Ended up getting a Sandisk 8gig (not the flimsy new model things but one of the classic ones, only cost ~$12 ) and digging up an old-but-barely-used 2gig (also sandisk)
Still finding stuff that I forgot to put on the new 8gig from the old one: tilp install libs, Axe, "xchat", etc

Anyway it's great with this new one, usb2.0 like the old one but it runs like 3 times faster

As for the msd8x one, autorun won't work anymore but it's 2gig so yeah.
(btw, vendor ID 0781 prod. ID 5530 for those who know how it can be fixed )

I've been using the "new" 2gig for msd8x, and it's working fine
(I ended up having to make this elaborate twist-tie thing to attach it to a key ring, but hey)

Is there a way to modify msd8x so it will autorun with a different drive type?  With the old one, I'd just plug it in and it would open, now it doesn't