Ed, I'm doing something similar with BIAB on an older desktop computer at my camp. I have only a subset of RealTracks (but all the RealDrums) on a dedicated hard drive on that PC. Jazz and Latin here, too.

Since I have the audiophile version (which yes does come on a USB 3 external drive), my hard drive is 1 TB and that DOES NOT have enough room for all the RealTracks; the full requirement is now well over 1T (closer to 1.5, and that doesn't include any new ones I might like from the upcoming 2018).

I simply used a file copy utility and highlighted the RealTracks I knew I needed, and copied them over from the supplied PG Music drive.

Yes, I know this overlooks some possibilities. As Mario pointed out, there are many hidden possibilities within genres that at first glance you would discard. But space being what it is, I have to take that risk. [My production PC at home has them all...]

What is the throughput speed of that Visiontek pen drive?

In general, the best solution for a drive is of course an internal SSD, if you can afford one large enough and have a desktop computer to mount it in. The second best is a conventional hard drive. I believe this would outperform an external USB 3 SSD, and far outperform any external drive of either type on USB 2.

Having said that, BIAB relies more on CPU speed than hard drive transfer speed when it comes to loading and generating RealTracks. The program runs remarkably well on an external drive; it just runs faster (but not better) if you can improve on that.

BIAB 2024 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 6.5 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6; Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus Studio 192, Presonus Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors