BleepingComputer.com: Best USB Flash Drive

Hello,
I am a soon-to-be college student, and I am trying to decide on the best USB flash drive to fit my needs and price. The concerns I have are that:
-There are a lot of brands out there; how do I distinguish between the more reliant ones as opposed to the knock-off brands?
-What is the line between just enough flash memory, and too much flash memory?
-Are there any types of software I should obtain to help my USB flash drive?

My particular needs for the USB flash drive will consist mostly of:
-Storing documents as a backup
-A quick file transfer tool from computer to computer

I do not want to spend more than $20-30 dollars for a USB flash drive, unless there is a significantly higher file-transfer rate in a more expensive model. Also, looking at my needs, does it seem that I would be better fit to have a portable hard drive instead of a flash drive? I know that there are some portable drives with lots of gigs of memory in the mid sixties-eighties. If I had that, I would use it for backups of my system.

Any knowledge you have to share dealing with these questions or the topic in general would be greatly appreciated!
~Stephen M

well I my self I have a usb external hard drive for backups and a flash drive for transferring files to and from school and amongst all of my computers. i have always had good luck with sandisc for flash drives and Western digital for external hard drives. also the problem with flash drives is there not generally big enough for good full system back ups.

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Stick to a reputable supplier, and read the reviews.

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I don't see a line.
Buy what you can afford.
You'll be surprised by how fast they start filling up.

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Flash_Disinfector.exe (direct download link)
Directions for use:
Please download Flash_Disinfector.exe by sUBs and save it to your desktop.

* Double-click Flash_Disinfector.exe to run it and follow any prompts that may appear.

* The utility may ask you to insert your flash drive and/or other removable drives. Please do so and allow the utility to clean up those drives as well.

* Hold down the Shift key when inserting the drive until Windows detects it to keep autorun.inf from executing if it is present.

* Wait until it has finished scanning and then exit the program.

* Reboot your computer when done.

Note:
As part of its routine, Flash_Disinfector will create a hidden folder named autorun.inf in each partition and every USB drive that
was plugged in when you ran it. Do not delete this folder...it will help protect your drives from future infection by keeping the autorun file
from being installed on the root drive and running other malicious files.

Running the tool disables autorun.
It also creates a dummy autorun .inf file, to make it more difficult to become infected.


For USB Flash drives, I've been using 2 PNY (32GB, and 8GB), and 1 Kingston (4GB) for over a year, and have no problems with either brand.
I like using them to run portable applications (Firefox, KeyNote, HWMonitor, etc.), when I'm working on friends, and family members computers:
The Portable Freeware Collection
pendriveapps.com
I'm used to using certain progrms, and it's nice to have them available when I need them, without having to download, and install them on their computers.
My 32GB also contains all of my installers (6.98GB), in case I do need to install a program.

For harddrives, I've been using WD (Western Digital), and Seagate for several years, with no failures, yet.