A USB flash drive consists of a NAND-type flash memory data storage device integrated with a USB (universal serial bus) interface. USB flash drives are typically removable and rewritable, much smaller than a floppy disk (1 to 4 inches or 2.5 to 10cm), and most USB flash drives weigh less than an ounce

Connected by USB 1.1 or USB 2.0. USB flash drives offer potential advantages over other portable storage devices, particularly the floppy disk. They have a more compact shape, operate faster, hold much more data, have a more durable design, and operate more reliably due to their lack of moving parts. Additionally, it has become increasingly common for computers to be sold without floppy disk drives. USB ports, on the other hand, appear on almost every current

Mainstream PC and laptop. These types of drives use the USB mass storage standard, supported natively by modern operating systems such as Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, and other Unix-like systems. USB drives with USB 2.0 support can also operate faster than an optical disc drive, while storing a larger amount of data in a much smaller space. Nothing actually moves in a flash drive. the term drive persists because computers read and write flash-drive data using the same system commands as for a mechanical disk drive, with the storage appearing to the computer operating system and user interface as just another drive.

A flash drive consists of a small printed circuit board protected inside a plastic, metal, or rubberised case, robust enough for carrying with no additional protection—in a pocket or on a key chain, for example. The USB connector is protected by a removable cap or by retracting into the body of the drive, although it is not liable to be damaged if exposed. Most flash drives use a standard type-A USB connection allowing plugging into a port on a personal computer.

Toshiba TransMemory Flash Drive with cover on. Comes pre-installed with U3, allowing users to take their applications, fully installed and operational to most Windows desktops.

Advances in microprocessor technology. The memory storage is based on earlier EPROM and EEPROM technologies. These had very limited capacity, were very slow for both reading and writing, required complex high-voltage drive circuitry, and could only be re-written after erasing the entire contents of the chip. Hardware designers later developed EEPROMs with the erasure region broken up into smaller "fields" that could be erased individually without affecting the others. Altering the contents of a particular memory location involved first copying the entire field into an off-chip buffer memory, erasing the field, and then re-writing the data back into the same field, making the necessary alteration to the relevant memory location while doing so. This required considerable computer support, and PC-based EEPROM flash memory systems often carried their own dedicated microprocessor system. Flash drives are more or less a miniaturized version of this. The development of high-speed serial data interfaces such as USB for the first time made memory systems with serially accessed storage viable, and the simultaneous development of small, high-speed, low-power microprocessor systems allowed this to be incorporated into extremely compact systems. Serial access also greatly reduced the number of electrical connections required for the memory chips, which has allowed the successful manufacture of multi-gigabyte capacities. (Every external electrical connection is a potential source of manufacturing failure, and with traditional manufacturing, a point is rapidly reached where the successful yield approaches zero). Computers access modern

Flash memory systems very much like hard disk drives, where the controller system has full control over where information is actually stored. The actual EEPROM writing and erasure processes are, however, still very similar to the earlier systems described above. Many low-cost MP3 players simply add extra software to a standard flash memory control microprocessor so it can also serve as a music playback decoder. Most of these players can also be used as a conventional flash drive, for storing data.

Trek Technology and IBM began selling the first USB flash drives commercially in 2000. Singaporean company Trek Technology sold a model dubbed the "ThumbDrive," and IBM marketed the first such drives in North America, with its product the "DiskOnKey" (which was manufactured by M-Systems). IBM's USB flash drive became available December 15, 2000

And had a storage capacity of 8 MB, more than five times the capacity of the (at the time) commonly used floppy disks. In 2000 Lexar introduced a Compact Flash (CF) card with a USB connection, and a companion card read/writer and USB cable that eliminated the need for a USB hub. In 2004 Trek Technology brought several lawsuits against other USB flash drive manufacturers and distributors in an attempt to assert its patent rights to the USB flash drive. A court in Singapore ordered competitors to cease selling similar products

Modern flash drives have USB 2.0 connectivity. However, they do not currently use the full 480Mbit/s (60MB/s) the USB 2.0 Hi-Speed specification supports due to technical limitations inherent in NAND flash. The fastest drives currently available use a dual channel controller, although they still fall considerably short of the transfer rate possible from a current generation hard disk, or the maximum high speed USB throughput. Typical overall file transfer speeds vary considerably, and should be checked before purchase. speeds may be given in megabytes or megabits per second. Typical fast drives claim to read at up to 30 megabytes/s (MB/s) and write at about half that. Older "USB full speed" 12 megabit/s devices are limited to a maximum of about 1 MB/s.

One end of the device is fitted with a single male type-A USB connector. Inside the plastic casing is a small printed circuit board. Mounted on this board is some simple power circuitry and a small number of surface-mounted integrated circuits (ICs). Typically, one of these ICs provides an interface to the USB port, another drives the onboard memory, and the other is the flash memory. Drives typically use the USB mass storage device class to communicate with the host.

Jumpers and test pins – for testing during the flash drive's manufacturing or loading code into the microprocessor.

USB connector cover or cap – reduces the risk of damage and prevents the ingress of fluff or other contaminants, and improves overall device appearance. Some flash drives do not feature a cap, but instead have retractable USB connectors. Other flash drives have a "swivel" cap that is permanently connected to the drive itself and eliminates the chance of losing the cap.

Flash drives come in various, sometimes bulky or novelty, shapes and sizes, in this case ikura sushi

Some manufacturers differentiate their products by using elaborate housings, which are often bulky and make the drive difficult to connect to the USB port. Because the USB port connectors on a computer housing are often closely spaced, plugging a flash drive into a USB port may block an adjacent port. Such devices may only carry the USB logo if sold with a separate extension cable. USB flash drives have been integrated into other commonly-carried items such as watches, pens, and even the Swiss Army Knife. others have been fitted with novelty cases such as toy cars or LEGO bricks. The small size, robustness and cheapness of USB flash drives make them an increasingly popular peripheral for case modding. Heavy or bulky flash drive packaging can make for unreliable operation when plugged directly into a USB port. this can be relieved by a USB extension cable. Such cables are USB-compatible, but do not conform to the USB 1.0 standard.

Most flash drives ship preformatted with the FAT or FAT 32 file system. The ubiquity of this file system allows the drive to be accessed on virtually any host device with USB support. Also, standard FAT maintenance utilities (e. g. ScanDisk) can be used to repair or retrieve corrupted data. However, because a flash drive appears as a USB-connected hard drive to the host system, the drive can be reformatted to any file system supported by the host operating system. Flash drives can be defragmented, but this brings little advantage as there is no mechanical head slowed down by having to move from fragment to fragment (flash drives often have very large internal sector size, especially when erasing so defragmenting means accessing fewer sectors to erase a file). Defragmenting shortens the life of the drive by making many unnecessary writes.[2] Some file systems are designed to distribute usage over an entire memory device without concentrating usage on any part (e. g., for a directory). this prolongs life of simple flash memory devices. Some USB flash drives, however, have this functionality built into the controller to prolong device life, while others do not, therefore the end user should check the specifications of his device prior to changing the file system for this reason.[3]

The most common use of flash drives is to transport and store personal files such as documents, pictures and videos. Individuals also store medical alert information on MedicTag flash drives for use in emergencies and for disaster preparation.

With wide deployment(s) of flash drives being used in various environments (secured or otherwise), the issue of data and information security remains of the utmost importance. The use of biometrics and encryption is becoming the norm with the need for increased security for data. OTFE systems such as FreeOTFE and TrueCrypt are particularly useful in this regard, as they can transparently encrypt large amounts of data. In some cases a Secure USB Drive may use a hardware-based encryption mechanism that uses a hardware module instead of software for strongly encrypting data.

Flash drives are particularly popular among system and network administrators, who load them with configuration information and software used for system maintenance, troubleshooting, and recovery.

Flash drives enjoy notable success in the PC repair field as a means to transfer recovery and antivirus software to infected PCs, while allowing a portion of the host machine's data to be archived in case of emergency. As the drives have increased in storage space, they have also replaced the need to carry a number of CD ROMs and installers which were needed when reinstalling or updating a system.

Flash drives are used to carry applications that run on the host computer without requiring installation. While any standalone application can in principle be used this way, many programs store data, configuration information, etc. on the hard drive and registry of the host computer The U3 company works with drive makers (parent company SanDisk as well as others) to deliver custom versions of applications designed for Microsoft Windows from a special flash drive. U3-compatible devices are designed to autoload a menu when plugged into a computer running Windows. Applications must be modified for the U3 platform not to leave any data on the host machine. U3 also provides a software framework for ISVs interested in their platform. Ceedo is an alternative product with the key difference that it does not require Windows applications to be modified in order for them to be carried and run on the drive. Similarly, other application virtualization solutions, such as VMware ThinApp can be used to run software from a flash drive without installation. A range of portable applications which are all free of charge and able to run off a computer running Windows without storing anything on the host computer's drives or registry is available from portableapps. com. unlike U3 programs which run from a special U3-compatible USB stick, the PortableApps menu will run from a standard device, and can also use the Windows AutoRun feature.

A recent development for the use of a USB Flash Drive as an application carrier is to carry the Computer Online Forensic Evidence Extractor (COFEE) application developed by Microsoft. COFEE is a set of applications designed to search for and extract digital evidence on computers confiscated from suspects

Most current PC firmware permits booting from a USB drive, allowing the launch of an operating system from a bootable flash drive. Such a configuration is known as a Live USB. While a Live USB could be used for general-purpose applications, size and memory wear make them poor choices compared to alternatives. They are more suited to special-purpose or temporary tasks, such as.

In Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows 7, the ReadyBoost feature allows use of some flash drives to augment operating system memory.

Many companies make small solid-state digital audio players, essentially producing flash drives with sound output and a simple user interface. Examples include the Creative MuVo and the iPod shuffle. Some of these players are true USB flash drives as well as music players. others do not support general-purpose data storage. Many of the smallest players are powered by a permanently fitted rechargeable battery, charged from the USB interface.

Digital audio files can be transported from one computer to another like any other file, and played on a compatible media player (with caveats for DRM-locked files). In addition, many home Hi-Fi and car stereo head units are now equipped with a USB port. This allows a USB flash drive containing media files in a variety of formats to be played directly on devices which support the format. The files may be ripped from CD or purchased or downloaded online, and there have been some cases of pre-encoded music sold or given away for promotion on USB flash drives.

The I Heart Revolution. With Hearts as One album by Hillsong United was released in 2008 on a flash drive embedded in a black rubber wristband. In addition to the music files, the drive included the lyrical overhead master sheets, a PDF copy of the liner sleeve, and the two versions of the album cover.

The 2009 Annual from Ministry of Sound have released a special edition of the album with the songs on a coloured USB Flash Drive.

In the arcade game In the Groove and more commonly In The Groove 2, flash drives are used to transfer high scores, screenshots, dance edits, and combos throughout sessions. As of software revision 21 (R21), players can also store custom songs and play them on any machine on which this feature is enabled. While use of flash drives is common, the drive must be Linux compatible, causing problems for some players.

The availability of inexpensive flash drives has enabled them to be used for promotional and marketing purposes, particularly within technical and computer-industry circles (e. g. technology trade shows). They may be given away for free, sold at less than wholesale price, or included as a bonus with another purchased product. Usually, such drives will be custom-stamped with a company's logo, as a form of advertising to increase mind share and brand awareness. The drive may be blank drive, or preloaded with graphics, documentation, web links, Flash animation or other multimedia, and free or demonstration software. Some preloaded drives are read-only. others are configured with a read-only and a writeable partition. Dual-partition drives are more expensive. Flash drives can be set up to autorun stored presentations, websites and articles immediately on insertion of the drive by saving a file called autorun. inf with an appropriate shell script in the root directory of the drive.

Some value-added resellers are now using a flash drive as part of small-business turnkey solutions (e. g. point-of-sale systems). The drive is used as a backup medium. at the close of business each night, the drive is inserted, and a database backup is saved to the drive. Alternatively, the drive can be left inserted through the business day, and data regularly updated. In either case, the drive is removed at night and taken offsite.

Flash drives are impervious to scratches and dust, and mechanically very robust making them suitable for transporting data from place to place and keeping it readily at hand. Most personal computers support USB as of 2008

Flash drives also store data densely compared to many removable media. In mid-2008, 64 GB drives became available, with the ability to hold many times more data than a DVD. Compared to hard drives, flash drives use little power, have no fragile moving parts, and for low capacities are small and light. Flash drives implement the USB mass storage device class so that most modern operating systems can read and write to them without installing device drivers. The flash drives present a simple block-structured logical unit to the host operating system, hiding the individual complex implementation details of the various underlying flash memory devices. The operating system can use any file system or block addressing scheme. Some computers can boot up from flash drives. Some flash drives retain their memory even after being submerged in water

Even through a machine wash, although this is not a design feature and not to be relied upon. Leaving the flash drive out to dry completely before allowing current to run through it has been known to result in a working drive with no future problems. Channel Five's Gadget Show cooked a flash drive with propane, froze it with dry ice, submerged it in various acidic liquids, ran over it with a jeep and fired it against a wall with a mortar. A company specializing in recovering lost data from computer drives managed to recover all the data on the drive.

Like all flash memory devices, flash drives can sustain only a limited number of write and erase cycles before failure

This should be a consideration when using a flash drive to run application software or an operating system. To address this, as well as space limitations, some developers have produced special versions of operating systems (such as Linux in Live USB)

Or commonplace applications (such as Mozilla Firefox) designed to run from flash drives. These are typically optimized for size and configured to place temporary or intermediate files in the computer's main RAM rather than store them temporarily on the flash drive. Most USB flash drives do not include a write-protect mechanism, although some have a switch on the housing of the drive itself to keep the host computer from writing or modifying data on the drive. Write-protection makes a device suitable for repairing virus-contaminated host computers without risk of infecting the USB flash drive itself. A drawback to the small size is that they are easily misplaced, left behind, or otherwise lost. This is a particular problem if the data they contain are sensitive (see data security). As a consequence, some manufacturers have added encryption hardware to their drives -- although software encryption systems achieve the same thing, and are universally available for all USB flash drives. Others just have the possibility of being attached to keychains, necklaces and lanyards. Compared to other portable storage device, for example external hard drives, USB flash drives have a high price per unit of storage and are only available in comparatively small capacities. but hard drives have a higher minimum price, so in the smaller capacities (16 GB and less), USB flash drives are much less expensive than the smallest available hard drives.

The applications of current data tape cartridges hardly overlap those of flash drives. the drives and media are very expensive, have very high capacity, slower transfer speed than most other storage media, and store data sequentially, leading to very long access times. These devices are used for routine backup of large systems.

The size of a Flash Drive compared to the size of a 3.5 inch Floppy Disk. Common flash drives have much larger storage capacity than a floppy disk.

The various writable and rewritable forms of CD and DVD are portable storage media supported by the vast majority of computers as of 2008. CD-R, DVD-R, and DVD+R can be written to only once., RW varieties up to about 1,000 erase/write cycles, while modern NAND-based flash drives often last for 500,000 or more erase/write cycles.

DVD-RAM discs are the most suitable optical discs for data storage involving much rewriting. Optical storage devices are among the cheapest methods of mass data storage after the hard drive. They are slower than their flash-based counterparts. Standard 12cm optical discs are larger than flash drives and more subject to damage. Smaller optical media do exist, such as business card CD-Rs which have the same dimensions as a credit card, and the slightly less convenient but higher capacity 8cm recordable CD/DVDs. The small discs are more expensive than the standard size, and do not work in all drives. Universal Disk Format (UDF) version 1.50 and above has facilities to support rewritable discs like sparing tables and virtual allocation tables, spreading usage over the entire surface of a disc and maximising life, but many older operating systems do not support this format. Packet-writing utilities such as DirectCD and InCD are available but produce discs that are not universally readable (although based on the UDF standard). The Mount Rainier standard addresses this shortcoming in CD-RW media by running the older file systems on top of it and performing defect management for those standards, but it requires support from both the CD/DVD burner and the operating system. Many drives made today do not support Mount Rainier, and many older operating systems such as Windows XP and below, and Linux kernels older than 2.6.2, do not support it (later versions do). Essentially CDs/DVDs are a good way to record a great deal of information cheaply and have the advantage of being readable by most standalone players, but they are poor at making ongoing small changes to a large collection of information. Flash drives' ability to do this is their major advantage over optical media.

Flash memory cards, e. g. Secure Digital cards, are available in various formats and capacities, and are used by many consumer devices. However, although virtually all PCs have USB ports allowing the use of USB flash drives, memory card readers are not usually supplied as standard (particularly with desktop computers), although card readers are available that read many common formats. Alternatively, USB card readers can be used with memory cards, however, this results in two pieces of portable equipment (card plus reader) rather than one. Nevertheless, many consumer devices cannot make use of USB flash drives (even if the device has a USB port) whereas the memory cards used by the devices can relatively easily be read by PCs (with the attachment of a card reader), thus offering flash memory cards some advantages over USB flash drives.

Particularly with the advent of USB, external hard disks have become widely available and inexpensive. As drive capacity increases, external hard disk drives cost less per megabyte than flash drives, and are available in much larger capacities. Some hard drives support alternative and faster interfaces than USB 2.0 (e. g. IEEE 1394 and eSATA). For writes and consecutive sector reads (for example, from an unfragmented file), most hard drives can provide a much higher sustained data rate than current NAND flash memory. Unlike solid-state memory, hard drives are susceptible to damage by shock, e. g., a short fall, have limitations on use at high altitude, and, like all magnetic media, are vulnerable when exposed to strong magnetic fields, although shielded by their casing. Hard drives are usually larger and heavier than flash drives in terms of overall mass, although hard disks often weigh less per unit of storage. Hard disks also suffer from file fragmentation which can reduce access speed.

All USB flash drives can have their contents encrypted using third party disk encryption software such as FreeOTFE and TrueCrypt, which can be used without installation. The executable files can be stored on the USB drive, together with the encrypted file image. The encrypted partition can then be accessed on any computer running the correct operating system, although may require administrative rights on the host computer to access data. Other flash drives allow the user to configure secure and public partitions of different sizes, and offer hardware encryption. Newer flash drives support biometric fingerprinting to confirm the user's identity. As of mid-2005

This was a costly alternative to standard password protection offered on many new USB flash storage devices. Most fingerprint scanning drives rely upon the host operating system to validate the fingerprint via a software driver, often restricting the drive to Microsoft Windows computers. However, there are USB drives with fingerprint scanners which use controllers that allow access to protected data without any authentication.

Some manufacturers deploy physical authentication tokens in the form of a flash drive. These are used to control access to a sensitive system by containing encryption keys or, more commonly, communicating with security software on the target machine. The system is designed so the target machine will not operate except when the flash drive device is plugged into it. Some of these "PC lock" devices also function as normal flash drives when plugged into other machines.

Flash drives present a significant security challenge for large organizations. Their small size and ease of use allows unsupervised visitors or unscrupulous employees to smuggle confidential data out with little chance of detection. Equally, corporate and public computers alike are vulnerable to attackers connecting a flash drive to a free USB port and using malicious software such as keyboard loggers or packet sniffers. To prevent this, some Antivirus software companies have designed specific applications to protect computers from the spread of malware via USB flash drives. Also it is possible to run a solution that has been specifically designed to run from a USB flash drive. This kind of solution prioritises the protection of the USB flash drives and protects any sensitive data contained on USB flash drives from infected malware residing on any computer that the USB flash drive is attached to. Alternatively some organizations simply forbid the use of flash drives altogether, and some computers are configured to disable the mounting of USB mass storage devices by ordinary users. others use third-party software to control USB usage. In a lower-tech security solution, some organizations disconnect USB ports inside the computer or fill the USB sockets with epoxy.

By August 2008, "USB flash drive" or simply "UFD" had emerged as a de facto standard term for these devices,

Semiconductor corporations have worked to reduce the cost of the components in a flash drive by integrating various flash drive functions in a single chip, thereby reducing the part-count and overall package-cost. Flash drive capacities on the market increase continually. As of 2008

Few manufacturers continue to produce models of 256MB and smaller. and many have started to phase out 512MB capacity flash memory. High-speed has become a standard for modern flash drives and capacities of up to 64GB have come on the market.

Which would be a compact USB flash drive intended to replace various kinds of flash memory cards. Pretec introduced a similar card, which also plugs into every USB port, but is just one quarter the thickness of the Lexar model

USB flash drives allow reading, writing, and erasing of data, with some allowing 1 million write/erase cycles in each cell of memory. if 100 uses per day, 1 million cycles could span 10,000 days or over 27 years. Some devices level the usage by auto-shifting activity to underused sections of memory.

This article is about flash-based, DRAM-based and other solid-state drives. For other flash-based solid-state storage, see USB flash drive. For software based secondary storage, see RAM disk.

A solid-state drive (SSD) is a data storage device that uses solid-state memory to store persistent data. A SSD emulates a hard disk drive interface, thus easily replacing it in most applications. A SSD using SRAM or DRAM (instead of flash memory) is often called a RAM-drive. The original usage of the term solid-state (from solid-state physics) refers to the use of semiconductor devices rather than electron tubes, but in this context, has been adopted to distinguish solid-state electronics from electromechanical devices as well. With no moving parts, solid-state drives are less fragile than hard disks and are also silent (unless a cooling fan is used). as there are no mechanical delays, they usually employ low access time and latency. SSDs have begun to appear in laptops,

However, the prohibitively high price of the built-to-order SSDs made them quite seldom used. In 1978 StorageTek developed the first modern type of solid-state drive. In the mid-1980s Santa Clara Systems introduced BatRam, an array of 1 megabit DIP RAM Chips and a custom controller card that emulated a hard disk. The package included a rechargeable battery to preserve the memory chip contents when the array was not powered. The Sharp PC-5000, introduced in 1983, used 128 kilobyte (128 KB) solid-state storage cartridges, containing bubble memory. RAM "disks" were popular as boot media in the 1980s when hard drives were expensive, floppy drives were slow, and a few systems, such as the Amiga series, the Apple IIgs, and later the Macintosh Portable, supported such booting. Tandy MS-DOS machines were equipped with DOS and DeskMate in ROM, as well. At the cost of some main memory, the system could be soft-rebooted and be back in the operating system in mere seconds instead of minutes. Some systems were battery-backed so contents could persist when the system was shut down. In 1995 M-Systems introduced flash-based solid-state drives. (SanDisk acquired M-Systems in November 2006). Since then, SSDs have been used successfully as hard disk drive replacements by the military and aerospace industries, as well as other mission-critical applications. These applications require the exceptional mean time between failures (MTBF) rates that solid-state drives achieve, by virtue of their ability to withstand extreme shock, vibration and temperature ranges. In 2007, SSDs of a few gigabytes capacity gained mainstream popularity with netbook and subnotebooks.

Enterprise Flash Drives (EFDs) are designed for applications requiring high performance (Input/Output Operations Per Second), reliability and energy efficiency. Fusion-IO announced the 640GB version of ioDrive to be available in Q1 2008

Most SSD manufacturers use non-volatile flash memory to create more rugged and compact devices for the consumer market. These flash memory-based SSDs, also known as flash drives, do not require batteries. They are often packaged in standard disk drive form factors (1.8-inch, 2.5-inch, and 3.5-inch). In addition, non-volatility allows flash SSDs to retain memory even during sudden power outages, ensuring data persistence. SSDs are slower than DRAM (and even traditional HDDs on big files), but may perform better than hard drives (at least with regard to reads) because of negligible seek time (flash SSDs have no moving parts, and thus eliminate spin-up time, and greatly reduce seek time, latency, and other delays inherent in conventional electro-mechanical disks). Components.

Cache. A flash based SSD uses a small amount of DRAM as a cache, similar to the cache in Hard disk drives. A directory of block placement and wear leveling data is also kept in the cache while the drive is operating.

The performance of the SSD can scale with the number of parallel NAND flash chips used in the device. A single NAND chip is relatively slow, due to narrow (8/16 bit) asynchronous IO interface, and additional high latency of basic IO operations (typical for SLC NAND - ~25 μs to fetch a 4K page from the array to the IO buffer on a read, ~250 μs to commit a 4K page from the IO buffer to the array on a write, ~2 ms to erase a 256 KB block). When multiple NAND devices operate in parallel inside an SSD, the bandwidth scales, and the high latencies can be hidden, as long as enough outstanding operations are pending and the load is evenly distributed between devices. Micron/Intel SSD made faster flash drives by implementing data striping (similar to RAID0) and interleaving. This allowed creation of ultra-fast SSDs with 250 MB/s effective read/write, the maximum the SATA interface can manage.

Larger range of operating temperatures. Typical hard drives have an operating range of 5-55 degrees C. Most flash drives can operate at 70 degrees, and some industrial grade drives can operate over an even wider temperature range.

For low-capacity SSDs, lower weight and size. although size and weight per unit storage are still better for traditional hard drives, and microdrives allow up to 20GB storage in a CompactFlash 42.8×36.4×5mm (1.7×1.4×.2in) form-factor. Up to 256GB, as of 2008 SSDs are lighter than hard drives of the same capacity.

For flash drives and over US$80.00 per GB for RAM-based compared to about US$0.38 or less per gigabyte for hard drives.

Capacity. As of 2008, far lower than that of conventional hard drives (Flash SSD capacity is predicted to increase rapidly, with experimental drives of 1TB,

In combination with wear leveling, over-provisioning SSD flash drives with spared memory capacity also delays the loss of user-accessible memory capacity. NAND memory can be negatively impacted by read and program (write) disturbs arising from over accessing a particular NAND location. This overuse of NAND locations causes bits within the NAND block to erroneously change values. Wear leveling, by redirecting SSD writes to lesser-used NAND locations, thus reduces the potential for program or write disturbs.

Note. When Playstation 3 users want to upgrade their hard drive to a flash SSD, it can acually decrease performance compared to the 5400 rpm hard drive that the Playstation comes with. In some games there is a slightly higher or lower load time. This is due to slower write speeds. It is far better to stick with a hard drive than to switch to a SSD in a Playstation 3 being that it is cheaper and usually faster than the new SSD's.

As flash manufacturers transition from NOR flash to single-level cell (SLC) NAND flash and most recently to multi-level cell (MLC) NAND flash to maximize silicon die usage and reduce associated costs, "solid-state disks" are now being more accurately renamed "solid-state drives" – they have no disks but function as drives – for mobile computing in the enterprise and consumer electronics space. This technological trend is accompanied by an annual 50% decline in raw flash material costs, while capacities continue to double at the same rate. As a result, flash-based solid-state drives are becoming increasingly popular in markets such as notebook PCs and sub-notebooks for enterprises, Ultra-Mobile PCs (UMPC), and Tablet PCs for the healthcare and consumer electronics sectors. Major PC companies have now started to offer such technology.

For low-end applications, a USB flash drive may be obtained for $10 to $100 or so, depending on capacity, or a CompactFlash card may be paired with a CF-to-IDE or CF-to-SATA converter at a similar cost. Either of these requires that write-cycle endurance issues be managed, either by not storing frequently written files on the drive, or by using a Flash file system. Standard CompactFlash cards usually have write speeds of 7 to 15 megabytes per second while the more expensive upmarket cards claim speeds of up to 40MB/s. One of the first mainstream releases of SSD was the XO Laptop, built as part of the 'One Laptop Per Child' project. Mass production of these computers, built for children in developing countries, began in December 2007. These machines use 1024 MiB SLC NAND flash as primary storage which is considered more suitable for the harsher than normal conditions in which they are expected to be used. Dell began shipping ultra-portable laptops with SanDisk SSDs on April 26, 2007.

A use for flash drives is to run lightweight operating systems designed specifically for turning general-purpose PCs into network appliances comparable to more expensive routers and firewalls. In this situation, a write protected flash drive containing the whole operating system is used to boot the system. A similar system could boot from CD, floppy disk or a traditional hard drive but flash memory is a good choice because of very low power consumption and failure rate.

A hybrid disk uses a SSD as a buffer for a larger hard disk drive. The hard disk may be spun down more of the time if data is available in the SSD. NAND Flash based SSDs offer a potential power savings, however the typical pattern of usage of normal operations result in cache misses in the NAND Flash as well leading to continued spin of the drive platter or much longer latency if the drive needed to spin up.

A Flash Drive is a small self-powered drive that connects to a computer directly through a USB port. It's both Mac and PC compatible, so you can transfer files between both Macs and PCs. They are supported on all public machines, although some flash drives require a user to install drivers before use. Flash drives can hold any type of data, including excel, jpeg, video, and text files. Flash drives are also commonly referred to as key drive, thumb drives, jump drives, USB drives and pen drives.

We strongly encourage users to backup files to CD-RW or CD-R disks or zip disks. Please note that not all flash drives are the same. Some may require extra drivers to be installed on a computer in order for them to function properly. Public computers do not allow drivers to be installed. Therefore, not all flash drives will be compatible with public computers. Flash drives come with varying amounts of memory. You may purchase a flash drive that is approximately the size of a zip disk, or 256MB. Also, you have the option of purchasing a few 32MB drives instead of a single 256MB drive. Some of the most popular brand name drives, are Lexar, Sandisk, Kingston, PNY, and Iomega.

Insert the flash drive into the USB port and watch to see where the USB flash drive appears. Most will appear as removable storage, but some will instead appear as hard drives. Note the name Windows is using to refer to the flash drive (Removable Disk (G.), for example).

Open My Documents or the location from which you want to transfer files to the flash drive. Select the files or folders you want to save to the flash drive by left-clicking on them. To select more than one, hold down the CTRL key while you click and select all of the files you wish to save.

Right-click on the file(s) or folder(s) you selected, then select Send to, then select the name you saw appearing in My Computer for the flash drive (Removable Disk (G.), for example).

Instead, left-click on the Remove Hardware icon located in the System Tray. A window containing a list of the USB devices will appear. Left-click on the Safely Remove Mass Storage Device line that matches your flash drive (for example,

When you see the following message appear in the bottom left toolbar, it is, as it says, safe to remove the flash drive from the USB port. you may close the message or ignore it, as it will close itself automatically.

Insert the flash drive into the USB port and watch to see where the USB flash drive appears. Most will appear as removable storage, but some will instead appear as hard drives. Note the name Windows is using to refer to the flash drive (Removable Disk (G.), for example).

Double-click on the flash drive to locate the file(s) or folder(s) you want to copy to this computer. Select the files or folders you want to copy by left-clicking on them. To select more than one, hold down the CTRL key while you click and select all of the files or folders you wish to copy.

Instead, left-click on the Remove Hardware icon located in the System Tray. A window containing a list of the USB devices will appear. Left-click on the Safely Remove Mass Storage Device line that matches your flash drive (for example,

When you see the following message appear in the bottom left toolbar, it is, as it says, safe to remove the flash drive from the USB port. you may close the message or ignore it, as it will close itself automatically.

Find the files or folders you want to copy to the flash drive. Select the files or folders you want to save to the flash drive by clicking on them. To select more than one, hold down the APPLE key while you click and select all of the files and folders you wish to save.

The white USB drive icon will no longer be visible on your desktop. It is now safe to remove the flash drive from the USB port.

Back at the USB flash drive folder, select the files or folders you want to copy from the flash drive by clicking on them. To select more than one, hold down the APPLE key while you click and select all of the files and folders you wish to save.

The white USB drive icon will no longer be visible on your desktop. It is now safe to remove the flash drive from the USB port

You should be able to take a USB flash drive back and forth between Macintosh and Windows computers. however, not all files are compatible with both platforms.

(n.) A small, portable flash memory card that plugs into a computer’s USB port and functions as a portable hard drive. USB flash drives are touted as being easy-to-use as they are small enough to be carried in a pocket and can plug into any computer with a USB drive. USB flash drives have less storage capacity than an external hard drive, but they are smaller and more durable because they do not contain any internal moving parts. USB flash drives also are called thumb drives, jump drives, pen drives, key drives, tokens, or simply USB drives.

A consortium of technology companies to educate consumers about the exceptional portability, capacity, and utility of USB flash drives.

Memory CardsUSB flash drive Products Shop by Top Models.Corsair Memory Voyager™ (16 GB) USB 2.0 Flash Drive (CMFUSB2016GB)8 store offers from $27 - $55Memorex TravelDrive™ (4 GB) USB 2.0 Flash Drive ( us. )10 store offers from $9 - $63Kingston DataTraveler (1 GB) USB 2.0 Flash Drive (KUSBDTI1GB)6 store offers from $7 - $21SanDisk CruzerŽ Micro (2 GB) USB 2.0 Flash Drive (SDCZ62048A10)15 store offers from $9 - $31SanDisk Cruzer Contour (8 GB) USB 2.0 Flash Drive (SDCZ us. A75)16 store offers from $39 - $100

Judging by the quantity of USB flash drives on the market, no one will doubt the popularity of this floppy replacement. Though, rather taking over the role of the aging floppy, these USB keychain memory drives have already become the inspiration for innovation. On your way down the page, you will first see the fastest USB flash drive, which gets a major boost from Hi-Speed USB interface and increasingly faster non-volatile flash memory. On the next row, we listed three USB flash drives with a wealth of mobile utilities. Further down, we hand picked three flash drives considered to be tiniest thumb drives ever introduced. On the last row, we showcased three USB flash readers conveniently shaped like a USB flash drive.

We have all accidentally left a flash drive in our pocket and washed it, dropped it outside and left it to Mother Natures wrath, or something similar. Thankfully many manufacturers are starting to come up with ways to protect these frail devices and help them withstand our mishaps. While OCZ is not the first one to introduce a product that increases the durability and ruggedness of a flash drive, it is their first attempt at a flash drive with some extra resilience.

Two years ago Corsair made a splash in the flash drive market with the launch of their Flash Voyager, a rubber coated drive that is meant to take a beating. While we have seen a few new capacities come out, Corsair has not made any dramatic improvements to the line until now with the release of the Flash Voyager GT. Built for extreme speeds and conditions, we put both of these to the test in our full review. Obligatory SUV crush test after the jump.

Sandisk's latest flash drive offering - Cruzer Titanium Plus - has two revisions that seem somewhat odd to us. First, the Plus is colored gold, not exactly the original color of titanium - the rugged material used for the thumbdrive chassis. Second, Sandisk has stopped bundling U3 on their drives starting with the Titanium Plus. Those who scold about the incompetency of U3 platform can turn their target elsewhere.

The aptly named IronKey flash drive has been designed from ground up to protect your data with the best security commercially available, or so they say. Inside the flash drive is a hardware accelerated engine that always encrypts the data in AES CBC mode before being written to the drive. Encryption keys are generated and stored in the IronKey Cryptochip, and are never going to be stored on the PC which is often the place where traces of security leaks can be found.

For roaming professionals who cannot afford to compromise sensitive data, there is quite a few options out there, most dealing with software encryption. However, such methods can be slow, and do little to protect the fragile drive itself. Enter Kingston DataTraveler Secure, a robust new flash drive featuring 256-bit AES encryption that works on-the-fly, a self destructing feature, and a casing that can handle life everyday abuses.

Corsair is billing the Flash Survivor as the most rugged USB 2.0 flash drive. The drive is encased in an aluminum shell that makes the flash drive inside water-resistant and shock-proof. It will be available in two variations, the Flash Survivor GT with 8GB of storage for $129.99 and the Flash Survivor 4GB at $59.99. Both drives are rated water resistant to 200 meters. The sustained read/write performance for the GT is up to 34MB/sec read and 28MB/sec write.

Speed. Reliability. Portability. Security. These are all things that should be present in a flash drive worthy of being called a mobile office. As the crème de la crème of SanDisk offerings, the new Cruzer Titanium 2GB flash drive has a lot to live up to. Now that it's been armed with U3 and a casing developed by Liquid Metal, we see how this flash drive handles the pressure. Literally. Read on for the full review.

The Imation 4GB drive is simply a rubber casing that houses one of the smallest flash drives. The actual mechanism is only as big as a thumb joint, which is about an inch long, plus the USB connector. The actual USB port slips into a slot and the drive seats into the rubber, so there is no danger of it falling out. To remove it, you sort of peel the rubber back and slide the drive out using the indented end with a thumb grip.

The biometric flash drive adopts a two-piece tethered design, allowing a convenient finger swipe angle every time. This is in contrast to traditional all-in-one biometric drive, like Lexar JumpDrive TouchGuard. Available in 512MB ($99) and 1GB ($199.99), the Profile will not require any loading of the 448-bit Blowfish encryption apps on the host computer.

The 256MB flash drive with fingerprint authentication can encrypt up to 10 different thumbprints, 200 website logins and all your bookmarks. Replacing passwords with fingerprints is a life-saver when you need to access secure websites when there's possibility that a keystroke recorder may be in place. Though, the TouchGuard is for IE6 only.

Secured by your very own fingerprint, this keychain Hi-Speed USB flash drive not only encrypts your precious data, but also doubles as a lock key for your PC.

Standard InstallUse this application to backup and restore presentation, pictures, songs and applications from and to USB Flash Drive devices and take them with you. Use USB Flash Drives to store personal data, to keep your network configuration and to share information with your friends. Microsoft USB Flash Drive .

USB flash drives are compact and easy-to-use devices that are similar in use to your computer hard drive. USB flash drives slip into your pocket, conveniently around your neck or on a keychain for ultimate portable storage. USB flash drives in 2005 can hold up to 4 gigs of data, which is over 1700 three-minute songs (66 hours) recorded as MP3s or about three times the content of a standard compact disc. If you share a computer, USB flash drives are a great way to store personal information. USB Flash Drives are also a great option for saving information and share it with others. When you have many things to save and share but you have a limited number of USB Flash Drives, you will need to backup the information and restore it when needed. This is where the Microsoft USB Flash Drive Manager application can help you. The Microsoft USB Flash Drive Manager will help you backup and restore presentation, pictures, songs and applications from and to USB Flash Drive devices and take them with you. The application can also help you to classify and name USB Flash Drives images (for instance "My network configuration" or "The pictures for my grandma") and lets you see this name whenever the USB Flash Drive is plugged into the computer. Microsoft USB Flash Drive Manager is available for Windows XP only.

A flash drive is a small storage device that can be used to transport files from one computer to another. They are slightly larger than a stick of gum, yet many of these devices can carry all your homework for an entire year! You can keep one on a key chain, carry it around your neck, or attach it to your book bag.

A flash drive is easy to use. Once you have created a paper or other work, simply plug your flash drive into a USB port. The USB port will appear on the back of a desktop computers PC tower or on the side of a laptop. Most computers are set up to give an audible notice such as a chime when a new device is plugged in. This is normal. When you option to save your work by selecting Save As, you will find that your flash drive appears as an additional drive.

You should always carry a backup copy of any important work youve completed. As you create a paper or large project, make a backup on your flash drive and save it separate from your computer. A flash drive will also come in handy if you are able to print out homework at school. You can write a paper at home, save it to your flash drive, then plug the drive into a USB port on a school computer. Then simply open the document and print it out. Check with your teacher or librarian to see if this is an option. A flash drive is also handy for working on your paper or project on several computers at once. Carry your flash drive to your friends house for a joint project or for group study. Another reason to use a flash drive is that they are sturdier than floppy disks. A flash drive will survive teenage abusers much more successfully than floppy disks or CDs.

A USB drive -- also known as a flash drive or keychain drive -- is a plug-and-play portable storage device that uses flash memory and is lightweight enough to attach to a key chain. A USB drive can be used in place of a floppy disk, Zip drive disk, or CD. When the user plugs the device into the USB port, the computer's operating system recognizes the device as a

This fun animations in flash instruct you how to drive a car. You have to be prick to save your life. A diseducatioan road movie presents several situations that can happend on the roads. Have Fun.

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Review summary of Sandisk 16 GB Cruzer Micro Flash Drive with U3 Technology alaTest has collected and analysed 145 reviews of SanDisk CompactFlash Card Extreme III from international magazines and websites.

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Review summary of Cisco 64 MB Flash Drive We are really impressed by the excellent management capabilities, flexible monitoring, and outstanding performance of the Cisco VPN Concentrator products we tested. Unfortunately, they are overkill for the hypothetical 500-employee company we planned our

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My colleague George Ou has an excellent rant on flash drive performance. As he notes, many people are in for a rude shock when they plug in a USB flash drive, Compact Flash card, or SD card and expect it work well with the new ReadyBoost feature in Windows Vista. Many of those flash devices will fail, with a message that reads. This device does not have the performance characteristics for use in speeding up your system. But George gets one detail wrong in his post. Unfortunately Vista doesnt report the actual raw data for its ReadyBoost test since it only gives you a pass/fail score making it as useless and confusing as the Vista performance index thats based on a scale of 0 to 6. In broad terms, thats true. When you insert a new flash device and try to use it as a ReadyBoost device, it either passes or it fails. If you try to use a cheapo USB flash drive that some company passed out at a trade show, you wont know from that initial screen why it failed. But the actual numbers are there for all to see, if you know where to look. Carl Siechert, Craig Stinson, and I discovered this fact during our research for

To be used as a ReadyBoost device, your flash drive has to pass several tests, including available free space, write performance, and random read performance. When you connect a supported flash device to your system and choose the Speed Up My System option, Windows Vista runs a quick performance test to see if the device meets minimum standards required for ReadyBoost. Those standards are.

