[em-bee]

you don't need any adapter. all my USB-C drives come with a cable that has C on one end and A on the other. again, those cables are allowed. only adapters that would allow you to use a C-C cable may not be. so connecting a USB-C drive to an old laptop that only has USB-A plugs is fine, and is supported.

[josephcsible]

I mean flash drives that plug directly into the computer with no cable.

[em-bee]

oh, ok, those seem to be rare though, and personally i find them impractical because the C connector makes them less stable. with an A connector the flash drive can be so small that it almost fits inside the connector entirely. in other words, buying a device that can't handle these flash drives would be a tradeoff that doesn't have much of a downside unless i already have such a drive that i really want to use.

but if i have a tendency to buy older devices, then i likely also have a tendency to avoid getting such modern drives. they will be coming though, thanks to USB4, and there will be a day where i can't avoid needing a laptop with at least two USB-C ports (because one of them will be used for charging), or get a USB4 rated USB-C only hub. and hopefully by then even older laptops will already have at least one USB-C port too (even if it doesn't support USB4 yet).