick, it was less likely that people would bump into it. I would tie on some Atwood Micro Cord, and tie off the end in a Lanyard (Diamond) Knot. However, I’ve had multiple instances of these drives suddenly corrupting. I’m not sure why this is, but have now moved on from using them. I have many customers who still use them and like them, but can no longer recommend them.
Below, you can see a USB stick the was struck laterally by a pianist. The solder joint snapped right off! That is an in convenience easily avoided by a good quality, low profile USB stick.
Formatting your USB Sticks
When you’re attempting to format 64 GB USB sticks for Nalbantovs, you might run into some trouble on modern versions of Windows. These USB sticks must be formatted FAT32 (not exFAT or NTFS), or else the Nalbantov won’t recognize them. Although these USB sticks come formatted FAT32, you might need to format it if you run into any trouble in the future. In that case, I use the tool fat32format to format these sticks, which is a freeware application. If you’re on Mac or Linux, you should not need any additional software to format them.