These results must be consistent across the entire device. In addition, the device must be at least 235 MB in size (although you can designate less than the full space on the drive for the ReadyBoost cache). If any of these tests fail, the drive is rejected. If you get a failure message when you first insert a flash device and try to use it as a ReadyBoost drive, you can click Test Again to get a second hearing. If the drive fails several tests, you can look up the specific performance results for yourself. Open Event Viewer (Eventvwr. msc) and click the Applications And Services Logs category in the console tree on the left. Under this heading, click Microsoft, Windows, and ReadyBoost. Under this latter heading, select Operational. The log entriesin the center paneinclude performance test results for both successful and unsuccessful attempts. Just to make things more confusing, the Event Viewer logs report results in KB/sec instead of MB/sec. Although the spec says 1.75 MB/sec write performance, the report in Event viewer would display this as 1750 KB/sec So how did my motley collection of flash drives do? All in all, not bad. Six drives, most of them originally given to me as freebies at various press events, failed because they were smaller than the minimum size. One of my oldest flash drives, a PNY Attache 256MB device I bought about four years ago, passed with respectable scores (read 2920 KB/sec, write 3737 KB/sec). It was the only one of its vintage that passed. More typical was the story of a Micro Advantage 1GB QuickiDrive. (Its the oversized, roundish deviceat the right inthe photo at the top of this post.) It was one of the first 1GB devices on the marker, although its designers cheated by repackaging a Compact Flash card in a USB case. It was very slow on the write test. Several drives I was given at CES last week in lieu of paper press kits (PR people take note. this is a good thing) all failed. A 1GB no-name drive could only muster write scores of 1004 to 1040 KB/sec. Another very handsome 512MB leather-wrapped flash drive supplied by a vendor failed with dreadful read performance scores of 157 KB/sec. One of the most interesting failures was an A-Data 1GB drive, originally purchased from an online outlet store. The rubber holder is in the shape of a soccer ball, dating it to last years World Cup. I expected this cheap drive to fail, but it got surprisingly close. The first test produced a

Performance of 1602 KB /sec, only about 10% below the threshold of 1750 KB /sec. Three separate retests produced a range of results from 1401 to 1729 KB / sec. Closer, but still no cigar. On the sixth retest, I got a different result, indicating that it had failed because it does not exhibit uniform performance across the device. This cheap device was able, on this pass, to clear the read and write performance bars, but that exposed a design decision that made the drive unacceptable for ReadyBoost. No doubt for cost reasons, its designers used a single fast 128MB flash chip matched with slower flash chips. A 256MB Memorex Travel Drive, given away at last years CES, passed with excellent test results. Random read speed 4627 KB/sec, sequential write speed 4131 KB/sec. The 2GB Teac Mini-SD card in my Smartphone, originally purchased at retail, had a read speed that was too slow. The runner-up in the speed trials was a SanDisk Cruzer 2GB flash drive, provided by Microsoft as part of its Windows Vista Launch Kit for press visitors at CES. It passed with excellent scores. random read speed of 5407 KB/sec, sequential write speed 3701 KB/sec. But the speed champ in my tests was an Apacer Handy Steno 2.0 USB flash drive. I purchased two of these 1GB drives

For the remarkably low price of $24 each a few months ago, on the recommendation of Scott Hanselman. He didnt steer me wrong. Both are now in use as ReadyBoost drives. They passed the ReadyBoost performance test with blazing speed, roughly twice as fast as any other device I tested. random read speeds were 8067 KB/sec and sequential write speeds were a blistering 9396 KB/sec. I can tell the difference in startup and app load times when this device is inserted into a Vista system. Now, its important to note that a device that scores low on this test might not be a dog for other purposes. I have a 2GB MyFlash drive that works just great for transferring files between machines. it just doesnt do well on the specific activities that count for the ReadyBoost cache. Grant Gibson has already begun compiling a list of devices that pass or fail the ReadyBoost test. It would be great if someone could build a similar database with the actual numbers, so you can see for yourself which devices rock and which barely pass. Any coders out there want to take up the challenge? Ill gladly host the database if youll help me build it.

Is your flash drive fast enough for Vista’s ReadyBoost? As I reported previously, Vista offers some cool ways to increase performance. This is fairly comprehensive test of this performance hack with some interesting results. » Is your flash drive fast eSave as Draftnough for Vista’s.

Find the exact DiskGO flash drive to meet your needs. Classic flash drives cover the basics, secure drives for added protection, enhanced drives with extra functionality, and flash drive combos with dual purpose.

Carry your files. This classic USB Flash Drive has a unique swivel design that protects your USB port when not in use. Available in capacities up to 64GB. More.

Now you can take it all with you. And when we say ''all'' we mean everything. SanDisk USB Flash Drives give you all the power and performance you need to transfer, store and share your pics, tunes, music and date with ease. Just plug the drive into your USB port and you're off!

The ultimate SanDisk USB flash drive combines rugged, bold design - including an elegant sliding USB connector that retracts into the body.

Introducing the first USB flash drive with a backup button. No wires. No fuss. Just an easier way to protect your favorite photos, videos,.

Tough enough to take just about anywhere, the SanDisk Ultra Titanium USB Flash Drive features a durable metal casing and password.

The SanDisk Cruzer Pattern USB flash drive reflects your individual style with its eclectic design. Pics, video clips, MP3 files.

Experience reliable, portable storage with a SanDisk Cruzer USB Flash Drive. Why leave your photos, videos and music at home.

Incredibly small and portable, the Cruzer Micro Skin USB Flash drive lets you transfer, store and share your files the smart way!.

Imagine carrying both your files and your software in one trick USB flash drive. Now you can with the SanDisk Cruzer Micro featuring U3.

Looking for a convenient way to store, carry, and transfer files on the go? Lexar offers a comprehensive line of JumpDrive USB flash drive products with a wide variety of features, capacities, and capabilitiesmaking it easy to find the perfect one to fit your needs and lifestyle. All Lexar JumpDrive USB flash drives are compatible with both Mac and PC systems.

Ultimate high-speed performance. Premium Lexar JumpDrive USB flash drives provide high-speed, high-capacity storage. The drives come pre-loaded with Secure II advanced security software to protect your data. Fully compatible with Windows Vista, the drives are also enhanced for Windows ReadyBoost to improve system performance. Premium drives maximize speed and performance on the go.

High-Performance USB Flash Drive in a Rotating Metal Jacket Lexar JumpDrive 360 is an innovative, high-performance USB flash drive encased in a durable, rotating metal jacket with a capless design. More info.

Feature-rich functionality. Standard Lexar JumpDrive USB flash drives provide high-capacity storage in a range of styles, complete with lots of cool, innovative features. They also include a 30-day trial of Dmailer V7 software, which transforms your drive into your personalized PC on the go. Standard drives are an affordable, convenient way to easily store and transfer files, photos, music, and more.

Convenient, Retractable USB flash Drive JumpDrive Retrax is a high-capacity USB flash drive with a capless design and a retractable case to protect the drive and its contents, providing an excellent combination of durability and convenience. Available in a different stylish color for each of its varying capacities. More info.

Ultra-Small Storage with Huge Personality! JumpDrive FireFly is an ultra-portable USB flash drive that provides a convenient solution for storing, transferring, and sharing multimedia and more. It's ideal for storing lots of great pictures, your favorite music, and important files. More info.

Your Flash-Drive's Been HACKED! We've got the tiniest flash-drives, and we've got flash-drives that are hardened against attack. Now, we've got flash-drives that look like they’ve been hacked! Imagine yourself, sitting in a coffee-shop. You pull out your venerable laptop, and fire it up. You may not realize it, but there are jealous eyes on your hardware. They see your computer and size you up. Is the computer you carry worth trying to steal? Are you enough of a threat to them? The mental-calculations proceed apace. That is until you reach for your flash drive. You pull from your bag a seemingly torn and frayed piece of USB cabling. Immediately, your potential miscreant raises an eyebrow. Exactly what does he think he's going to do with that cable? Grinning like a madman, you plug your phantom USB device into your computer, and happily continue on with your work, apparently oblivious to your devices obvious lack of connectivity. It appears to all around you that you are, indeed, mad. In fact, what you’ve really done is plug in a 2 gigabyte flash drive that's masterfully disguised as a frayed and broken USB cable. You've managed to make it appear that you're insane, and as all thieves know - never EVER screw with an insane person.

Manufacturer's Description Now you can store, carry and transfer large files in an affordable, convenient device. The DataTraveler from Kingston Technology helps budget-conscious users break storage barriers, allowing them to easily store and move large files in a device no bigger than a pocketknife. As easy as click and drag, the DataTraveler can hold just about any file you can think of term papers, theses, digital images, spreadsheets or other important documents. It works with virtually any computer with a USB port. The DataTraveler is also a great promotional item for businesses. your company logo can appear on it to increase your brand-recognition, and it comes in multiple colors based on capacity. Backed by a five-year warranty and Kingston Technology's legendary service and support, DataTraveler is a reliable, inexpensive solution for carrying digital files with you wherever you go. Not compatible with. Win NT, Win 95,Win 98,Win ME. Product Description Technical DataDimensions & Weight / Widthmm66.9Technical DataDimensions & Weight / Depthmm20.4Technical DataDimensions & Weight / Heightmm9Technical DataDimensions & Weight / Weightg11.3Technical DataFlash Memory / Storage CapacityGB8Technical DataHeader / Product LineKingston DataTravelerTechnical DataHeader / ModelITechnical DataHeader / CompatibilityMacTechnical DataHeader / ManufacturerKingston TechnologyTechnical DataHeader / Packaged Quantity1Technical DataFlash Memory / Interface TypeHi-Speed USBTechnical DataFlash Memory / Product TypeUSB flash driveTechnical DataFlash Memory / CompatibilityNon-specific See all Product Description

Kingston Technology 4GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive This product does what its designed to do. it also holds sufficient memory for what I required it for.

Kingston Technology USB 2.0 Flash Drive The service from this company was fast! The product has been great and the price was fabulous. Thoroughly recommend to others.

Kingstone USB Stick This is an absolute fantastic USB flash drive. it's phenomenal and stupendous, it has the speed of lightning and the ability of a 64GB USB stick.

The real McCoy is great was mine a fake? I had had a 2Gb Kingston Datatraveller Flashdrive for two and a half years and it has been perfect, no probs at all.

Absolute Bargain Bought the Kingston Technology 8GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive and was unure what to expect as it was much cheaper than the equivalent elsewhere.

Meet the next generation of USB flash drives. the U3 smart drive. It's what's inside that makes them smart.

Your data doctor product seems like a good one. The big plus you have on your side is that your product handles both NTFS and FAT file formats. I particularly liked the user-friendly interface. I would certainly use your product again and recommend it to others. The other product that I purchased can only handle FAT file formats (even then could not recover my flash drive files). you have to purchase another license to handle NTFS. Good luck with your future endeavors. Thanks again for good customer support. Regards, - Sharon Heller (Computer Technician) More Testimonials.

USB Drive / Memory Stick Data Recovery Software is complete, inexpensive Data Recovery solution for your Flash drive data recovery from major drives including Pen Drive, Intelligent stick, Memory stick, Jump Drive, Thumb Drive and other similar USB flash memory.

The Play. com Flash Drive is a fast and easy way to transfer data between computers in style. The Play. com Flash Drive from Play. com makes it easy to quickly save and transport your important data. Users can transfer documents, pictures, movie clips and music to other computers with a USB port. Features.Transfer data between school, office and home in style. Slim, stylish design for easy useFits onto your key ringUSB 2.0 and 1.1 compliant2 Year Warranty

IronKey, designed to be the world's most secure USB flash drive, locks down your sensitive files and passwords with some of today's most advanced security technologies, including hardware encryption for safeguarding your data and advanced Internet protection software and services for securing your passwords and web browsing. And even if your IronKey is lost or stolen, not only is your data still protected, but you can restore it from an encrypted backup to a new IronKey and be up and running again in no time. Learn More. Looking for technical information? Check out learn. ironkey. com.

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Browse our site to find the lowest prices on any memory you're looking for. Buy. com carries the top selling brands of flash memory devices such as USB flash drives, secure digital SD cards, mini SD cards, micro SD cards, compact flash CF, memory sticks, xD picture cards, card readers, laptop and desktop computer memory. Check out some of our key manufacturers like Kingston, Crucial, SanDisk, ACP-EP, Memorex, Lexar, Verbatim and many more!

Super Talent is a manufacturer of flash and system memory components with a strong appeal among computer enthusiasts. While their products generally garner attention by combining high performance, attractive styling, and competitive pricing, one of their latest releases adds a bit of novelty to the equation. Super Talent has reworked a couple of their USB flash drives to be released in their new Godfather series. Designed to "capture the spirit of the Godfather in a small mobile storage device", what we have is a flash drive emblazoned with the Godfather logo and a silhouette of Don Corleone. For an added tie-in to the classic movie, the drive comes stocked with 17 images featuring graphics and quotes from the movie.

The promotional image above shows the Godfather flash drive, which is effectively one of Super Talent's Pico D drives with a custom paint job. Before taking a closer look at the flash drive provided for review, let's take a look at some technical data on the Godfather. The items listed below cover the key points on the device, and for a complete list of up-to-date features and specifications, please visit the official product page on the Super Talent website. Features and Specifications. » Capacity. 2GB (available in 1GB - 16GB) » Ideal for carrying pictures, music & data » Fully compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1 » Powered by USB bus - no external power is required » Durable solid-state storage - 10 years data retention » Hot Plug & Play – enables you to install and uninstall drive anytime » Includes The Godfather still images and quotes » Only available in USA Packaging. The 2GB Super Talent Godfather flash drive was provided in the packaging shown below. The cardboard backing is decorated to fit the theme, while still providing the necessary technical information and a look at the product itself. Other than a ring with two means of attaching the drive to something else, there are no accessories included (or required).

Version 1.0 Author. Falko Timme ft [at] falkotimme [dot] com Last edited 01/08/2009 This guide shows how you can install Ubuntu 8.10 on a USB flash drive. Ubuntu 8.10 comes with a tool that lets you create a USB startup disk easily - this startup disk behaves like the Ubuntu 8.10 Live-CD. This is useful if you want to install Ubuntu on a computer that has no CD/DVD drive. When you create the USB startup disk, you can also specify that you want your USB system to be persistent between boots (i. e., it does not lose your settings, documents, etc.) - that way you get a fully usable OS that you can carry around in your pocket. I do not issue any guarantee that this will work for you!

Boot into your normal Ubuntu 8.10 system. After the desktop has started, plug in your USB flash drive and insert your Ubuntu 8.10 Live-CD into your CD drive (you can also create the startup disk from the Ubuntu 8.10 Live-CD .iso file - it's up to you which way you prefer). You should see their icons on the desktop. Then go to

And specify how much space on your USB flash drive should be reserved for your documents and settings. Click on

You can now plug your USB flash drive into any other computer and start it. Make sure you enter its BIOS to check if booting from USB is enabled and that your USB device is the first device in the boot order. When the system boots from the USB flash drive, it behaves exactly as if you would boot from the Ubuntu 8.10 Live-CD - first you have to select your language.

I have a 16 GB Patriot flash drive that I have installed the 64Bit version of Ubuntu 8.10. I am using an XFS file system for the root partition. As a result I have to use lilo for the boot manager. The flash drive is the xporter XT. I have had some good luck with it, but you have to understand USB transfers data in parallel transfer mode, just like pata hard drives. Also you are limited to what ever your usb bus's limitations are. I have to wait for things to 'catch up' if I have too many applications running. I am running it on a Dell D630 Laptop with am Intel Core 2 Duo T7100 with 1GB of RAM, I love it!

For starters this is still a new science and many people have had good luck with at least one of these methods and others have not. Note that flash drives are often also called thumb drives, keychain drives, pendrives, etc.

1. The PC has to support booting from a USB flash drive. There may be anywhere from 1-3 items to change in the BIOS to make this possible assuming your BIOS supports it. Some bios's may refer to your flash drive as a USB floppy or USB zip. 2. The USB flash drive must support booting from it in general. 3. The flash drive must contain the boot/system files. 4. The flash drive must have bootsector area. This is done with special utilities. 5. References to "A." drive lines in the autoexec. bat and/or config. sys files you copy to the drive after you make it bootable may result in errors. 6. You "may" have to format your floppy disk first in WinXP before you create a bootdisk as XP may "not" like working later on with a disk formatted otherwise. 7. Included below is a bootable ISO of DOS 7.1 which may be used with some of these methods if you do not have a 1.44 drive.

Make your flash drive bootable using Bart's mkbt util. | Alt. mkbt20.zip Put a bootable floppy disk in your A. drive or create one using Windows. Download mkbt20.zip and unpack to to new temp folder you create. Go to the temp folder. Extract the bootsector from the bootable floppy disk. eg Open a DOS Window and go to the directory where you extracted MKBT. Type. mkbt -c a. bootsect. bin The boot sectors from the bootable floppy disk have just been saved to a file in the temp folder you created. Format the flash drive in FAT or FAT16. Copy the bootsector to the flash drive. Open a DOS Window and go to the folder where you extracted MKBT. Type. mkbt -x bootsect. bin Z. "Z" represents the flash drive drive Letter. So if your flash drive has another drive letter, then change the "Z" accordingly. Now you can [grin] "should" be able to copy the utils you need to the pen drive.

Try these 2 HP/Compaq USB Flash Drive Utilities. They work with many other brands of flash drives as well. HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool Version 2.0.6 HP Drive Key Boot Utility Version 7.41 Download

Another Bootdisk. Com Fan Suggested - Thanks Keith First if you don't have a physical floppy drive (and don't want one) you can use the [free] "virtual floppy driver" from here. With that you get an A. drive and can manipulate a floppy image as if you were using real floppy. You can then use that image to make a bootable CD. It's not that user friendly but once you get how it works it does work perfectly. Even cooler you can use a "raw write" utility like dd for windows to write the floppy image directly to your USB thumb drive. Even without that famous HP utility to do the magic this will make your USB thumb drive bootable. The 'dd' ported to Windows is located here. Another trick you can use with that dd utility involves MS VritualPC (which is free). You can create a virtual machine/virtual hard drive, set it up the way you want then use dd to "raw write" the virtual hard drive image to the thumb drive. this will make the thumb drive identical to the image, including bootable (again, no HP utilities required). Of course, your thumb drive will effectively have the capacity the size if the image in question (your 1GB flash drive will effectively be 1.44 Megs).

Ok, a little while back I ran a somewhat large USB Flash Drive Comparison with 21 drives compared, today I got part two of that comparison. Ive taken the 8gig and 4 gig drives, nine in total, and formatted them FAT32, NTFS and ExFAT and ran all of the tests over again for a comparison of how the file systems work on the drives. And yes I truly ran all of the tests over again, I recently upgraded to SiSoft Sandra 2009 SP2, so I needed to re-do all of those tests as well. Ive been at this for quite some time now, and Ive got a whole lot of information for you inside. The reason for this is out of my curiosity and other people mentioned as well why not compare the file systems, so to satiate my curiosity and to give everyone as much information as possible I took a very large chunk of my time and dedicated it to this rather large article. So sit back, relax and continue on, Ive got tons of graphs for you all broken down and separated by file systems and tests.

The drives are. Corsair Flash Voyager Mini 4gb Corsair Flash Voyager Mini 8gb OCZ ATV Turbo 4gb OCZ Rally2 Turbo 4gb ATP Toughdrive Camo 8gb ATP EarthDrive 8gb Super Talent Pico-C Gold 8gb Super Talent Pico-D 8gb Super Talent 200x 4gb A little information first for you. Im using Windows Vista Ultimate X64 Intel Q6600 CPU 8gigs of DDR2 ram All of the drives were formatted to each file system for testing, FAT32, NTFS and ExFAT, all testing was done separately of course. If you dont know what ExFat is, well you can look HERE at the WiKi for a detailed explanation, but its basically FAT64, and proprietary to Microsoft and introduced with Windows Vista Sp1 Nothing else was running during testing except basic system processes and anti-virus, I also ran Process Idle Tasks command as well to make sure system was freed up for testing.

27/01 - 2009 at 20.28 Great review, this is all awesome info. I personally use NTFS on my 32gig flash drive because of the need to store files 4GBBut I think some information this article lacks is just a couple points about the NTFS file system in respects to a flash drive. First NTFS is a journaled filesystem, so that means the sectors that are storing the journal will be written to a lot more often than any other part of the drive. Thus meaning that a flash drive with limited write cycles could be effected more readily due to the journals frequent writes. Second similarly in discussing the writing of the journal, NTFS also stores the last accessed time. Meaning that each time you read a file, or view a file, you are writing to the device to update this time. Again, just wasting write cycles. This can be disabled, but it is not done at the file system level, but instead requires modifications to the registry. Meaning that you would have to make the modification on every computer you wish to prevent the update of last accessed time to get the benefit. NTFS is not a good file system for flash drives, but if your like me and need to store files 4GB your kinda stuck with it sadly. Why wont windows adopt things like ext2? I mean it has been out forever, drives me crazy how the company refuses to adopt things, and instead tries to FORCE its users to using there technologies even when they are clearly inferior.

27/01 - 2009 at 20.47 Excellent job there! Very helpful, but like some of the others, I too would have liked to see some other brands included (SanDisk 8Gbs maybe..)! I suppose if everyone sent you a flash drive, you could be doing this until spring!!!!

27/01 - 2009 at 21.54 Good round up. How about a follow up piece on the larger 16GB/32GB/64GB flash drives.

27/01 - 2009 at 22.49 Yeah, but with 16GB flash drives cheap, FAT32 has a huge limitation a maximum 2gb filesize.

27/01 - 2009 at 23.40 Windows performs some optimizations when it detects a FLASH-based drive, for example, it disables the write-cache as well as NTFS file-access stamping for that device.

