[ajprice]

I'm looking around for a USB flash drive. Are these things all pretty similar apart from the cases and styles, or are certain brands better than others.

I'm looking for something fairly cheap (no more than £20), 2Gb capacity (maybe 1Gb, 4Gb would be great), with a way of attaching a cord or keychain, and doesn't have a cap thats going to get lost (so a built in plug cover or retractable plug). Oh and preferably just a plain blank drive, no file organiser or built in software crap, although I'm guessing I could just wipe the drive if it does have useless software on it.

Any ideas or recommendations?

[C.A.T.S. CEO]

SanDisk?

[mduell]

Shop somewhere with ratings to see what other users like and are buying... brand isn't as important as other users ratings. Expect to pay about $7/GB (so £3.5/GB) anywhere in the 1-8GB range.

[ajprice]

Yeah, been looking around and found the Sandisk Cruzer drives. Retractable plug, plastic or titanium case and apparently pretty fast. They have software on them but its removable. £10-£20 on Amazon UK depending on 2Gb or 4Gb and titanium or plastic.

Sandisk Cruzer

Looks pretty good to me.

[ghporter]

Kingston makes some of the smallest USB drives around. For example, their Data Traveler Mini and their Data Traveler Mini-Fun. Quite reasonably priced too.

[ajprice]

Got myself a Sandisk Cruzer 4Gb. Was going to get it from Amazon, but they didn't say how much delivery was until you'd put it in the basket, they wanted to charge over £4 !!! So stuff that, I went to Staples and got it myself .

Thanks for the help guys.

[Koralatov]

Personally, I really like the Sony MicroVault Tinys. Granted, they come with some kind of virtual expander crap, but a quick format with Disk Utility gets rid of that. And they're literally tiny. You can get them on eBay for about £24 for a two-gig one. Perhaps not quite as cheap as some, but I think their size makes the slight premium worth paying.

[pcryan5]

<>And they're literally tiny.

Almost too tiny - i'd forever misplacing mine!

[ajprice]

You know in Star Trek when they can't open a door or something on the ship so they open a panel and move coloured chips around on a futuristic type circuit board. That Sony looks like one of those chips.

[cgc]

Originally Posted by ajprice 

I'm looking around for a USB flash drive. Are these things all pretty similar apart from the cases and styles, or are certain brands better than others.

I'm looking for something fairly cheap (no more than £20), 2Gb capacity (maybe 1Gb, 4Gb would be great), with a way of attaching a cord or keychain, and doesn't have a cap thats going to get lost (so a built in plug cover or retractable plug). Oh and preferably just a plain blank drive, no file organiser or built in software crap, although I'm guessing I could just wipe the drive if it does have useless software on it.

Any ideas or recommendations?

I'd recommend researching drive speed as I have a Sony that is super slow.

[Koralatov]

Originally Posted by pcryan5 

Almost too tiny - i'd forever misplacing mine!

I keep it in my wallet, in one of the slits made for cards. It's about two and a half times the thickness of a card, but sits in there nicely. But yes, putting it down on a messy desk can result in misplacing it...

Originally Posted by ajprice 

You know in Star Trek when they can't open a door or something on the ship so they open a panel and move coloured chips around on a futuristic type circuit board. That Sony looks like one of those chips.

If I was going to admit my worrying knowledge of Star Trek, I'd tell you that you're referring to an isolinear chip, but since I'm not going to admit to it, I won't tell you that. If I was in full-on Trek-love admission mode, I'd also tell you that was partly what attracted me to the drive in the first place.

Originally Posted by cgc 

I'd recommend researching drive speed as I have a Sony that is super slow.

Are you sure your Sony is USB2.0? If it's USB1.1, it's going to drag ass majorly; USB1 is pretty much only good for keyboards and mice, in my opinion. Mine is definitely USB2, and I've found it to be just as fast as any other USB2 drive I've used.

[bowwowman]

Originally Posted by Koralatov 

If I was going to admit my worrying knowledge of Star Trek, I'd tell you that you're referring to an isolinear chip, but since I'm not going to admit to it, I won't tell you that.

And if you had moved into the Delta Quadrant with Cpt. Janeway & crew, those chips would be "neuro-linear" modules, as the Voyager starship used a brand new generation of biomolecular gel-based processor packs to vastly improve their computer's performance and reliability

[cgc]

Originally Posted by Koralatov 

...Are you sure your Sony is USB2.0? If it's USB1.1, it's going to drag ass majorly; USB1 is pretty much only good for keyboards and mice, in my opinion. Mine is definitely USB2, and I've found it to be just as fast as any other USB2 drive I've used.

Yes, USB 2 but some drives are significantly faster/slower than others. I would look to benchmarks instead of sustained read/write speeds since you'll probably be reading/writing lots of small files. Large files are much faster but not as common (for me anyways) as lots of small files.

[Koralatov]

Originally Posted by bowwowman 

And if you had moved into the Delta Quadrant with Cpt. Janeway & crew, those chips would be "neuro-linear" modules, as the Voyager starship used a brand new generation of biomolecular gel-based processor packs to vastly improve their computer's performance and reliability

If memory serves, making cheese near a ventilation shaft could lead to a bacterial infection in said gel-packs, causing unforeseen operation and malfunctions of varying severity. I don't think boring old isolinear ever suffered from that particular vulnerability.

Also, I'll give the Delta Quadrant a miss, if it's all the same to you. It was rather boring. The Gamma Quadrant, however...

Originally Posted by cgc 

Yes, USB 2 but some drives are significantly faster/slower than others. I would look to benchmarks instead of sustained read/write speeds since you'll probably be reading/writing lots of small files. Large files are much faster but not as common (for me anyways) as lots of small files.

I wasn't aware that there would be a huge disparity in performance from drive to drive. The Sony drive I have performs fine; it's the same speed as my Intelligent Stick, and a retractable Maxwell drive I have. Perhaps the model you have was afflicted with terrible read/write speeds?

[cgc]

Originally Posted by Koralatov 

I wasn't aware that there would be a huge disparity in performance from drive to drive. The Sony drive I have performs fine; it's the same speed as my Intelligent Stick, and a retractable Maxwell drive I have. Perhaps the model you have was afflicted with terrible read/write speeds?

Can't find anything for 2007 but here's a chart of 2006 USB thumb drives showing a pretty wide speed difference.

[drnkn_stylz]

Memorex TravelDrive.

[labembita]

hey, i just got the sony micro vault tiny and I have a mac OS version10.4.10. The memoty is 1 Gb but says I can store 3 more times, that means 3 Gb. So far, i don't know how I can compress using the virtual expander. Can anybody help me? Thanx.

[cgc]

Originally Posted by labembita 

hey, i just got the sony micro vault tiny and I have a mac OS version10.4.10. The memoty is 1 Gb but says I can store 3 more times, that means 3 Gb. So far, i don't know how I can compress using the virtual expander. Can anybody help me? Thanx.

Prolly by installing the Windows-only driver and using it exclusively in a Windows environment. Doubtful it works on Mac.

[mduell]

Compuplus spammer?

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by mduell 

Compuplus spammer?

Used to be...