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Avoid buying USB sticks online or using USB sticks that were given to you,
because they could contain malware.
 
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If you are in a place where counterfeit electronics are common, buy your USB
stick from an international supermarket chain, which should have a more
reliable supply chain.
 
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**Buy your USB sticks from a reputable local store.**
 
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Any modern USB stick from a well-known brand is fast enough to use Tails
comfortably.
 
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Generic brands are more likely to be slower and less reliable.
 
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**Buy USB sticks from well-known brands, such as [[Kingston|https://www.kingston.com/en/usb-flash-drives]], [[Samsung|https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/memory-storage/usb-flash-drives/]], and [[SanDisk|https://www.sandisk.com/product-portfolio/usb-flash-drives]].**
 
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USB sticks become slower and less reliable over the years. Older USB sticks
were also built with slower technology.
 
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**Buy new USB sticks.**
 
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We recommend that you:
 
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The quality of your USB stick is crucial when using Tails. A bad USB stick will be slower and more likely to corrupt the files in your [[Persistent Storage|doc/persistent_storage]].
 
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All the data on this USB stick is lost when installing Tails.
 
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You need a USB stick of 8 GB minimum to use Tails.
 
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Tails still works on some older Mac computers with an Intel processor.
 
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Recommended laptops
 
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Tails might not work on some PC computers, for example, if their [[graphics card is incompatible with Linux|support/known_issues/graphics]]. Nvidia or AMD Radeon cards often do not work in Tails.
 
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Mac computers with an Apple processor (M1, M2, and so on)
 
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Tails does not work on:
 
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Tails works on most PC computers that are less than 10 years old.
 
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[[!toc startlevel=2 levels=2]]
 
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[[!meta title="System requirements and recommended USB sticks"]]
 
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