28/01 - 2009 at 1.03 Great review! I use OS X and I am forced to use FAT32 and Ive noticed differences in the flash drives Ive used, great to actually see a comparison. And for the guys who are asking about larger sizes/different brands, you could send him yours for testing otherwise hes using whats at hand. Also most people use 4-8gb flash drives nowadays anyways.

28/01 - 2009 at 1.48 TY. Id love to see this done again after some kind of endurance period as Im hearing from colleagues that, to paraphrase Morrissey, some flash drives age better than others.

28/01 - 2009 at 6.02 Keep in mind that if you want to use ReadyBoost on Windows7, exFAT is the best way to go because it supports files 4GB unlike FAT32. exFAT is essentially developed for flash-based removable media, so its file allocation scheme considers the wear-leveling issues found on flash drives. NTFS clearly supports files 4GB as well, but exFAT is the better choice for ReadyBoost because. (1) It has lower overhead (2) Its meant for removable drives whereas NTFS is not (3) It has better semantics for disk verification across power transitions such that you are more likely to maintain the ReadyBoost cache contents across standby/hibernate.

28/01 - 2009 at 7.14 Some of you idiots are really brazen. The least you could do is say Thanks before you spread off into Why arent you using so and so brand?, Why arent you testing so and so filesystems? I mean, I dont see YOU doing any reviews? Anyway, I just wanted to personally say thanks. Its an interesting roundup and Id been wondering recently if Id be better off with Fat32 or NTFS on my 16GB Transcend Jetflash drive. If you DO do another review, Ill def. find it. Thanks again.

28/01 - 2009 at 9.53 Interesting article. Would be nice to see performance of Ext2 / 3 / 4, et al, but I guess that would be quite an undertaking. However, what would *really* be helpful is to know how various file systems affect the long term life of the device itself. As flash drives have a limited write-to lifetime, does the choice of file-system affect this in any way?

28/01 - 2009 at 10.00 Really good article. Maybe it could be a good point to also remember that FAT32 cant deal with files bigger than 4Gb (for copying isos for ex.-). It doesnt matter for small keys but for 16 or 32 Gb flash drive I dont know efat32 so if one of you know if it can deal with big files i would be pleased to know it ! THX

28/01 - 2009 at 18.03 [.] USB Flash Drive Comparison part 2 - FAT32 vs NTFS vs ExFAT Ok, a little while back I ran a somewhat large USB Flash Drive Comparison with 21 drives compared, today I got part two of that comparison. I’ve taken the 8gig and 4 gig drives, nine in total, and formatted them FAT32, NTFS and ExFAT and ran all of the tests over again for a comparison of how the file systems work on the drives. [.]

28/01 - 2009 at 20.14 [.] para Vista (o Windows 7) lo que lo hace algo m�s problem�tico de usar en entornos heterog�neos. USB Flash Drive Comparison part 2 - FAT32 vs NTFS vs ExFAT Fuente.theinquirer __________________ Comienza tu d�a con una sonrisa, ver�s lo [.]

28/01 - 2009 at 23.02 hey Kris, dont pay attention to aggresive people. I found your research interesting, although it would been great if you included ext2/3 in the tests. One question. do you think it would be faster to have the swap partition (in Windows Vista/2008) in a FAT-32 flash drive rather than in the HD? thank you for this really good article.

30/01 - 2009 at 2.11 [.] OCZ Throttle eSATA Flash Drive @ Bjorn3D - USB Flash Drive Comparison part 2 FAT32 vs NTFS vs ExFAT @ Test Freaks [.]

3/02 - 2009 at 17.19 Kristofer, Im having a problem w/ my 64 GB, Kingston flash. when i DL movie (.wmv) files to my hard drive, they will work fine (WM player 9). but, when i copy/paste them to the Flash drive for storage and try to replay them, i get the 0xC00D1199. Cannot play the file error msg. The file type is supported by the player obviously, cuz they all work fine from my PC hard drive. Why will they then not work when trying to play from the flash? Flash is currently in FAT32 format. What should I do? Any help/recomendation would be appreciated greatly. mike

Person orders birthday cake, gives baker a flash driver containing image. Baker makes cake with image of flash drive.

They should just connect the flash drive cake to the PC cake and get the actual image cake from inside it.

Thing I don't get is how come the flash drive is so massive and the cake is so tiny?! Barely a mouthful, surely.

@26 - my thoughts exactly. How hard would it be to go take a picture of the flash drive, take it to the bakery and tell them that's what you want on the cake. Then make up the backstory and generate untold lulz.

Maybe there is a need to realize that about 90% of the folks out in the real world are not up to speed on all/most matters tech. most here keep up, but this is a small population, and tech moves too fast for the masses. i've made award winning websites, and have NEVER used a flash drive! OMG! there's too much info out there and it becomes tiresome to those who don't need it - i know a guy with a 2500$ macbook pro - he only uses it for email.

The British company Flashbay has a new line of carbon neutral USB flash drives called Nature Series, featuring a natural hardwood shell from an PEFC certified source.

The perfect blend of modern technology, environmentally sustainable materials and sophisticated styling, this USB Memory Stick is machined from European Maple (light wood). Complete with all the capabilities of a traditional Flash Drive and brandable by either colour printing or laser engraving, the Nature Series is perfect if you are looking for a distinctive product with a tactile feel and great visual appeal. The Nature Series USB Flash Drive from Flashbay is available with memory capacities ranging from 32MB up to 8GB. (price available upon request).

Tags. backup, computers, eco, flash+drive, memory, usb, wood Posted by Robert Birming on January 29th, 2009 in category Gadgets.

This is really a beautiful eco-friendly usb flash drive, this flash drive is looking so cute that now i would like to buy and gift it to my girl-friend in this valentine.

[.] gente de la empresa Flashbay decidió crear un pendrive realmente verde y lanzó al mercado los Nature Series, unas memorias flash fabricadas a partir de Arce Europeo (una madera especialmente ligera) para [.]

Maybe I like this iPhone USB Flash Drive—available in black or white—so much because it reminds me of my iPhone mascot, but I think it's just because I like cute anthropomorphic objects.

I still remember when having a flash drive with only 256 megabytes was pretty darn impressive, but man alive, has the industry advanced since those days. Continuing with the trend of massive memory in a remarkably small package is the Kingston DataTraveler 150 USB flash drive, shown here in its 32GB incarnation. For people who really want to push the envelope, Kingston also sells this drive with a whopping 64GB of flash memory. Considering that some older laptops only have 80GB hard drives, Id say thats pretty impressive. The DataTraveler 150 from Kingston Technology is not the first drive to boast this kind of capacity, but as the price for flash memory continues to drop, these massive drives fall closer to the realm of possibility for the average consumer. How does this thumb drive stack up? Lets find out. Features and Specifications When you get your hands on USB flash drives with this kind of capacity, the expectation is that you may have to make some sacrifices to achieve that much storage. Possibly in an effort to keep the DataTraveler 150 within the realm of reasonable affordability, Kingston skimped out a little on the features here.

I've been using and reviewing USB Flash drives since 2002 and there really isn't too much exciting or new about them in all honesty. Every article or review you read about Flash drives is that they are now available in larger capacities and lower prices. This is all fine and dandy, but it gets pretty boring to read, let alone write about year after year. When I heard some engineers whispering that eSATA (External Serial ATA) Flash drives would be coming on the market at the end of 2008 about a year ago, I was highly interestedand couldn't wait for the drives to come out. To give a little history lesson here when USB flash drives, or thumb drives as many refer to them, came out the group of people buying them was limited to enthusiasts with cutting edge systems as back in 2001 and 2002 not many systems had USB ports or the need for these 8MB and 16MB drive. The vast majority of people were still using Windows 98 and to use a USB Flash drive you had to install drivers on the system first and it was a complete pain in the butt to use. When Windows XP came out the need to install drivers vanished and over the years having close to a dozen USB 2.0 ports on a computer is pretty much standard these days. Flash memory prices have also become so cheap that it is now often cheaper to put a presentation on a 1GB USB key and give them away than to print full color pint copies to be handed out. You can officially say that USB Flash drives have matured when my parents who are both in their sixties carry one with them and many schools list USB Flash drives as something required on the first day of elementary school. Having a USB key on your key chain is now about as cool as having an Apple iPod, it is not. Enthusiasts and gamers are always the early adopters of new technology and today we enthusiasts have eSATA Flash drives! Very few desktops and even fewer laptops have eSATA ports, but for those lucky enough to have a system with one you can embrace the OCZ Throttle eSATA drive. The OCZ Throttle eSATA drive is one of the very first eSATA Flash drives available. The OCZ Throttle’s eSATA interface offers an incredible performance speeds of up to90MB/second read and 30MB/sec write. Current higher end USB Flash drives offer performance up to 35MB/s (read), 30MB/s (write), so the only real benefit of a eSATA drive would be read performance. The OCZ Throttle eSATA drive is available in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB capacities to ensure all your storage needs are met. The good news about these initialeSATA drives drives is that they are true plug and play, which means no extra drivers or power cables are required if you have a powered eSATA port, which is officially known as Power Over eSATA. Since I'm not aware of a motherboard that features Power Over eSATA that means you have to usethe USBadapter to power the eSATA drive. If you don't have an eSATA port you can use the drive in USB mode with the included USB cable. To run in USB mode you just need to leave the cap on the eSATA drive and plug in the USB cable and it will work like a good old fashioned USB 2.0 Flash drive. The front and back of the OCZ Throttle retail packaging give you the basic gist of the product in several languages on the back and the technical specifications. The OCZ throttle is 78.0mm x 29.8mm x 10.9mm in size and weighs in at just 18 grams.

Helpful resources can be found here. BootDisk. info, Nu2 (Bart's bootable Windows XP), and How to make a USB bootable FlashDrive with/for Linux.

OCZ has recently launched the Throttle. It is one of the kind portable storage as itis a flashed based drive butuses eSATA port and USB for data transfer. By combining both technologies, OCZ virtually ensures that the drive will have the better transfer rate and at the same time, keeps the durability of the flash based storage. Bjorn3D is quite fortunate that the good folks at OCZ are kind enough to ship one of of the Throttle drives to us for a review. Today, we shall see how this thing performs. Can this device revolutionize the storage on the go? Let's find out.

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It's cool to carry your whole OS in your pocket, so the kids install DSL to a USB Flash Drive for booting from a USB port. A USB Flash Drive is not the same as a USB Hard Drive. Installing to an external USB Hard Drive does work, but some external enclosure hardware won't like being used as a boot source. Your mileage may vary.

There are actually lots of how-tos/walkthroughs for installing DSL to a USB Flash Drive. All those tutorials are filed according to the source operating system. Basically, pick your current operating system. You'll probably want to do one of these.

This page (Installing to a USB Flash Drive) was written by a bunch of contributors over the years, and it got really big. The current version breaks up all that content, but the original page and its history can still be accessed here. Pendrive Linux Pendrive Linux - DSL specific instructions

“When using eSATA, we can see that the Throttle offers a consistently higher read speed on average against the USB flash drive. Burst speeds give us a similar story, with a 94.6MB rate for the Throttle over eSATA against just 30MB of our USB 2.0 drive. You can see the vast improvement in overall read and burst speeds from the move to a Serial ATA interface here however, even using exactly the same flash cells, which certainly goes some way to backing up OCZ's decision to release this series of drives. From our testing, there's little doubt that using eSATA to access flash storage offers some genuine performance improvements over doing the same via USB, and despite its large 16GB of storage in the case of our particular sample the Throttle easily outran the various 4GB drives we had at our disposal to compare it to. What OCZ has offered here is a solid effort with plenty of storage on show, and at a reasonable price point to boot. If you're dying to make use of the eSATA functionality of systems you own, or can guarantee access to powered eSATA ports wherever you go, then the Throttle is a fantastic and innovative solution which is definitely a worthwhile purchase."

ESATA offers significant speed advantages over USB 2.0, which transfers data at a maximum rate of 480Mbit/sec. For now, however, you'll not find a faster data external data transfer medium for consumer computer products. I tested OCZ's 16GB Throttle flash drive, which comes in a sleek, black plastic case that measures 3 inches by 1 1/8 inches in size. OCZ has Kanguru beat on price, and on speed. If you're looking for an easy way to download those movies, photos or big files quickly and carry them in your shirt pocket, I highly recommend checking this drive out."

One thing to note early on is that the results in HD Tach and HD Tune read tests seem odd, I went back and verified that yes, in USB 2.0 mode, the Throttle is able to break the previous speed wall in both tests. This drive is certainly fast, portable and easy to use especially if you have a powered eSATA port. One reason is that few setups are able to boot from a USB drive, whereas it is more likely that your setup will be able to use a drive such as the Throttle as a boot drive for whichever OS you choose. I also feel that USB 3.0 flash drives will come out initially with a price premium, and until we can see actual read and write speeds of the drives, the OCZ Throttle is king of the ultra-portable hill in terms of data transfer speed."

The removable storage benchmark showed the OCZ Throttle eSATA drive is insanely quick when compared to USB 2.0 flash drives. The OCZ Throttle eSATA drive has wicked fast read speeds that make nearly all Flash storage devices look slow. The 32GB OCZ Throttle eSATA drive is hands down the fastest thumb drive we have ever used! Basically, the OCZ Throttle was able to transfer over 30GB of files in roughly 15 minutes."

“The availability of USB drives is like sand on the beach but now OCZ has introduced something completely new for the flash segment, the eSATA Throttle drive which can also be connected via USB. The build quality is very good. Looking at all different performance charts, OCZ definitely delivers. Read performance had an average of amazing 84MB/s with a max of 90,7MB/s. It’s also interesting to see that the load on the CPU is much lower with the eSATA drive compared to USB. With the innovative Throttle eSATA drives OCZ shows there are real good alternatives in the flash segement to USB drives, especially in terms of performance and the price is about on the same level."

I especially love the fact that the Throttle is also compatible with the standard USB ports so you will not be left out if your particular board may not yet have the eSATA port. Not to mention that the drive’s USB performance is the best we have seen among the drives we have tested. The fact that the drive will also be able to draw power from the USB port for those boards lack a BUS-powered eSATA port is quite ingenious and very handy in our opinion. Of course, if you can take the advantage of the eSATA port, you will not be disappointed by its performance. What is also great about the Throttle is that it is selling at comparable price to the USB based flash drives of similar storage space. I believe with the release of the Throttle, we may finally see eSATA takes off and slowly gaining popularities. Our hats off to OCZ for releasing such a product at the right time and provides such a great performance."

Sleek, modern flash drives for home, school, and small businesses. Carry photos, music, videos, and documents.

PC & Mac Compatible**NOTE. The CryptArchiver software is PC compatible only, but the DiskGO USB Flash Drive will operate without the security component on Mac machines.

The DiskGO USB 2.0 Flash Drive is the perfect, portable storage solution for anyone on the GO! All of your valuable digital photos, songs, and important documents are easily stored and transferred from one PC to another. All DiskGO USB Flash Drives are shipped with Cryptarchiver Lite, a limited version of the encryption software which encrypts 20MB of data up to 128AES. Simply plug the DiskGO USB Flash Drive into your USB port, download your files and GO! Travel light with the most reliable and stylish flash drive available today! EDGE is the only major manufacturer to offer a lifetime warranty on its standard USB flash drive.

Encryption software is becoming a necessity for individuals and organizations where confidential data plays a critical role. It is imperative for individuals to protect their identity when mobilizing their data whether on a computer, a hard drive, or a flash drive. According to the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002, companies are not required to disclose the loss of 256-bit AES encrypted data. However, when unencrypted data is lost or exposed, companies are required to inform clients that are possibly affected by the loss. Considering that hundreds of companies a year are ordered to pay millions of dollars in litigation and media fees, do you think it's important to encrypt your company's data?128-bit EncryptionThe large number of operations (2

) required to try all possible 128-bit keys is enormous. However, by U. S. government standards, this is not considered a 'secure' flash drive. The following USB Flash Drives from EDGE feature 128-bit AES Encryption.

) AES keys per second, it would require 3,671,743,063,080,802,746,815,416,825,491,118,336,290,905,145,409,708 years to exhaust the 256-bit key space. 128-bit keys are impractical to attack by brute force methods using current technology. however, 256-bit keys are not likely to be broken by brute force methods using any obvious future technology. The following USB Flash Drives from EDGE feature 256-bit AES Encryption.

Times stronger than a 128-bit encryption key. The following USB Flash Drives from EDGE features 448-bit Blowfish Encryption.

The EDGE storyEDGE Tech Corp, an ISO 9001.2000 certified company founded in 1986, is a leading supplier of DRAM and Flash memory upgrades, portable computing products, storage devices, and other experience-enhancing technology solutions. At the age of 14, EDGE's president and CEO Jeff Thompson began the company with $2500 he had saved from a newspaper route. Today EDGE is one of the largest and most respected companies in its industry. EDGE is a channel-focused manufacturer, building long-term partnerships with distributors and resellers who demand the highest level of service and support from their vendor-partners. EDGE's DRAM-based memory product line offers upgrade solutions for desktops, notebooks, servers, printers, hubs and routers. EDGE's flash card lineup allows users of digital cameras and MP3 players to upgrade the devices' memory for maximum performance. The card line consists of various formats including CompactFlash, SD Memory Cards, SmartMedia, MultiMediaCard, and xD Picture Cards. A line of card readers provides convenient interface between the cards and a computer. EDGE digital media products allow users of digital cameras and MP3 players to upgrade the devices' memory for maximum performance. The company's popular DiskGO by EDGE brand includes USB flash drives, portable hard drives, and USB watch drives.

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There are gobs of products out there to help you send, store, and transport your data, but few can match the simplicity and sheer portability of a tiny USB flash drive. Like an old-school floppy disk retailored for the twenty-first century, USB flash drives offer the capacity of a modest hard drive, the portability of a cigarette lighter, and the plug-and-play simplicity of a modern peripheral. These portable devices go by a colorful assortment of names--keychain drives, memory sticks, iDucks, and so on--but they all work pretty much the same way. Plug one into a USB port on the back of your PC, and it'll show up like any other hard drive. Drag and drop your data onto it from your PC at work, pull out the drive, and plug it into your computer at home. Click each product for more info.

Who needs a flash USB drive? Erik Aldana, vice president of the USB Flash Drive Alliance, says that the portable drives are perfect for people who regularly work on two or more different PCs--particularly students and business people--and need a dependable way to transport data. Flash drives are also popular in Asia, where not everybody has their own computer. A 256MB flash drive can hold a surprising amount of data. dozens of digital pictures, a couple of hours of MP3s, or hundreds of Microsoft Word documents. While they come in a variety of capacities, ranging from 8MB to 2GB, the 128MB and 256MB models hit the sweet spot. Lesser capacities are too small to be truly useful, and larger capacities are prohibitively expensive (2GB drives run about $700). Still, prices will continue to come down, and we expect drive capacity to hit 4GB by the end of 2004. In these days of cross-pollinated cell phones, PDAs, and cameras, some may find a basic flash drive too one-dimensional. If you're looking for convergence, there are USB drives that also function as MP3 players, voice recorders, and even FM tuners. In fact, we looked at two USB drives that function as wristwatches and one that doubles as a pen. Whatever form they take, however, USB drives are pricey storage devices when you consider the cost per megabyte. You can buy a high-quality 250GB internal hard drive for around $250, or $1 per gigabyte, whereas a 128MB USB flash drive runs about $50, or 50 cents per megabyte. If you're using an older operating system, take note. Most USB flash drives will work with both Windows and Mac systems, but if you're still using Windows 98, you'll need to download a driver before you can use the drive. Same goes for Mac fans running anything older than OS 9. Find out how we test USB flash drives.

How we tested We evaluated these USB flash drives based on three criteria. size and appearance, features, and overall value. While a typical USB flash drive is small, especially compared to the size of an average external hard drive, some USB flash drives are significantly smaller than others, and some offer design flourishes, such as a keychain attachment, a permanently affixed cap, or particularly sturdy construction. Some of the drives we tested distinguished themselves with useful features such as password protection and portable versions of common applications, such as Outlook Express and Internet Explorer. Finally, we divided capacity by price to determine which drives offer the most storage bang for the buck. Most of the drives in our roundup support the USB 2.0 standard and transfer data fairly quickly--between 30 and 60 seconds for about 128MB. The few USB 1.1 drives that we saw were significantly slower, but with a 128MB or 256MB drive, that just means an extra minute or two. Performance really begins to matter when you're transferring 1GB or more.

Kingston USB Flash Memory Kingston 1GB USB Memory Stick USB Pen Drive 1Gb and 2GbUSB 2.0 USB Flash Drive Pen Stick 512 MB and 1 GB USB Flash drive Pen Memory. Secure Digital card, Micro SD Card, MMC Card, RSMMC Card etc.

