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USB Thumbdrives
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kupan787
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Join Date: Jun 1999
Location: San Jose, CA
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Sep 7, 2005, 07:34 PM
 
Hey, I have a few questions regarding thumb drives.

1) Do they all rely on flash, or are there any based around the 0.85" microdrives? I through I found one company claiming to make them (http://www.trek2000.com.sg/press17.htm), but it is just a press release from back in March. Do these exist anywhere yet (I couldn't find, and I looked for awhile).

2) Is speed an issue? I found one claiming to be 17MB/s read and 14MB/s write. I know that isn't as fast as a hard drive, but that sounds like pretty good speeds. Is that about what most thumbdrives are, or is this one special (http://www.trekstorusa.com/thumbdrive_2smart.htm)?

3) Also, does anyone have any recommendations on drives? I need one in the 512 - 2GB range.

Thanks for any help guys.
     
ghporter
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Join Date: Apr 2001
Location: San Antonio TX USA
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Sep 8, 2005, 12:12 PM
 
Anything below about 2GB is going to be flash-based, while some 2-4GB drives will be flash as well. The larger drives are going to be hard-drive based because of the cost issue-it's less expensive at about the 4GB point to use a tiny hard drive than all that flash memory, but they'll still be AWFULLY expensive.

Speed is slower than a hard drive but faster than many optical drives, and WAY faster than the floppies we all grew to hate. It's a good compromise.

I've used PNY's USB flash drives for some time and they're rugged and reliable. I recently got a 1GB device and it's been wonderful. I don't know if PNY markets anything larger than 1GB yet.

Glenn -----OTR/L, MOT, Tx
     
Cold Warrior
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Sep 8, 2005, 09:26 PM
 
I have a 2GB flash-based drive and love it.
Before that had a 1GB sandisk flash drive. Loved it. Still use it.
Before that had a 512MB sandisk and also a good workhorse.
They are excellent purchases.
     
alligator
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Join Date: Aug 2003
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Mar 29, 2006, 08:51 PM
 
I'm now in the market for a new flash drive. I have a 128 MB Crucial Gizmo! drive which has worked well.

What is the smallest drive out there today?

How about one that has the "Apple" quality, look, and feel?

I need one now that is at least 1 GB.
     
mduell
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Join Date: Oct 2005
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Mar 29, 2006, 09:35 PM
 
Sandisk and pqi both have some small 1GB models.
     
applesnapple
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Mar 31, 2006, 12:01 AM
 
Originally Posted by alligator
I'm now in the market for a new flash drive. I have a 128 MB Crucial Gizmo! drive which has worked well.

What is the smallest drive out there today?

How about one that has the "Apple" quality, look, and feel?

I need one now that is at least 1 GB.
I'd go for this 64gb model, yes I said 64 gigabytes.

Ok, now in the sub $5000 range, lol, I really like the sandisk cruzer titanium 1gb. Its got fast read/write speeds and it looks pretty cool, and according to cnet you can run over it with a car, and that was the deal breaker for me!
     
   
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