It is always very heartening to receive sincere comments at over here, these are the few very genuine in helping, engaging in a dialog even knowing you are giving more than receiving.
I am referring especially to people such as IG-88, ThorGroup, even urundai & several others.
On the matter about trusting USB boot device for xpen/redpill --- i am abit OCD (it is true i do read the specifics how little write goes into usb-boot & how unlikely it will fail). my OCD was trigger when i received a write-failure msg from my loader on ancient USB drive (that comes with a write-protect switch, accidently put into protected-mode).
IG-88, I found you always share at great length & depth, with your experience sincerely addressing each point with clarity, even trying out things to benefit others! Earlier on I was searching for sata card, if not for you -- I would have bought those "popular" Marvell based card. I gotten JMB585 instead after reading your recommendation, the experience was simply wonderful! Thank you all!