Amazon. com Product Description Get affordable, mobile USB storage. This 4 GB USB flash drive lightens your load without emptying your wallet. As easy as click and drag, the DataTraveler holds just about any file you can think of--from reports and pictures, to spreadsheets and other important documents. It works with virtually any device with a USB port--even cross-platform from Macintosh to PC and vice versa. Now you can store, carry and transfer files quickly in an affordable, convenient device. The DataTraveler from Kingston helps budget-conscious users break storage barriers, allowing you to easily store and move files in a device no bigger than a pocketknife. Backed by a five-year warranty and Kingston's legendary service and support, the DataTraveler is a reliable, inexpensive solution for carrying files or your next promotion. Product Description The DataTraveler is a reliable, inexpensive solution for carrying files or your next promotion. Now you can store, carry and transfer files quickly in an affordable, convenient device. The DataTraveler from Kingston helps budget-conscious users break storage barriers, allowing you to easily store and move files in a device no bigger than a pocketknife. The DataTraveler can hold just about any file. It works with virtually any device with a USB port even cross-platform from Macintosh to PC and vice versa. The DataTraveler also makes a great promotional item for your organization. It's simple to add your logo to increase brand-recognition. See all Product Description

USB Flash Drives on Sale|www. BargainStation. com|2GB, 4GB, 8GB and 16 GB Pen storage drives - blowout prices"/>

For the guy who posted above, there is no lanyard included with this flash drive. I got this a couple days ago. Looking for something that could hold large files to let me switch from a laptop to desktop and back more easily (no more toting a whole external hard drive back and forth). Other than cost (and this seems to be a good bargain), my other issue when looking at flash drives is speed (also I didn't want any of that U3 crud). I transferred a 490 MB file to the flash drive in just about 3 minutes. That's more than fast enough for me. The flash drive has turned out to be a silver lining too. After I found out I would not be able to install Linux on my desktop, I found that I can actually install various Linux distros to the flash drive and boot from it instead (search for pen drive linux), with plenty of space still to spare.

Gift review I gave the Kingston Flash drives as Christmas gifts. The recepients were very happy with these gifts.

Works for me This is pretty plain and simple. It's a fuly functional flash drive. No need to install any software and works in all formats. If you need an 8GB flash drive, this one works.

Very good harware This is USB Flash Drive is fast, easy to use and it's capacity is more than enough to store all data I want in secure backup. Very good buy.

Kingston DTI $ GB USB Flash Drive Haven't used this one, yet, but have same brand in other sizes that work just fine.

These Super Talent 2GB flash drive offers you the kind of mobility you want and need with your precious photo albums, music, videos and more!

Until recently we had to depend on bulky floppies, zip disks and CDs to store all our digital data - not a great fit in our increasingly mobile lifestyle. However, with the emergence of the incredibly compact USB flash drive, you can now fit a world of data in the palm of your hand. USB flash drives are small, plastic devices that connect to your computer via a USB port with the capacity to write and copy data from an internal flash memory chip. They are similar in function to your computer's hard drive, but provide you with the freedom of portability. Another key advantage of a USB flash drive is that they can maintain data for as many as ten years, far greater than the lifespan of most hard drives. Attach one of these tiny devices to your key ring, put it in your pocket and take a world of information with you wherever you go. To use this revolutionary device, simply insert the USB flash drive into an available USB port and drag files to and from the drive. Your computer will recognize your USB flash drive as an external drive, and allow you to drag and drop data from the USB flash drive window. The only difference among USB flash drives is storage capacity, transfer speed (determined by the type of USB Connectivity - USB 1.1 or USB 2.0) and appearance such as size, shape and color. If you prefer a drive that is more functional, you can get an MP3 flash drive player that not only stores data but can also allocate space to hold and play your favorite tunes. The Industry's Most Complete Selection of USB Flash Drives With the industry's most complete selection of brand name products, we're your one-stop shop for USB flash drives. Our huge inventory includes thousands of drives in all standard memory configurations from such outstanding manufacturers as Crucial, PNY, Kanguru, Lexar, Corsair, A-DATA, Kingston, Ultra, K-Byte, Memorex, SanDisk and Transcend. Whether you're looking for a simple storage device, a multi-functional drive that includes an MP3 player and other entertainment features, or a security drive that offers special security features to prevent data loss or theft, we have the USB flash product you need. If you're looking for fast, reliable and extraordinarily portable data storage, you'll find it right here on this site.

Excellent article. I’ve now had 2 flash drives die on me and each time I let myself lapse into a false sense of security, by not making regular backups of the data. I recently read an article in the news about discarded flash drives and hard drives contained in old PC’s that people just throw away, and the subsequent data protection issues this creates. Most people would rightfully just format the hard drive or flash drive and dump it thinking that they had done enough, when in actual fact this data is often recoverable. I work for a company that works in this kind of area, recovering data from, promotional usb drives, memory cards and hard drives. There's not always a certainty of getting your data back, but often a very good chance!

On as regards flash drive data recovery i know little, but for restore zip files, use-zip file recovery, application is the fact that it employs several heuristic algorithms and methods to repair zip file or recover information from damaged zip files, use of multiple algorithms allows the program to minimize data loss during zip recovery, therefore the user sees as much as possible about the files being recovered, will have to enter the password when prompted and the application will make a fix zip file attempt using the specified password, program supports Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows XP SP2, Windows 2003 and Windows Vista.

Excellent article. I’ve now had 2 flash drives die on me and each time I let myself lapse into a false sense of security, by not making regular backups of the data. I recently read an article in the news about discarded flash drives and hard drives contained in old PC’s that people just throw away, and the subsequent data protection issues this creates. Most people would rightfully just format the hard drive or flash drive and dump it thinking that they had done enough, when in actual fact this data is often recoverable. I work for a company that works in this kind of area, recovering data from, promotional usb drives, memory cards and hard drives. There's not always a certainty of getting your data back, but often a very good chance!

On as regards flash drive data recovery i know little, but for restore zip files, use-zip file recovery, application is the fact that it employs several heuristic algorithms and methods to repair zip file or recover information from damaged zip files, use of multiple algorithms allows the program to minimize data loss during zip recovery, therefore the user sees as much as possible about the files being recovered, will have to enter the password when prompted and the application will make a fix zip file attempt using the specified password, program supports Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows XP SP2, Windows 2003 and Windows Vista.

Baby, light my flash drive! Electronics and fire have never been friends and you could even say they are essentially sworn enemies. But in the case of this USB flash drive they have decided to call a truce. Long standing differences have been put aside to create a product that is both practical and very unique. This flash drive has an ample 8GB capacity and the lighter is refillable. The USB connector slides out of the bottom of the metal case, using a small slider lever located on the side of the lighter. The lighter has a polished chrome finish and an adjustable flame.

I still remember when having a flash drive with only 256 megabytes was pretty darn impressive, but man alive, has the industry advanced since those days. Continuing with the trend of massive memory in a remarkably small package is the Kingston DataTraveler 150 USB flash drive, shown here in its 32GB incarnation. For people who really want to push the envelope, Kingston also sells this drive with a whopping 64GB of flash memory. Considering that some older laptops only have 80GB hard drives, Id say thats pretty impressive. The DataTraveler 150 from Kingston Technology is not the first drive to boast this kind of capacity, but as the price for flash memory continues to drop, these massive drives fall closer to the realm of possibility for the average consumer. How does this thumb drive stack up? Lets find out. Features and Specifications When you get your hands on USB flash drives with this kind of capacity, the expectation is that you may have to make some sacrifices to achieve that much storage. Possibly in an effort to keep the DataTraveler 150 within the realm of reasonable affordability, Kingston skimped out a little on the features here.

Pen drive data recovery software Pen drive data recovery software provides exclusive recovery of all deleted, erased files and directories from badly crashed, inaccessible, accidentally formatted USB pen drive storage media. Flash drive repair utility supports all major manufacturers and gives accurate recovery results in cost-effective manner. Download Trial | Purchase Now | Read More

Bios casper debian linux external usb hard drive flash drive knoppix Knoppix Flash Drive kqemu linux linux on a usb pendrive live usb MCNLive minime pclinuxos pen drive pendrivelinux persistence persistent Portable Knoppix qemu slax slax linux ubuntu ubuntu linux usb usb boot USB Boot CD usb device usb flash drive USB Knoppix usb linux usb stick usb ubuntu USB Ubuntu 8.04 USB Xubuntu vista

The FingerGear Bio USB Flash Drive with LCD is the most portable and secure USB data storage device on the market today. With its own LCD to guide you through fingerprint setup and operation, the FingerGear device requires no software to run on a host PC. The FingerGear Bio USB Flash Drive is both PC, Linux, Mac interoperable and truly Plug-n-Play. Using Biogy’s highly accurate onboard fingerprint engine, a single swipe of the finger confirms a users identity and grants the access to their secured data. Using the latest USB 2.0 silicon, the FingerGear Flash Drive family are capable of blazingly fast read speeds up to 18 Megabytes per second and write speeds of up to 13 Megabytes per second.

In late 2005 we looked at the ATP ToughDrive 1GB flash drive and in 2006 looked at ATP's ProMax 150x CF card, but since then we haven't heard much from this company. However, they have recently released two new products, which we are looking at today. There is the ATP 8GB EarthDrive, which is advertised as the world's first recyclable USB drive, and secondly there is the ATP 8GB ToughDrive. The EarthDrive is made of a biodegradable material that is derived from corn. PLA, or Polylactic Acid, is a biodegradable thermoplastic that is made from cornstarch or sugar canes depending upon the application. The EarthDrive's housing is made of this Polylactic Acid plus an additive and a Poly Carbonate. In addition to being the first biodegradable flash drive, the EarthDrive is also waterproof and resistant to dust and shock. The ATP EarthDrive is available in 1GB, 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB models, with the review sample we have being the 8GB AF8GUFE1BK. With the second flash drive we have for testing, the 8GB ToughDrive, it is not very different from the ATP flash drive we looked at three years ago. The ATP ToughDrive has the same rubberized coating to increase its durability, offer waterproof capabilities. The difference though is that on the rubber surface there is a camouflage pattern. The ATP ToughDrive, like the EarthDrive, is available in capacities between 1GB and 8GB. Both the ATP ToughDrive and EarthDrive simply included the USB 2.0 flash drives themselves and a small loop/clip to attach to a keychain or elsewhere to prevent the drives from getting lost.

USB Drives (for Windows systems). If you're the type who brings their USB flash-memory drive everywhere you go, yet often has to backtrack all the places you've been to find it, Flash Drive Reminder is definitely worth the download. The tiny app, and its auto-starting accompanying file, sit on your drive and activate whenever you've plugged it into a Windows system. You'll get a pop-up screen asking you to keep the Reminder app running during your session, and it takes up very little memory. When you go to log off or shut down your session, the reminder pops back up, reminding you to yank out your drive. That's about it, though there is a "quiet" version that doesn't present the pop-up window when you first plug in. Flash Drive Reminder is a free download, works on any USB drive (but only activates on Windows systems). If you've got a better system for remembering your drive, software or physical, let's hear it in the comments.

As you have probably noticed, new versions have arrived of Ubuntu, Xubuntu and other derivatives. One of the most exciting new features has received far less publicity than it deserves - the ability to install it onto your USB flash drive with just a few clicks. The advantages are obvious. just plug your flash drive into a computer and run your favourite operating system. Whats more, everything you do installing applications, saving documents, editing preferences will be saved to your flash drive and will be available to you every time you run it! The best news is that its astoundingly easy. all it takes is a few clicks. Of course, there are a few requirements. First, you can only run it on computers that support booting from a USB flash drive - this is the case for most computers nowadays. Secondly, you must have a CD or a CD image. The latter can be downloaded free of charge - I, obviously, downloaded Xubuntu. Third, youll need to install usb-creator, the new application that is readily available in version 8.10 but which you can also download and install on version 8.04 (with Windows and Qt versions planned). And, last but not least, youll obviously need to have a USB flash drive. Once installed, you can find it in your menu as Create a USB startup disk (on Xubuntu it is located under Applications-System, in Ubuntu this would be System-Administration,

). The first thing youll need to do is to insert the flash drive youre planning to use. Usb-creator will then detect the drive - if multiple flash drives are inserted, you can pick from a list which one you want to use, and if the drive isnt formatted yet usb-creator will give you the option to do so (note that this will destroy all files on it!). The next step is inserting the appropriate CD into your CD drive, or loading the CD image you downloaded before by clicking Other. Finally, youll need to configure whether you want all your documents, settings and applications to be discarded on shutdown (i. e. act as a regular LiveCD) or if you want to save them to your flash drive (this is called persistency, or persistent mode). If you pick the latter, youll also be able to select how much space you want to reserve for this. Do note that usb-creator will not overwrite existing files on the drive - thus, if you want to use your entire drive, youll first have to delete all existing files. Now, with everything configured, click Make Startup Disk, and sit back and relax while usb-creator prepares your flash drive. You can do something entirely different now, like reading the rest of this blog, viewing all my screenshots of usb-creator, whatever you like. Once usb-creator is finished, it will notify you that its done. All thats left now is to boot your computer from your flash drive and have fun

I have Fedora/RedHat installed to my USB flash drive almost 5 years, and used it on more than 150 different PCs at home, at work, at university, anywhere. It is very strange for me, that this type of usage/work is becoming popular on now, after so many years of availability. And what is even more strange, ppl are starting to use flash drivers only as Live-USB (like Live-CD), but not as I use, like removable HDD. There is no need for notebook PCs anymore. Take your flash drive, go to every PC, connect it, boot it, use it. This possibility is available for more than 5 years. But no one have talked about in any forum or anywhere. Dont know why.

@richs-lxh, 256MB in 2004 and 512MB in 2005. It was enought to run minimal Linux distribution. First USB flash drive i used for full Fedora installation was 2GB made by PQI. I have few PCs that are even without HDD and used only with USB flash drive for boot and work

@Jaramin - what usb-creator actually does is modify a LiveCD to run from your USB drive and have it save stuff to your USB drive. This is more efficient than, say, installing is to your flash drive like you normally would. Of course, its still more demanding than the average use of a USB flash drive, but Ive been doing it for ages now and its still working fine. It shouldnt be a problem for, well, any flash drive @Jason - yep, keeping it current will work as well, though of course, you need to be able to fit it on your USB drive, which is why I dont really install updates on mine (2GB) - its still a daily build from before the release and there have been so many updates since. @Iulian - that indeed works fine as well, thanks for mentioning it. @dino, stan - at least 700MB (without persistence), Ill add that to the post. @Neo - the process for Ubuntu is different from Fedoras. You couldnt use their tool for Ubuntu, if Im right. The UI is quite easy to understand, though perhaps the labels could be friendlier. Note that there are more products like this - e. g. liveusb. When people feel like writing something, who are we to stop them? @Fanaz - Ive been doing this for a while, I wrote two posts that were very popular, so obviously this isnt new. However, new tools have been appearing now that make it much, much easier (compare the steps in this post tho those in those earlier two). As far as I can see, it hasnt become more popular, Ive just learned how to better market my blog . @DayEleven - sorry to hear it doesnt work for you. I suppose the reason you keep trying is that it does work for other people . @Mach - Im aware of UNetbootin, however, that doesnt support persistent mode and uses Qt as opposed to GTK, which doesnt integrate as well (remember, this is a Xubuntu blog).

With in my comment telling people they can setup and boot a Slax in less time than tit takes to download the original ISO is not helpful? Download the HP-USB Format windows 3rd party tool and format your flash drive using the Fat or Fat32 option is not useful ? telling people the generic Slax RCs have been net/PXE booting that image as an option for a while now, UNLIKE ANY OTHER generic distro, is not being helpful? it seems helpful and not a problem to me, but perhaps im wrong and need lessons i being helpful /var/lib/tftpboot/slax/. /var/lib/tftpboot/pxelinux. cfg/default. default slax prompt 1 timeout 300 # runtu LABEL runtu MENU LABEL RUNTU 3 beta kernel runtu/casper/vmlinuz append initrd=runtu/casper/initrd. gz boot=casper netboot=nfs nfsroot= us../var/lib/tftpboot/runtu # xubuntu LABEL xubuntu MENU LABEL xUBUNTU kernel xubuntu/casper/vmlinuz append initrd=xubuntu/casper/initrd. gz boot=casper netboot=nfs nfsroot= us../var/lib/tftpboot/xubuntu # SLAX LABEL slax kernel slax/boot/vmlinuz append initrd=slax/boot/initrd. gz ramdisk_size=6666 root=/dev/ram0 rw autoexec=xconf.telinit~4 boot=nfs netboot=nfs nfsroot= us../var/lib/tftpboot/slax/ /etc/exports. /var/lib/tftpboot/runtu *(ro, async) /var/lib/tftpboot/xubuntu *(ro, async) /var/lib/tftpboot/slax *(ro, async)

Not my goal to put people in the spotlight - its applications I write guides about. I can understand if people are frustrated by Ubuntu receiving much of the attention (in the Linux distribution world), but thats no reason to accuse me of claiming Ubuntu invented the world. However, if this satisfies you, Ill mention it here for other people to read. Fedora includes its own tools that allows you to run Fedora from USB (and, according to neo, Ubuntu as well) and, according to neo, can do a few more things than usb-creator and already runs on Windows. @Onkelscrue - youre welcome @Nobody - Suspend worked for me. Hibernate didnt, but thats supposedly often a problem for Linux distributions (I dont really use laptops all that much), so I dont think thats because its running from a USB flash drive. @Davey - nice

I use Fedora, but Id love to have a persistent version of Ubuntu on a USB flash drive. Only problem is, how do you do this without wasting a CD? I managed to get Intrepid onto a 8GB flash drive using Unetbootin (an incredibly useful tool btw), however, as others have noted, it cant do persistence. By the looks of it, to get persistence, I have to boot Intrepid from the flash drive I created, then use the usb-creator application to make a persistent version on a SECOND USB flash drive. I dont have an appropriate second flash drive available, I dont want to burn a live CD and I have Fedora on my computer. Any ideas?

Hi Dox, I dont think there is a need for another CD or USB flash drive. You could try to install VirtualBox (you might need to do some stuff to enable USB support but the internet should be able to help) and run Intrepid from there. When I boot from my USB drive, I can still mount and edit the drive itself - Im not sure whether this is possible with UNetbootin, but if it is, that should make it a whole lot easier.

I used this method to make a bootable xubuntu usb flash drive. everything went perfectly, however when it came time to reboot, i tried the usb key on 4 different usb ports with no booting OS (just continued into windows). then i tried the usb drive on another computer, and it said no bootable OS was found on the USB drive. when i plug it into my windows machine all the files seem to be in tact, can anyone help me out?

How long is this supposed to take? I am running Ubuntu - in fact as result of following your steps I am now running ibex not heron (I had no intention of upgrading). And the USB dive has been installing for a couple of hours now. Though the window says starting up there is nothing happenning in the progress bar This was just to see if I could get Ubuntu onto a flash drive to test on my Eeepc

Hi Vincent Thanks for the great little how to for creating a USB Xubuntu with persistence, plus the persistence fix. I didnt know you could simply install the USB-Creator for Xubuntu nor how easy it would be to build Xubuntu on a flash drive with the tool (having used the pendrivelinux guides in the past). Many thanks for the post, and the great blog about Xubuntu and the things you can achieve with it. ps Ignore the morons! They have some serious chips on shoulders!

Sorry to post three times in a row, but have found a way to use grub to boot from usb (avoids all detection issues at boot). Works specifically for xubuntu 8.10. This is thanks to the USBCDX810.iso from which is designed to create a bootable cd-rom when your PC cannot / will not boot directly from a usb flash drive. Heres how you do it. Download the USBCDX810.iso from here. (only @ 10mb) Using gmountiso or similar iso mounting program mount the iso Create a new folder in your /boot directory, I used /boot/usb-boot Copy the grub folder, vmlinuz and initrd. gz files across from the mounted iso to your new directory Next open up your grub menu. lst. sudo nano /boot/grub/menu. lst Add the following to the bottom. title Run Xubuntu 8.10 from USB DISK root (hd0,0) kernel /boot/usb-boot/vmlinuz file=/cdrom/preseed/xubuntu. seed boot=casper noprompt cdrom-detect/try-usb=true persistent quiet splash initrd /boot/usb-boot/initrd. gz boot This assumes your system is running on the first partition of the first hard drive. Substitute (hd0,0) for the correct path. You can edit out quiet and splash if you like to watch what is going on. Save out, unmount the iso and reboot, inserting your flash drive as you go. You may want to edit your bios settings to stop your PC directly booting from the flash drive. (Yes, this sounds odd, mine does, but I wanted a way of doing this from grub, so I stopped the bios from doing it) On reboot, press ESC if you need to show your grub menu, then select the USB DISK entry at the bottom, and with any luck, you should start booting up from your USB Flash Drive. A bit more work, but a more elegant solution in my opinion. pendrivelinux also has similar boot isos for Ubuntu and Kubuntu. Enjoy

Iinstalled Ubuntu 8.x on my 4GB 200x USB Flash Drive, worked like a champ, until I shut down and decided to boot to Vista so I could finish my work. I got a list of errors and Vista would not boot. I have to put the USB Flash drive in and choose the Vista option and everything works fine. But I need to have my notebook booting normal. How can I fix this problem?

Some filesystems (FAT32 might be one of them) allow only filesizes up to e. g. 4GB per file (for comparison, ext4, the new filesystem for Linux, allows for a size of 16 TB (!) per file). Ken, Im afraid I have no idea but running Xubuntu from a USB flash drive an sich should not cause this. Noo 2 Ubuntoo - if you boot from the USB drive (which you can probably tell your computer to do at the boot screen just after you pressed the power button if it doesnt boot it automatically) then, yes, you can install Xubuntu from that drive. And yes, you can remove Xubuntu from your flash drive afterwards (you can format it again which will wipe all data - if you need any help with that, leave another comment or contact me via email).

That can be run directly from a USB device. By installing any of the listed portable apps to your USB flash drive, thumb drive, pen drive, iPod or other storage device, you can carry your applications, tools, software, personal settings and files with you (in your pocket) to use and run on any available Windows (or Mac in some cases) client computer. Bring your own personalized office applications, e-mail, web browser, instant messaging software, graphical editors, games, media player, antivirus software, recovery tools, encryption utilities, P2P file sharing utilities and much more with you to run from any Windows PC (or Mac in some cases). Many applications run entirely from the portable device, saving your personal settings and changes back to the same device.

According to reviews, the Corsair Flash Survivor GT is the best USB drive overall. Many reviews say it's the fastest USB drive on the market. Its included software lets you create a password-protected hidden partition for

Phoronix. com. Testing includes boiling the Corsair Flash Survivor GT for more than ten minutes and whacking it several times with a hammer. On.BigBruin. com. Big Bruin offers very detailed reviews of many flash drives and includes objective testing. The Corsair Flash Survivor GT gets a.I4U. com. Reviewer Shane McGlaun gives the Corsair Flash Survivor GT an 8.5 out of ten, saying it's a "real winner," although the cap came.EverythingUSB. com. Reviews here are thorough and based on testing, but there's no overall score or ranking. The gist is the Corsair Flash Survivor.Amazon. com. About two dozen owner reviews give the Corsair Flash Survivor a good average score, with just a few complaints and no common.

Indestructibility of the Survivor USB drive). Corsair's computer memory has been top-rated in reviews for years, and the brand's reputation extends to flash drives as well. The Voyager GT is also available in 4 GB (*est. $90) and 2 GB (*est. $40) capacities. All are compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux computers.

Phoronix. com. Reviews here are very thorough, but it isn't easy to see at a glance which products rate highest. The gist is the Corsair Force.Trusted Reviews. Compared with other tech-oriented sources, the UK's Trusted Reviews evaluates a large number of flash drives. It gives a.BigBruin. com. This review by a frequent Big Bruin contributor gives a "highly recommended" tag to the Corsair Flash Voyager on the basis of.TomsHardware. com. This review tests 12 drives and tests them on access time, read transfer and write transfer. The Corsair Flash Voyager 4 GB is.Amazon. com. Nearly 300 owner reviews give a very high average score to Corsair Flash Voyager, but note that reviews here include all the.

Transferring larger files. The Kingston DataTraveler DT1 isn't speedy, but reviewers say it is a bargain in a basic no-frills USB flash drive. 1 GB (*est. $10) and 2 GB (*est. $20) versions are also available. All are compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux computers.

Amazon. com. Although this says it's about the 8 GB version of the Kingston DataTraveler DT1, actually various capacities are included among.ExtremeOverclocking. com. This website is commercial enough to raise suspicion, but this review is honest and calls the Kingston DataTraveler a "no-frills.TomsHardware. com. Twelve USB drives are tested on access time, read transfer and write transfer. The Kingston DataTraveler 1 GB version is last on.Trusted Reviews. UK's Trusted Reviews covers lots of flash drives, although the closest it comes to the Kingston DataTraveler DT1 4 GB is this.Scots Newsletter. This blog is a side project of the editor of IT trade journal Computerworld. Although this is primarily a review of the Lexar 4GB.

Flash drives with U3 software let you run specially optimized applications from the USB drive itself. You can run special versions of Firefox, Skype and dozens of other programs, keeping all your history and data on the

Trusted Reviews. UK's Trusted Reviews gives an Editors Choice to the SanDisk Cruzer Titanium U3's 2 GB version, and it has broad enough coverage.TomsHardware. com. Tom's Hardware tests a dozen USB drives for access time, read transfer and write transfer, including the SanDisk Cruzer Titanium..EverythingUSB. com. This now-dated review says the SanDisk Cruzer Titanium is the fastest flash drive tested, although not as fast as the.CNet. com. CNet gives the SanDisk an Editors Choice, saying there's no downside and some good applications. In the accompanying video, they.Amazon. com. About 250 owner reviews give the SanDisk Cruzer Titanium a very high average score, only about 10 percent expressing serious.

Removable storage is widely used all over the world. It is easy to use, however the data is not secure. Do you care about someone accesses your data by stealth? Flash Drive Crypto is the very solution. It is able to encrypt the disk drives using FAT or NTFS file system. FlashDrive Crypto is an easy-to-use, reliable, user-friendly and smart program that lets you encrypt the disk partitions (drive letters) to keep your private and confidential data secure. It almost supports all kind of removable storage, ex. floppy disks, usb hard drive, usb flash memory disk, pcmcia hard drive, compact flash memory, SD, MMC, memory stick, etc. Once encrypted, the removable drive will display an error message and cannot be accessed when used on another computer. The user will take misunderstanding that the driver damaged but not protected. This approach has the advantage of being more secure, however it limits the portability of the data somewhat.

Almost support all kind of removable drives Such as floppy disks, flash drives, CF cards, SD/MMC cards, MD, ZIP-disks, all types of flash memory cards

No Backdoors present Flash DriveCrypto does NOT include any backdoor. Encrypted data are only accessible by the legitimate users. Neither the vendor nor any other entities are able to break the encryption.

Easy of use and installation Flash DriveCrypto is very easy to use and installation will be within minutes.

The newest USB flash drive on the market comes from a world leader in memory technologies, Kingston Technology. But can this aged expert in memory still keep up with relative newcomers in the flash market? Our newest review has an in-depth look at the Kingston Datatraveler 150 32GB model sporting both copious amounts of storage capacity and a fancy design that does little to innovate but a lot to refine USB flash drive appearances.

Sleek and slender, the Kingston Datatraveler 150 is well designed and functional USB flash drive with a good read and decent write performance, something you would expect from one the world's leading memory manufacturers. If you were in the market for a new flash drive then the Datatraveler 150 comes highly recommend as a suitable replacement for easily portable USB-based storage solution.

The Kingston Datatraveler 150 (DT150) comes in two flavors, a 32GB sized blazing orange and a 64GB fiery red and black model. Today's review will cover the more readily available 32GB Datatraveler which boasts one of the sleekest flash drive designs to be featured on our site in more recent times. Sized to fit your pocket and wallet at the same time but without sacrificing performance seems to be the marketing-hype surrounding Kingston's launch. While not as miniature as the Corsair Voyager Mini, it's size is still easily portable and it's looks really make you appreciate the time someone has taken to design this drive. Built in a sleek and narrow plastic housing with only one dim blue LED for activity indication, the surface of the drive, and indeed it's main attraction really, sports a beautiful designer pattern.

Among other features this drive also has black plastic ridges along both sides to give users an easy surface to grip for the removal from USB ports. A key-chain ring is included in the packaging to be fitted after purchase and should help secure the unit easily to any keys you might have floating around. Thankfully the cap also secures itself to the rear of the flash drive quite securely but I would hazard to guess that after a few thousand removals of the cap to the rear, the cap will eventually be lost. Unfortunately Kingston does not seem to offer any easy cap replacement service compared to what Corsair does for it's product-line nor does the cap have any other fail-safe mechanism to prevent its loss.

The Data Traveler 32GB drive comes pre-formatted with a FAT32 file table with a generous total user accessible space of 32,287,801,344 bytes (30.0GB). The great thing about today's flash drive sizes of 32GB and more, you run a reduced risk of exhausting the manufacturer implemented wear-leveling technologies and thus automatically drastically increase the average life expectancy of any MLC flash based solution. 32GB of flash drive storage will easily last you past it's anticipated effective life-time. For readers with a Microsoft Windows XP/Vista operating system and looking to store files larger than 4GB on the drive we highly recommend formatting this drive immediately upon receipt to an NTFS file table to increase the performance and capability of the drive. Users who anticipate moving the DT150 frequently between OS X, Linux and Windows based may want to retain the original FAT32 file table on the drive for maximum compatibility between operating systems. USB flash drives have come a long way from their original bulky USB based incarnation with no consideration for ease-of-use or value added software. While some manufacturers bundle their drives with additional software to integrate features ranging from a portable desktop (Migo) or portable application launcher (U3, Ceedo), Kingston's latest Data Traveler comes no additional bloatware. For those readers looking for Migo or U3 based functionality from flash drive we would suggest Kingston or any other USB flash drive manufacturer's U3 specific USB flash drive offerings or alternatively, the freeware alternatives.

All benchmarking was performed on an Intel-based USB host controller featuring an ICH8 South Bridge and the 32GB flash drive directly connected to the host computer. The operating used was Microsoft's Windows Vista 64-bit including Service Pack 1. For our synthetic benchmark scores we used SiSoft Sandra 2009 software suite and ran the Removable Storage benchmark to gauge performance across different file sizes copying to and from the drive. We also included some previous benchmark scores for drives from Corsair Voyager Mini 8GB and Voyager 8GB) for comparative reasons.

The Kingston Data Traveler 32GB flash drive managed to maintain a respectable lead or similar performance to both Corsair Voyager models with any file transfers SiSoft Sandra could throw at it. The drive peaked at 29.87MB/s for read scores on 256MB file sizes and maintained a healthy minimum read performance of 24.35MB/s for any files sized 256kB or bigger. The biggest drop in performance came from the use of files sized 32kB or smaller which is where the Corsair Voyager 8GB formatted with an NTFS file system manages to trounce the Kingston DT150. Write scores for the Data Traveler 150 showed much more promise compared to Kingston's competition. In all benchmarks except anything smaller than 256kB the Kingston drive exceeded our expectations with a maximum write performance of 13.87MB/s. Smaller sized files seemed to suffer similarly from bad performance on all drives but most users would really be using the gargantuan 32GB sized drive for larger purposes rather than copying small 512byte text files. For our real-world benchmark scores we used Microsoft's Robocopy tool and copied a 640MB ISO file from and to the flash drive. Read scores showed similar results to the SiSoft Sandra performance with a maximum of 30.31MB/s copying from the flash drive to the local hard drive. The write performance lingered at 12.87MB/s, which is reasonable considering the use of MLC NAND. Readyboost's minimum requirements state that the flash drive must support 2.5MB/s for 4K random access reads and 1.5MB/sec for 512K random writes. We attempted to enable Readyboost and force Vista to retest the device's Readyboost capability, unfortunately the Data Traveler 32GB flash drive was incapable of supporting Microsoft's Windows Vista enhancement. Given that the Kingston Datatraveler is built using the cheaper and more readily available MLC NAND flash, the write performance especially during small file operations does suffer compared to the more expensive and barely available SLC NAND flash. Ultimately the use of MLC NAND flash will, however, at the very least cost you twice as much time writing to the flash drive compared to an SLC NAND flash based drive, but you'll have some spare change to spend on other tech gadgets.

The Kingston family's latest USB flash drive addition comes to the market with great read and average write performance, great for those of you looking for vast amounts of easily portable storage space without necessarily breaking the bank either. Built with a solid case and a great look I applaud Kingston's continuous ability to offer some of the finest and most robust flash drive designs on the market and thus the Data Traveler 150 naturally comes highly recommended.

We've already covered how to use an Ubuntu Live CD to backup files from your dead Windows computer, but using the boot cd can sometimes be a little slow. We can speed up the booting process by installing Ubuntu to a bootable USB flash drive instead. To accomplish this, we'll use a tiny software package called UNetbootin, which is designed to make the installation process simple and easy. Create the Bootable Flash Drive You'll first need to download the UNetbootin software and save it somewhere useful, since there's no installation required, just double-click to run. I chose to use an already downloaded ISO image of the Ubuntu installation cd, and then chose my flash drive, and clicked the OK button. Yes, this step is as simple as that. The process will extract the files from the ISO image (or download them), copy them to the flash drive and then install the bootloader. Depending on what you are installing, this really doesn't take very long. Once the process is completed, you'll be prompted to reboot which you don't necessarily have to do unless you want to test booting the flash drive on the same machine you are using. Otherwise you can hit the Exit button. Make Sure the Partition is Active If you get a boot device error when you try and boot from the flash device, it could be that your partition is not marked as active. What we'll do is use the command line diskpart utility to fix this if you are in Vista open an administrator mode command prompt by right-clicking and choosing Run as Administrator. Now you'll need to run this command to figure out the number of your flash drive. list disk This will show you the list of drives, and you will use the disk number in the "select disk" command. select disk 1 select partition 1 active The "active" command will actually mark the current partition as active, which is why you need to select the disk and then the partition. At this point you should be done. Booting From the Flash Drive Now that you are all finished, you can try and boot from the flash drive. Every BIOS is different, but most of them will have a message like "Press F12 for the Boot Menu", which is highly suggested. The boot menu will allow you to select the USB drive as the boot device. (apologies for the simply horrible camera phone screenshots) Instead of the regular Ubuntu boot menu that you might be used to seeing, you will see the UNetbootin menu, which has essentially the same options. Useful Note If you are having issues booting Ubuntu Hardy (8.04) on a Dell machine, you might want to switch back to using Ubuntu 7.10 instead. I was able to boot all the way into the desktop in about 35 seconds using the flash drive way faster than using the regular live cd. Stay tuned, we're going to explore even more options for bootable CDs and USB drives that help you repair your computer. Download UNetbootin from sourceforge. net

It probably wouldn't hurt to have a Two Gig Flash Drive for this, that way you always have extra space for added programs, backups, etc.

Sweet I have the flash drive with the live but havent done the install gonna work on it next many thanx, noobish

I put it on my 512 mb cruzer micro, then did everything including diskpart, and I have a few problems. * Does not boot from flash drive with correct settings * Diskpart does not show my flash drive What can the problem be?

I have been using Ubuntu 8.10 on a Dell laptop (updated from Hardy) since it was released. I had tried several times on different USB Flash drives to use the inbuilt create a usb startup disk. Each time it created the installation on the drive without any error message but it would never boot. I would get an error message about it being invalid boot or system disk. I then booted the laptop from the live CD and selected install Ubuntu and chose the 4GB USB flash drive and the guided option. VERY IMPORTANT!!! Select Advanced! Install Grub and MAKE SURE you select the USB drive for Grub installation. It took a long time to do the install (around an hour) but when it was finished I could boot from the USB drive with the grub menu giving all the options for my other Ubuntu installations on the laptop as well. When running from the USB drive It picked up my wireless connection quickly and I could use system update (240 MB) and copy Deb packages over from my Hard disk and install. I hope this helps anyone

Dear Geek, I'm sending this message using Ubuntu 10 which is residing on my pqi 1 GB flash disk. I tried to use diskpart from my original Windows XP, but it didn't show my flash drive. Instead, I simply restarted the machine after the extraction process, modified the BIOS so that I can boot from my USB drive, and voila!! The whole process as per your description only took around 7 minutes (thanks to a Pentium Core 2 Duo 2.66, and 2 GB memory). Thank you a lot!! Yassir

I've been using and reviewing USB Flash drives since 2002 and there really isn't too much exciting or new about them in all honesty. Every article or review you read about Flash drives is that they are now available in larger capacities and lower prices. This is all fine and dandy, but it gets pretty boring to read, let alone write about year after year. When I heard some engineers whispering that eSATA (External Serial ATA) Flash drives would be coming on the market at the end of 2008 about a year ago, I was highly interestedand couldn't wait for the drives to come out. To give a little history lesson here when USB flash drives, or thumb drives as many refer to them, came out the group of people buying them was limited to enthusiasts with cutting edge systems as back in 2001 and 2002 not many systems had USB ports or the need for these 8MB and 16MB drive. The vast majority of people were still using Windows 98 and to use a USB Flash drive you had to install drivers on the system first and it was a complete pain in the butt to use. When Windows XP came out the need to install drivers vanished and over the years having close to a dozen USB 2.0 ports on a computer is pretty much standard these days. Flash memory prices have also become so cheap that it is now often cheaper to put a presentation on a 1GB USB key and give them away than to print full color pint copies to be handed out. You can officially say that USB Flash drives have matured when my parents who are both in their sixties carry one with them and many schools list USB Flash drives as something required on the first day of elementary school. Having a USB key on your key chain is now about as cool as having an Apple iPod, it is not. Enthusiasts and gamers are always the early adopters of new technology and today we enthusiasts have eSATA Flash drives! Very few desktops and even fewer laptops have eSATA ports, but for those lucky enough to have a system with one you can embrace the OCZ Throttle eSATA drive. The OCZ Throttle eSATA drive is one of the very first eSATA Flash drives available. The OCZ Throttle’s eSATA interface offers an incredible performance speeds of up to90MB/second read and 30MB/sec write. Current higher end USB Flash drives offer performance up to 35MB/s (read), 30MB/s (write), so the only real benefit of a eSATA drive would be read performance. The OCZ Throttle eSATA drive is available in 8GB, 16GB, and 32GB capacities to ensure all your storage needs are met. The good news about these initialeSATA drives drives is that they are true plug and play, which means no extra drivers or power cables are required if you have a powered eSATA port, which is officially known as Power Over eSATA. Since I'm not aware of a motherboard that features Power Over eSATA that means you have to usethe USBadapter to power the eSATA drive. If you don't have an eSATA port you can use the drive in USB mode with the included USB cable. To run in USB mode you just need to leave the cap on the eSATA drive and plug in the USB cable and it will work like a good old fashioned USB 2.0 Flash drive. The front and back of the OCZ Throttle retail packaging give you the basic gist of the product in several languages on the back and the technical specifications. The OCZ throttle is 78.0mm x 29.8mm x 10.9mm in size and weighs in at just 18 grams.

Samsung SE-T084 Slot-in External Slim DV. Patriot 64GB Xporter Magnum USB Flash Drive LanCool (Lian Li) Metal Boned K6 (PC-K6) StarLight Creations Light Laptop Stands Cooler Master Storm Sniper

Manufacturer. ATP Electronics Inc. ATP is a Taiwanese company that was founded in 1991. With over 17 years of experience, today they primarily produce DRAM modules and NAND flash storage products. We have seen their Pink Petito and ToughDrive Mini flash drives before.

The FingerGear Bio USB Flash Drive with LCD is the most portable and secure USB data storage device on the market today. With its own LCD to guide you through fingerprint setup and operation, the FingerGear device requires no software to run on a host PC. The FingerGear Bio USB Flash Drive is both PC, Linux, Mac interoperable and truly Plug-n-Play. Using Biogy’s highly accurate onboard fingerprint engine, a single swipe of the finger confirms a users identity and grants the access to their secured data. Using the latest USB 2.0 silicon, the FingerGear Flash Drive family are capable of blazingly fast read speeds up to 18 Megabytes per second and write speeds of up to 13 Megabytes per second.

USB drive, Pen drive, USB pen drive, USB flash drive, USB memory drive, Flash drive, Memory drive Buy online

Buy online USB Drives like Pen Drive, USB Drive, USB Pen, Flash Drive, Memory Drive, USB Pen Drive, USB Memory Drive, USB Flash Drive and Memory sticks at lowest possible prices. Get offer on Bulk and Custom orders of USB Drive.

The Corsair Flash Voyager family of USB drives are rugged, stylish, compact, and reliable, making them ideal for transporting MP3s, digital images, presentations and more. Flash Voyager drives are fully Plug and Play with most operating systems and are backward compatible with USB 1.1.

The Corsair Flash Voyager family is comprised of two outstanding products. The Flash Voyager GT is designed from the ground up for speed, optimizing transfer rates of both reads and writes, while Flash Voyager provides a durable USB drive in large capacities.

Published 8/03 - 2009 Published in Product Reviews, USB Flash memory Author. Kristofer Brozio Manufacturer. OCZ TechnologyProduct name. OCZ ATV 32GB Flash DriveManufacturer ID / UPC. us.

The shock-proof ATV features mainstream speeds offering consumers an affordable option and was designed to safely accommodate a wealth of important data and media files. Not only are these premium flash drives aggressively fast at transferring files of all types and sizes, but are optimized for Windows Vista Ready Boost, offering true performance advantages to this latest operating system.

ATV flash drives feature durable and colorful rubber tread housing, which is a 100% weatherproof storage solution to keep digital files safe in any conditions, even fully submerged in water. The attached cap holder will help prevent misplacement of the protective key cover, while the chain can easily fasten to your key ring for ultimate portability.

16/03 - 2009 at 3.28 [.] OCZ ATV 32GB @ Test Freaks - Super Talent Godfather @ TweakTown - OCZ Throttle 16 GB eSATA Flash Drive @ Test Freaks - SuperTalent The Godfather 16GB USB Flash Drive @ Overclockers Club [.]

The British company Flashbay has a new line of carbon neutral USB flash drives called Nature Series, featuring a natural hardwood shell from an PEFC certified source.

The perfect blend of modern technology, environmentally sustainable materials and sophisticated styling, this USB Memory Stick is machined from European Maple (light wood). Complete with all the capabilities of a traditional Flash Drive and brandable by either colour printing or laser engraving, the Nature Series is perfect if you are looking for a distinctive product with a tactile feel and great visual appeal. The Nature Series USB Flash Drive from Flashbay is available with memory capacities ranging from 32MB up to 8GB. (price available upon request).

Tags. backup, computers, eco, flash+drive, memory, usb, wood Posted by Robert Birming on January 29th, 2009 in category Gadgets.

This is really a beautiful eco-friendly usb flash drive, this flash drive is looking so cute that now i would like to buy and gift it to my girl-friend in this valentine.

[.] gente de la empresa Flashbay decidió crear un pendrive realmente verde y lanzó al mercado los Nature Series, unas memorias flash fabricadas a partir de Arce Europeo (una madera especialmente ligera) para [.]

We are always looking for the hottest deals. Sometimes they expire before we have a chance to update our site. Click here to see more deals on USB Flash Drives, like.

Several USB 2.0 flash drives are at lowest-we-could-find prices at newegg. com. Each carries free shipping. Rebates expire March 17. The deals.

Newegg. com offers the A-DATA 4GB T809 Mascot White Angel USB 2.0 Flash Drive, model no. AT89004GZZZWP, for $16.99 with free shipping ($4.24/GB). It's the lowest total price we could find by $7. (We mentioned a similar panda drive for a buck less yesterday,.

SupermediaStore. com offers the PQI 8GB Intelligent Drive i815 USB 2.0 Flash Drive for $19.99 with free shipping. Apply coupon code "MEY15P" to drop it to $16.99 ($2.12/GB). That's the lowest total price we've seen for this tiny waterproof drive. Deal ends.

Buy. com offers the Centon 4GB NASCAR Jimmie Johnson 48 Lowe's USB 2.0 Flash Drive, model no. DSN4GB48LO-09, for $19.99 with free shipping ($5/GB). That's the lowest total price we could find by $3. This flash drive comes pre-loaded with Jimmie Johnson vide.

Person orders birthday cake, gives baker a flash driver containing image. Baker makes cake with image of flash drive.

They should just connect the flash drive cake to the PC cake and get the actual image cake from inside it.

Thing I don't get is how come the flash drive is so massive and the cake is so tiny?! Barely a mouthful, surely.

@26 - my thoughts exactly. How hard would it be to go take a picture of the flash drive, take it to the bakery and tell them that's what you want on the cake. Then make up the backstory and generate untold lulz.

Maybe there is a need to realize that about 90% of the folks out in the real world are not up to speed on all/most matters tech. most here keep up, but this is a small population, and tech moves too fast for the masses. i've made award winning websites, and have NEVER used a flash drive! OMG! there's too much info out there and it becomes tiresome to those who don't need it - i know a guy with a 2500$ macbook pro - he only uses it for email.

The newest USB flash drive on the market comes from a world leader in memory technologies, Kingston Technology. But can this aged expert in memory still keep up with relative newcomers in the flash market? Our newest review has an in-depth look at the Kingston Datatraveler 150 32GB model sporting both copious amounts of storage capacity and a fancy design that does little to innovate but a lot to refine USB flash drive appearances.

Sleek and slender, the Kingston Datatraveler 150 is well designed and functional USB flash drive with a good read and decent write performance, something you would expect from one the world's leading memory manufacturers. If you were in the market for a new flash drive then the Datatraveler 150 comes highly recommend as a suitable replacement for easily portable USB-based storage solution.

The Kingston Datatraveler 150 (DT150) comes in two flavors, a 32GB sized blazing orange and a 64GB fiery red and black model. Today's review will cover the more readily available 32GB Datatraveler which boasts one of the sleekest flash drive designs to be featured on our site in more recent times. Sized to fit your pocket and wallet at the same time but without sacrificing performance seems to be the marketing-hype surrounding Kingston's launch. While not as miniature as the Corsair Voyager Mini, it's size is still easily portable and it's looks really make you appreciate the time someone has taken to design this drive. Built in a sleek and narrow plastic housing with only one dim blue LED for activity indication, the surface of the drive, and indeed it's main attraction really, sports a beautiful designer pattern.

Among other features this drive also has black plastic ridges along both sides to give users an easy surface to grip for the removal from USB ports. A key-chain ring is included in the packaging to be fitted after purchase and should help secure the unit easily to any keys you might have floating around. Thankfully the cap also secures itself to the rear of the flash drive quite securely but I would hazard to guess that after a few thousand removals of the cap to the rear, the cap will eventually be lost. Unfortunately Kingston does not seem to offer any easy cap replacement service compared to what Corsair does for it's product-line nor does the cap have any other fail-safe mechanism to prevent its loss.

The Data Traveler 32GB drive comes pre-formatted with a FAT32 file table with a generous total user accessible space of 32,287,801,344 bytes (30.0GB). The great thing about today's flash drive sizes of 32GB and more, you run a reduced risk of exhausting the manufacturer implemented wear-leveling technologies and thus automatically drastically increase the average life expectancy of any MLC flash based solution. 32GB of flash drive storage will easily last you past it's anticipated effective life-time. For readers with a Microsoft Windows XP/Vista operating system and looking to store files larger than 4GB on the drive we highly recommend formatting this drive immediately upon receipt to an NTFS file table to increase the performance and capability of the drive. Users who anticipate moving the DT150 frequently between OS X, Linux and Windows based may want to retain the original FAT32 file table on the drive for maximum compatibility between operating systems. USB flash drives have come a long way from their original bulky USB based incarnation with no consideration for ease-of-use or value added software. While some manufacturers bundle their drives with additional software to integrate features ranging from a portable desktop (Migo) or portable application launcher (U3, Ceedo), Kingston's latest Data Traveler comes no additional bloatware. For those readers looking for Migo or U3 based functionality from flash drive we would suggest Kingston or any other USB flash drive manufacturer's U3 specific USB flash drive offerings or alternatively, the freeware alternatives.

All benchmarking was performed on an Intel-based USB host controller featuring an ICH8 South Bridge and the 32GB flash drive directly connected to the host computer. The operating used was Microsoft's Windows Vista 64-bit including Service Pack 1. For our synthetic benchmark scores we used SiSoft Sandra 2009 software suite and ran the Removable Storage benchmark to gauge performance across different file sizes copying to and from the drive. We also included some previous benchmark scores for drives from Corsair Voyager Mini 8GB and Voyager 8GB) for comparative reasons.

The Kingston Data Traveler 32GB flash drive managed to maintain a respectable lead or similar performance to both Corsair Voyager models with any file transfers SiSoft Sandra could throw at it. The drive peaked at 29.87MB/s for read scores on 256MB file sizes and maintained a healthy minimum read performance of 24.35MB/s for any files sized 256kB or bigger. The biggest drop in performance came from the use of files sized 32kB or smaller which is where the Corsair Voyager 8GB formatted with an NTFS file system manages to trounce the Kingston DT150. Write scores for the Data Traveler 150 showed much more promise compared to Kingston's competition. In all benchmarks except anything smaller than 256kB the Kingston drive exceeded our expectations with a maximum write performance of 13.87MB/s. Smaller sized files seemed to suffer similarly from bad performance on all drives but most users would really be using the gargantuan 32GB sized drive for larger purposes rather than copying small 512byte text files. For our real-world benchmark scores we used Microsoft's Robocopy tool and copied a 640MB ISO file from and to the flash drive. Read scores showed similar results to the SiSoft Sandra performance with a maximum of 30.31MB/s copying from the flash drive to the local hard drive. The write performance lingered at 12.87MB/s, which is reasonable considering the use of MLC NAND. Readyboost's minimum requirements state that the flash drive must support 2.5MB/s for 4K random access reads and 1.5MB/sec for 512K random writes. We attempted to enable Readyboost and force Vista to retest the device's Readyboost capability, unfortunately the Data Traveler 32GB flash drive was incapable of supporting Microsoft's Windows Vista enhancement. Given that the Kingston Datatraveler is built using the cheaper and more readily available MLC NAND flash, the write performance especially during small file operations does suffer compared to the more expensive and barely available SLC NAND flash. Ultimately the use of MLC NAND flash will, however, at the very least cost you twice as much time writing to the flash drive compared to an SLC NAND flash based drive, but you'll have some spare change to spend on other tech gadgets.

The Kingston family's latest USB flash drive addition comes to the market with great read and average write performance, great for those of you looking for vast amounts of easily portable storage space without necessarily breaking the bank either. Built with a solid case and a great look I applaud Kingston's continuous ability to offer some of the finest and most robust flash drive designs on the market and thus the Data Traveler 150 naturally comes highly recommended.

There are gobs of products out there to help you send, store, and transport your data, but few can match the simplicity and sheer portability of a tiny USB flash drive. Like an old-school floppy disk retailored for the twenty-first century, USB flash drives offer the capacity of a modest hard drive, the portability of a cigarette lighter, and the plug-and-play simplicity of a modern peripheral. These portable devices go by a colorful assortment of names--keychain drives, memory sticks, iDucks, and so on--but they all work pretty much the same way. Plug one into a USB port on the back of your PC, and it'll show up like any other hard drive. Drag and drop your data onto it from your PC at work, pull out the drive, and plug it into your computer at home. Click each product for more info.

Who needs a flash USB drive? Erik Aldana, vice president of the USB Flash Drive Alliance, says that the portable drives are perfect for people who regularly work on two or more different PCs--particularly students and business people--and need a dependable way to transport data. Flash drives are also popular in Asia, where not everybody has their own computer. A 256MB flash drive can hold a surprising amount of data. dozens of digital pictures, a couple of hours of MP3s, or hundreds of Microsoft Word documents. While they come in a variety of capacities, ranging from 8MB to 2GB, the 128MB and 256MB models hit the sweet spot. Lesser capacities are too small to be truly useful, and larger capacities are prohibitively expensive (2GB drives run about $700). Still, prices will continue to come down, and we expect drive capacity to hit 4GB by the end of 2004. In these days of cross-pollinated cell phones, PDAs, and cameras, some may find a basic flash drive too one-dimensional. If you're looking for convergence, there are USB drives that also function as MP3 players, voice recorders, and even FM tuners. In fact, we looked at two USB drives that function as wristwatches and one that doubles as a pen. Whatever form they take, however, USB drives are pricey storage devices when you consider the cost per megabyte. You can buy a high-quality 250GB internal hard drive for around $250, or $1 per gigabyte, whereas a 128MB USB flash drive runs about $50, or 50 cents per megabyte. If you're using an older operating system, take note. Most USB flash drives will work with both Windows and Mac systems, but if you're still using Windows 98, you'll need to download a driver before you can use the drive. Same goes for Mac fans running anything older than OS 9. Find out how we test USB flash drives.

How we tested We evaluated these USB flash drives based on three criteria. size and appearance, features, and overall value. While a typical USB flash drive is small, especially compared to the size of an average external hard drive, some USB flash drives are significantly smaller than others, and some offer design flourishes, such as a keychain attachment, a permanently affixed cap, or particularly sturdy construction. Some of the drives we tested distinguished themselves with useful features such as password protection and portable versions of common applications, such as Outlook Express and Internet Explorer. Finally, we divided capacity by price to determine which drives offer the most storage bang for the buck. Most of the drives in our roundup support the USB 2.0 standard and transfer data fairly quickly--between 30 and 60 seconds for about 128MB. The few USB 1.1 drives that we saw were significantly slower, but with a 128MB or 256MB drive, that just means an extra minute or two. Performance really begins to matter when you're transferring 1GB or more.

Version reviewed. Check Flash 1.08 With Check Flash you will be able to manage your flash drives by performing different maintenance tests on them. Features.Test read speed Test write speed Format flash drive Various drive access methods Download Check Flash Request a review

Flash disks or USB connected removable devices have gained an important role when it comes to computing. But they, just like the fix disks, need checking up from time to time. Or at least when you get them, just to know what exactly you can rely on. There are various tests to benchmark all sorts of devices, especially hard disks, but not all of them are capable of dealing with removable drives, despite their omnipresence. Check Flash is not only built specifically for removable storage devices but it can also be run from such a portable device without leaving any trace in the operating system. Flash Check is a freebie built to help you test and format flash drives with the utmost ease. It is designed for maintenance operations as well. The interface is a simple and straight to the point one that does not feature bells and whistles, but only essential test options. There is a single window available, which provides all the test-related settings while presenting the drive map, log and verification progress. The application is capable of running both read and write tests in order to determine the speed performance of the device and its health. All of the options are wrapped up in a simple interface that does not hinder you with any bells and whistles. Check Flash presents the settings in the right part of the screen in four different sections covering Access type, Action type, Test length and Test results. Of course, there is a section that lets you choose the flash drive to be evaluated and which features a refresh button, thus allowing adding multiple removable drives without having to restart the program. The way the read/write tests are performed and the list of options available for the operation are set according to the way you provide access to the flash drive. You can choose between using a temporary file, access it as a logical drive or as physical device. The differences between these three types of drive access consist in the safety level of the procedure and the number of options enabled.

Using a temporary file for the test gives you a minimum of features but, on the other hand, it is totally safe for the evaluated device. Treating the flash as a logical drive will give Flash Check access on partition level and is the second safest alternative to use. plus more options will become available under the Action type section. The most unsafe method to test the removable storage device is to treat it as a physical device during the evaluation. This method is not recommended as it is unsafe for all the partitions present on the selected device but, on the other hand, you benefit from the full set of features in the software. In Action type you get to choose between six procedures to test the removable device, all of which being available depending on the access type specified. The list of options includes read stability test (reads all data a few times and verifies the CRC given on first pass), low-level initialization (available only if you treat the flash as a physical device), which lets you edit the partition information of the selected device, save image (saves full binary image of the chosen partition or device), load image (writes a previously saved binary image) and full erase (effaces all of the drives surface).I left the read and write test with the possibility of using a small or full pattern set (2 respectively 18 patterns) last because it is a special procedure that involves destroying all the data on the device without the possibility of recovering it. For 50% of the presented actions several tests can be performed, continuously or until you decide to stop the assessment. All options in the Test length section are pretty clear, but Burn it! is the one that is not self-explanatory. It actually sets a loop in the testing that requires your intervention to stop. In the lower part of the screen the test results are displayed. number of completed cycles, error found, read and write speed. Also, there is a progress bar to give you a hint on the completion of the operation. Unfortunately, the application cannot estimate the finish time. Left hand side of the application window shows the drive map, log and legend. Check Flash supplies a fat set of features to test your flash disk and see exactly how fast it can read and write data. It is portable and flexible enough to let you choose from three different drive access methods as well as select between six tests to be performed and how many times to repeat them. However, there are some mischiefs such as lack of completion time estimation or, in case there are errors, showing you what the error exactly consists in. On the bright side, it is a very handy instrument that can help you detect the fake flash memory drives.

All the options are presented in a single, easy to use interface that also displays the log and drive map. The application can test flash disks for both read stability test and read/write performance. It provides three different methods for accessing the flash drive and you can set how many times a test should be performed. Information on the evaluation is as clear as can be.

We are a refreshingly personal technology company focused on one single objective – delivering premium, precisely customized usb flash drive products and solutions.

To date we’ve enjoyed working with folks from about every corner of the globe. One thing we’ve realized, regardless if it’s the ma and pa-sized business, the Fortune 500 big dog, universities, non-profits, or a techno-groovy grandpa, most everyone is on the hunt for the very best quality branded, bulk flash drives with a price tag that makes their coin purse smile. As you click through “CFgearville,” keep in mind we are always adding and exploring new products and usb drive technologies. Be it sparkly new flash drive hardware or the world’s most sophisticated usb flash drive software, there’s no doubt we’ll find it, TRIPLE-DISTILL™ test it and, if it passes, add ‘er to our powerful list of capabilities.

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Since 2006, CFgear. com has provided a premium assortment of promotional USB flash drives online. With a focus on uniquely designed, bulk flash drive solutions, CFgear blends sophisticated preload software with premium flash drive hardware to produce brilliant, precise marketing tools for the business education sectors. When you need custom flash drives, include CFgear in your quote process. We'll go the extra mile to ensure you're 100% pleased.

We've seen plenty of cute flash drives in our day, but this one that looks like spare change -- you know, cold, hard, days of yore currency -- well, let's just say this USB 2.0 drive is like heaven on earth. You can get it in an 8GB silver "dime" size, or the 4GB copper "penny" variation for a starting price of $19.99. Come to think of it, you might want to stock up just in case our economy utterly fails and we actually start using these as you know, money.[Via Chip Chick]

Filed under. StorageTags. currenkey, flash drive, FlashDrive, lacie, usb 2.0, usb drive, Usb2.0, UsbDrive

There is a new, crazy flashdrive out every day. I honestly do not see the attraction. I cannot imagine ever wanting a flashdrive looking much different from a rectangle../

Like I say every 6 months, I'll wait for the higher capacity flash drives. I guess I'll buy one eventually.

While there is a slight chance that this might block a USB port located NEXT TO another, it is not at all likely to block off the more standard stacked USB port design. See the pics on the manufacturer site - The relationship between the height of the actual USB jack and the total height of the device is roughly the same as any other flash drive, and I've seen plenty that are every bit as thick.

STEC Industrial Grade 2.5" IDE Flash Drives utilize the latest in solid state storage and are ideal alternatives to lower-capacity (up to 16GB) IDE hard disk drives due to their higher reliability, greater endurance, and higher tolerance to industrial application environments.

The 2.5" IDE Flash Drives include a standard 44-pin IDE interface in a rugged aluminum case and are industrial temperature (-40°C to +85°C) rated making them ideal for even the harshest industrial application including industrial PCs, data recorders, and avionics systems. In addition, STEC also offers value-added services like customized form factors, testing, custom firmware, software imaging, controlled bill of materials, customer-specific labeling and serialization, and in-field support.

STEC's 2.5 IDE Flash Drives provide the highest capacity in the industry, up to 16GB with 32GB supported in the near future.

STEC's proprietary state-of-the-art flash memory controllers provide high data reliability and endurance. The built-in ECC engine can detect up to 5-byte errors and correct up to 4-byte errors, while sophisticated wear leveling algorithms guarantee +2M Write/Erase Cycles. Based on SLC Flash and high quality components, STEC 2.5 IDE Flash Drive solutions provide an unparalleled MTBF of more than 8,000,000 hrs. In the event of host system power loss, data integrity is further assured via STEC's power-down data protection methodology ensuring that critical data is not lost or corrupted.

For applications requiring an IDE interface, compatibility is ensured by the 2.5 IDE Flash Drive's True IDE support. The 2.5 IDE Flash Drives can also operate in legacy PIO modes as well as DMA. Because STEC develops its own controller and firmware, the 2.5 IDE Flash Drives can be adapted to meet a wide variety of timing and software requirements.

STEC 2.5 IDE Flash Drives comply with CE requirements, FCC standards, and have been approved by the UL organization. The cards are also provided in full lead-free (RoHS-6) designs for worldwide deployment.

Pico Series USB drives are incredibly small and stylish flash drives offering up to 16GB data storage. Pico drives feature up to 30 MB/s transfer speeds. Measuringmerely 1.50"x0.50", not only are Pico drives ideal for transporting data, digital images, and presentations, they arealso the perfect accessory to adorn keychains, mobile phones, or wearing as a necklace.

The newest USB flash drive on the market comes from a world leader in memory technologies, Kingston Technology. But can this aged expert in memory still keep up with relative newcomers in the flash market? Our newest review has an in-depth look at the Kingston Datatraveler 150 32GB model sporting both copious amounts of storage capacity and a fancy design that does little to innovate but a lot to refine USB flash drive appearances.

Sleek and slender, the Kingston Datatraveler 150 is well designed and functional USB flash drive with a good read and decent write performance, something you would expect from one the world's leading memory manufacturers. If you were in the market for a new flash drive then the Datatraveler 150 comes highly recommend as a suitable replacement for easily portable USB-based storage solution.

The Kingston Datatraveler 150 (DT150) comes in two flavors, a 32GB sized blazing orange and a 64GB fiery red and black model. Today's review will cover the more readily available 32GB Datatraveler which boasts one of the sleekest flash drive designs to be featured on our site in more recent times. Sized to fit your pocket and wallet at the same time but without sacrificing performance seems to be the marketing-hype surrounding Kingston's launch. While not as miniature as the Corsair Voyager Mini, it's size is still easily portable and it's looks really make you appreciate the time someone has taken to design this drive. Built in a sleek and narrow plastic housing with only one dim blue LED for activity indication, the surface of the drive, and indeed it's main attraction really, sports a beautiful designer pattern.

Among other features this drive also has black plastic ridges along both sides to give users an easy surface to grip for the removal from USB ports. A key-chain ring is included in the packaging to be fitted after purchase and should help secure the unit easily to any keys you might have floating around. Thankfully the cap also secures itself to the rear of the flash drive quite securely but I would hazard to guess that after a few thousand removals of the cap to the rear, the cap will eventually be lost. Unfortunately Kingston does not seem to offer any easy cap replacement service compared to what Corsair does for it's product-line nor does the cap have any other fail-safe mechanism to prevent its loss.

The Data Traveler 32GB drive comes pre-formatted with a FAT32 file table with a generous total user accessible space of 32,287,801,344 bytes (30.0GB). The great thing about today's flash drive sizes of 32GB and more, you run a reduced risk of exhausting the manufacturer implemented wear-leveling technologies and thus automatically drastically increase the average life expectancy of any MLC flash based solution. 32GB of flash drive storage will easily last you past it's anticipated effective life-time. For readers with a Microsoft Windows XP/Vista operating system and looking to store files larger than 4GB on the drive we highly recommend formatting this drive immediately upon receipt to an NTFS file table to increase the performance and capability of the drive. Users who anticipate moving the DT150 frequently between OS X, Linux and Windows based may want to retain the original FAT32 file table on the drive for maximum compatibility between operating systems. USB flash drives have come a long way from their original bulky USB based incarnation with no consideration for ease-of-use or value added software. While some manufacturers bundle their drives with additional software to integrate features ranging from a portable desktop (Migo) or portable application launcher (U3, Ceedo), Kingston's latest Data Traveler comes no additional bloatware. For those readers looking for Migo or U3 based functionality from flash drive we would suggest Kingston or any other USB flash drive manufacturer's U3 specific USB flash drive offerings or alternatively, the freeware alternatives.

All benchmarking was performed on an Intel-based USB host controller featuring an ICH8 South Bridge and the 32GB flash drive directly connected to the host computer. The operating used was Microsoft's Windows Vista 64-bit including Service Pack 1. For our synthetic benchmark scores we used SiSoft Sandra 2009 software suite and ran the Removable Storage benchmark to gauge performance across different file sizes copying to and from the drive. We also included some previous benchmark scores for drives from Corsair Voyager Mini 8GB and Voyager 8GB) for comparative reasons.

The Kingston Data Traveler 32GB flash drive managed to maintain a respectable lead or similar performance to both Corsair Voyager models with any file transfers SiSoft Sandra could throw at it. The drive peaked at 29.87MB/s for read scores on 256MB file sizes and maintained a healthy minimum read performance of 24.35MB/s for any files sized 256kB or bigger. The biggest drop in performance came from the use of files sized 32kB or smaller which is where the Corsair Voyager 8GB formatted with an NTFS file system manages to trounce the Kingston DT150. Write scores for the Data Traveler 150 showed much more promise compared to Kingston's competition. In all benchmarks except anything smaller than 256kB the Kingston drive exceeded our expectations with a maximum write performance of 13.87MB/s. Smaller sized files seemed to suffer similarly from bad performance on all drives but most users would really be using the gargantuan 32GB sized drive for larger purposes rather than copying small 512byte text files. For our real-world benchmark scores we used Microsoft's Robocopy tool and copied a 640MB ISO file from and to the flash drive. Read scores showed similar results to the SiSoft Sandra performance with a maximum of 30.31MB/s copying from the flash drive to the local hard drive. The write performance lingered at 12.87MB/s, which is reasonable considering the use of MLC NAND. Readyboost's minimum requirements state that the flash drive must support 2.5MB/s for 4K random access reads and 1.5MB/sec for 512K random writes. We attempted to enable Readyboost and force Vista to retest the device's Readyboost capability, unfortunately the Data Traveler 32GB flash drive was incapable of supporting Microsoft's Windows Vista enhancement. Given that the Kingston Datatraveler is built using the cheaper and more readily available MLC NAND flash, the write performance especially during small file operations does suffer compared to the more expensive and barely available SLC NAND flash. Ultimately the use of MLC NAND flash will, however, at the very least cost you twice as much time writing to the flash drive compared to an SLC NAND flash based drive, but you'll have some spare change to spend on other tech gadgets.

The Kingston family's latest USB flash drive addition comes to the market with great read and average write performance, great for those of you looking for vast amounts of easily portable storage space without necessarily breaking the bank either. Built with a solid case and a great look I applaud Kingston's continuous ability to offer some of the finest and most robust flash drive designs on the market and thus the Data Traveler 150 naturally comes highly recommended.

LCD, Plasma TVs iPods MP3 Players MP3 Accessories GPS Phones, Phone Systems Cameras Camcorders Camera, Camcorder Accessories Flash Memory USB Flash Drives Memory Readers Digital Video Hardware

COMPUTERS Desktops Laptops / Notebooks Notebook Accessories PDAs, Tablet PCs Servers Media Center PCs Apple Desktops Apple Notebooks Mac Accessories Mac Notebook Accessories Monitors Printers, Fax, All-in-One Scanners Projectors COMPUTER PARTS Motherboards Processors Power Supplies System Memory / RAM Hard Drives Optical Drives Floppy Drives Video Cards Sound Cards Controller Cards Cases, Case Components Fans, Cooling Products Tools ELECTRONICS LCD, Plasma TVs LCD, Plasma TV Mounts iPods MP3 Players MP3 Accessories GPS Phones, Phone Systems Cameras Camcorders Camera, Camcorder Accessories Flash Memory USB Flash Drives Memory Card Readers Digital Video Hardware Security, Home Automation ACCESSORIES PrintIT Ink & Toner Finder Batteries, Chargers UPS, Surge Protection Cables Wristrests, Mousepads Paper, Labels, Cards Blank Media Office Supplies, Cleaning Speakers, Mics, MIDI Input Devices NETWORKING Modems Broadband Modems Network Cards Adapters Network Hubs, Switches Routers Network Drives Servers Wireless Networking Networking Tools GAMING Used Games Windows XBOX 360 Playstation 3 Wii Nintendo DS PSP PS2 XBOX Gamecube Mac SOFTWARE BOOKS MOVIES

Micro Center USB Flash Drives are quality tested to offer excellent performance at a low price. We use only the highest quality components from the leading manufacturers to give you many years of worry free use. These flash drives are offered with no retail packaging to save you more money while minimizing environmental waste.

Someone ordered a custom cake, and asked that a photo of a friend be integrated into the decoration. The photo was delivered as a .JPG on a Lexar Jumpdrive Trio flash drive. Guess what ended up on the cake? (props to Cake Wrecks)

It's about the size ten business cards stacked on top of each other, consumes less power than a compact florescent and it holds 24 gigabytes. Sun Microsystems (JAVA), with the help of Samsung Electronics (SSNLF. PK), has created a solid state drive for servers as part of an overall effort to popularize flash drives as a way to curb energy consumption and, of course, remind everyone of Sun's commitment to energy efficiency (see Sun's Take on Green Datacenters and Sun. Data Center Efficiency for Everyone). Unlike existing solid state drives, Sun's Open Flash Module drive is not based around the same designs and chassis developed for traditional hard drives, which are far bigger than needed. Standard chassis must accommodate spinning platters measuring 3.5 to 2.5 inches in diameter. By contrast, flash drives only have to accommodate a few chips, and the chips get smaller every one to two years. Shrinking the size of the entire drive essentially will let server makers integrate the entire drive, or a couple of drives, onto the motherboard of the computer, thereby cutting down raw materials as well as the overall volume of computers. The 24-gigabyte Open Flash Module consumes 2 watts of power. A traditional spinning hard drive might consume 8 to 16 watts maximum, according to Michael Cornwell, the lead technologist for flash at Sun. Multiply that over the thousands of drives in some data centers and you're talking substantial power savings. To help popularize the concept, Sun will freely license the design and submit it to JEDEC, a standards body. The drive also contains a specific type of flash, created by Samsung, tweaked for the demands of datacenters. While the Open Flash Module is just a working prototype at the moment, Sun also released a 32-gigabyte drive for servers that costs $1,199. Welcome to the world of flash colonization. Historically far more expensive than hard drives, flash memory has steadily decreased in price, and increased in density, at a rapid pace in the last few years. Although still more expensive than hard drives, flash memory uses far less memory and can provide better performance on a variety of applications. Consumer electronics makers like Apple (AAPL) began to substitute flash for hard drives as a way to reduce the size of its products and improve battery life. Now, IBM, H-P (HPQ), Sun and others are touting flash as a way to reduce power consumption in data centers. It can't replace drives, admits Cornwell. The data storage demands of most corporations are growing far too fast for that. But flash can displace some of the demand for DRAM, the memory that temporarily stores data for processors, as well as drives. Besides consuming less energy, flash drives can also keep up better with the speed of modern day processors. As the technology gets more prevalent, it will have a dramatic change on how that backend storage gets used, he said.

The 'In the Pink' lip-stick shaped USB flash-drive is 128Mb of pearly-pink portable data storage. Transfering data with USB 2.0, it is compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux machines. And here's the best bit - for every one purchased £1 will be donated to Breast Cancer Care. (Star C. Foster) 'In the Pink' is

We've already covered how to use an Ubuntu Live CD to backup files from your dead Windows computer, but using the boot cd can sometimes be a little slow. We can speed up the booting process by installing Ubuntu to a bootable USB flash drive instead. To accomplish this, we'll use a tiny software package called UNetbootin, which is designed to make the installation process simple and easy. Create the Bootable Flash Drive You'll first need to download the UNetbootin software and save it somewhere useful, since there's no installation required, just double-click to run. I chose to use an already downloaded ISO image of the Ubuntu installation cd, and then chose my flash drive, and clicked the OK button. Yes, this step is as simple as that. The process will extract the files from the ISO image (or download them), copy them to the flash drive and then install the bootloader. Depending on what you are installing, this really doesn't take very long. Once the process is completed, you'll be prompted to reboot which you don't necessarily have to do unless you want to test booting the flash drive on the same machine you are using. Otherwise you can hit the Exit button. Make Sure the Partition is Active If you get a boot device error when you try and boot from the flash device, it could be that your partition is not marked as active. What we'll do is use the command line diskpart utility to fix this if you are in Vista open an administrator mode command prompt by right-clicking and choosing Run as Administrator. Now you'll need to run this command to figure out the number of your flash drive. list disk This will show you the list of drives, and you will use the disk number in the "select disk" command. select disk 1 select partition 1 active The "active" command will actually mark the current partition as active, which is why you need to select the disk and then the partition. At this point you should be done. Booting From the Flash Drive Now that you are all finished, you can try and boot from the flash drive. Every BIOS is different, but most of them will have a message like "Press F12 for the Boot Menu", which is highly suggested. The boot menu will allow you to select the USB drive as the boot device. (apologies for the simply horrible camera phone screenshots) Instead of the regular Ubuntu boot menu that you might be used to seeing, you will see the UNetbootin menu, which has essentially the same options. Useful Note If you are having issues booting Ubuntu Hardy (8.04) on a Dell machine, you might want to switch back to using Ubuntu 7.10 instead. I was able to boot all the way into the desktop in about 35 seconds using the flash drive way faster than using the regular live cd. Stay tuned, we're going to explore even more options for bootable CDs and USB drives that help you repair your computer. Download UNetbootin from sourceforge. net

It probably wouldn't hurt to have a Two Gig Flash Drive for this, that way you always have extra space for added programs, backups, etc.

Sweet I have the flash drive with the live but havent done the install gonna work on it next many thanx, noobish

I put it on my 512 mb cruzer micro, then did everything including diskpart, and I have a few problems. * Does not boot from flash drive with correct settings * Diskpart does not show my flash drive What can the problem be?

I have been using Ubuntu 8.10 on a Dell laptop (updated from Hardy) since it was released. I had tried several times on different USB Flash drives to use the inbuilt create a usb startup disk. Each time it created the installation on the drive without any error message but it would never boot. I would get an error message about it being invalid boot or system disk. I then booted the laptop from the live CD and selected install Ubuntu and chose the 4GB USB flash drive and the guided option. VERY IMPORTANT!!! Select Advanced! Install Grub and MAKE SURE you select the USB drive for Grub installation. It took a long time to do the install (around an hour) but when it was finished I could boot from the USB drive with the grub menu giving all the options for my other Ubuntu installations on the laptop as well. When running from the USB drive It picked up my wireless connection quickly and I could use system update (240 MB) and copy Deb packages over from my Hard disk and install. I hope this helps anyone

Dear Geek, I'm sending this message using Ubuntu 10 which is residing on my pqi 1 GB flash disk. I tried to use diskpart from my original Windows XP, but it didn't show my flash drive. Instead, I simply restarted the machine after the extraction process, modified the BIOS so that I can boot from my USB drive, and voila!! The whole process as per your description only took around 7 minutes (thanks to a Pentium Core 2 Duo 2.66, and 2 GB memory). Thank you a lot!! Yassir

Hello Jack, Assuming that you created the OS correctly on the flash disk, make sure that you have configured your BIOS to boot from the USB drive. Follow the instructions in the section titled "Booting From the Flash Drive" above. If you are sure that the BIOS is configured correctly, then most probably the OS was not created in the right way. I hope this helps. Yassir

The BIOS went to the USB flash drive alright, just couldn't find anything to boot. I will try again to build it. I am using a Dell XPS M1730, 4 Gig of RAM, dual hard drives (one with XP Pro, the other with Vista home premium) want to try Ubuntu and see if I can get my cooling fans to run before I put it on a hard drive.

HACKED! the OH! *#% flash drive Holy crap—somebody just went and TORE MY FREAKING USB CABLE IN HALF while it was still attached to my laptop! No — wait — sorry. That’s just my USB flash drive. My bad. Nevermind. Mammoth 2-gig capacity. Peggable blistercard packaging. Design. Windell Oskay 2008 FRED

My flash drive works pretty hard, so I've spent a lot of time gathering a reliable, powerful set of portable tools that allow me to work hard and play hard, even if I can't do it on my own PC. Here are two dozen apps that I always have at the ready.

Peer-to-PeerTorrent - Yet another recurring frustration is not being able to find a torrent client on a PC when I need it. I run Torrent on all my PCs anyways, so it's got a home on my flash drive as well. Frostwire - What's worse than getting a song stuck in your head and not being able to hear it? Take Frostwire with you and make sure that doesn't happen. Maintenance and SupportCCleaner - A lot of the computers I work on look like they've never had a single file deleted from them. CCleaner makes short work of dumping gigs of trash files from them, and it tidies up the registry, too. Revo Uninstaller - Phase two in the purging of filth from client machines is ridding them of unwanted apps. Revo is way better than add/remove programs, and the "hunter mode" uproots stubborn apps. Nirsoft Apps - I have to group these, because they'd eat up half my list otherwise. Dialupass, Mailpassview, Currports, Netresview, and several other of their apps are must-haves for any technician. Treesize Free - To find where all of someone's drive space is going in a hurry, fire up Treesize. It makes drive cleanup a snap. Teamviewer - Zero config remote control that's portable? Yes, I'll have that. Teamviewer kicks so much ass that it was an easy sell to my boss, who makes Mr. Crabs look like a big spender. MultimediaCDBurner XP - Customer's don't always have good - or any - burning software installed. CD Burner XP solves that problem. I switched from InfraRecorder, but it's a good option as well. Screamer - I tried screamer out a while ago for a post on DLS, and it's earned a spot on my drive. For quick access to tons of internet radio streams, you can't beat it. Faststone Capture - Whether I need a screencap for a blog post or to prove something to someone, Faststone is my app of choice. The included editing features are great, and mean that I don't need a photo editor for quick jobs. The link is to the last free version (at Portable Freeware Collection), as Faststone is now trialware. VDownloader - You never know when you're going to stumble across a YouTube video that you just have to save. VDownloader will save in a number of video formats, or the audio only as MP3.Irfanview - For image viewing and basic edits (crop, rotate, resize, etc.), it's Irfanview all the way. The homepage is here, but the portable version is over at Smithtech. VLC - Videolan wins as my portable media player because it supports so many formats and doesn't require outside codecs. Can 100 million downloaders really be wrong? Ok, sure they can. But I still love VLC. Document HandlersNotepad++ - It never hurts to have a good text editor at your disposal, and portable Notepad++ is an excellent option. Tons of great features, like macro recording, syntax highlighting, tabbed interface, and much, much more. Abiword - Some may opt for OpenOffice, but I choose Abiword because I've got Zoho and Google Docs accounts for out-of-office chores that require heavy lifting. Abiword is small, fast, compatible, and has all the features I need for quick document production. The portable version is here. Foxit PDF Reader - I hate trying to open a manual on a customer's PC only to learn they don't have an Acrobat viewer installed. Foxit is my reader of choice, so I take it with me. File ManagementTotal Commander - Not only is Total Commander a rockin' dual-pane, tabbed Explorer replacement, but it also handles all kinds of archive files. That eliminates the need for two more apps just to handle syncs and file extraction. Until someone resurrects Google browser sync or Mozilla Weave handles all my Firefox settings and customizations I'll just let TC do it for me. Yes, it also has an FTP client and text editor, but FileZilla and Notepad++ are better. Portable LauncherPStart - It's nice to have quick access to the tools on your flash drive, and PStart gives you that by adding an icon/menu in the system tray. It's searchable, and there's even a tab to store quick notes for yourself. There's my list. Would my flash drive cut the mustard for you, or did I miss your favorite app?

We just compiled our Windows version of eCalc into a standalone .exe file so it can run from your flash drive. You can download the calculator here.

First off, some links (in order of how often i use them).www. portablefreeware. com/ -great resource with indepth reviews/discussion - try looking for your program here first! portableapps. com/www. tinyapps. org/www. nirsoft. net/note that there are differing definitions of portable. In the strictest sense, portable apps should be able to run leaving no trace whatsoever (no temp files on their computer or registry entries etc.) that being said, in addition to the software here, i also use.autostarted (by pstart).-PNotesPortable (sticky notes)-taekwindow (x-style drag/resize windows)-WordWeb (hotkey dictionary lookup)-VituaWin Portable (multiple desktop management)other useful things.XAMPP - who doesn't want a webserver in their pocket?Ramdisk driver - Handy and fast, I'm using the one at - i think you need admin privledges to install thoughi prefer.winscp portable > filezilla-winscp does ftp and sftp, so why use filezilla?PeaZipPortable > 7zip-I like the interface better and it does 7z as wellWinDirStat-Open Source (I think) always freeSpeQ Calculator-Best calculator IMHO, sorry, but eCalc really doesn't look that promising.I think all of the programs I've mentioned so far are truly portable and won't leave any traces if you use them correctlyrandom notes.*utorrent portable is just utorrent with settings. dat in the same directory, if i remember correctly. Just put the utorrent. exe in a folder with a blank settings. dat and you should be fine (i think it saves its settings to the registry normally, but i'm not sure)*some of the http/ftp servers on tinyapps. org are really useful and really small - I have ftpsrv (1.08m) and hfs. exe (560kb)*btw, some people listed winamp and tightVNC as portable applications - i believe both of them save settings to the registry, not to mention the portable version of winamp isn't actually supported by nullsoft i believe and is just a repacked version. see for more detailsif there's enough interest, i might make a zip/rar of my own flashdrive software - email us (DISCLAIMER. i may or may not ever get down to doing this though)Reply

Super Talent is a manufacturer of flash and system memory components with a strong appeal among computer enthusiasts. While their products generally garner attention by combining high performance, attractive styling, and competitive pricing, one of their latest releases adds a bit of novelty to the equation. Super Talent has reworked a couple of their USB flash drives to be released in their new Godfather series. Designed to "capture the spirit of the Godfather in a small mobile storage device", what we have is a flash drive emblazoned with the Godfather logo and a silhouette of Don Corleone. For an added tie-in to the classic movie, the drive comes stocked with 17 images featuring graphics and quotes from the movie.

The promotional image above shows the Godfather flash drive, which is effectively one of Super Talent's Pico D drives with a custom paint job. Before taking a closer look at the flash drive provided for review, let's take a look at some technical data on the Godfather. The items listed below cover the key points on the device, and for a complete list of up-to-date features and specifications, please visit the official product page on the Super Talent website. Features and Specifications. » Capacity. 2GB (available in 1GB - 16GB) » Ideal for carrying pictures, music & data » Fully compatible with USB 2.0 and 1.1 » Powered by USB bus - no external power is required » Durable solid-state storage - 10 years data retention » Hot Plug & Play – enables you to install and uninstall drive anytime » Includes The Godfather still images and quotes » Only available in USA Packaging. The 2GB Super Talent Godfather flash drive was provided in the packaging shown below. The cardboard backing is decorated to fit the theme, while still providing the necessary technical information and a look at the product itself. Other than a ring with two means of attaching the drive to something else, there are no accessories included (or required).

Portable storage in an ultra-small, personalized Hi-Speed USB thumb drive. Durable, aluminum flash drives available in 14 colors with FREE Custom Laser Engraving and security software!

Guilford, CT January 22, 2008 – Pexagon is pleased to expand its fundraising programs to include new flash drive designs, hard drives, and a variety of other personalized products. With a focus on products that are suitable for school use, teacher appreciation, and general gift giving, Pexagon has added a number of products to its fundraising line-up.

The custom flash drive line has been expanded to include the Store-It Green line, an engravable drive made of wood, and the Store-It Business Card, a flat, business card style drive that can be engraved with up to three lines of personalized text.

Ashbrook High School was picked randomly among thousands of entrants in Pexagon’s Flash Fiesta Promotion. The Flash Fiesta Promotion was announced in January 2008 to celebrate the launch of Pexagon’s Prepaid Flash Drive Card Fundraising Program. Since January, school teachers have been invited to enter Pexagon’s Flash Fiesta for the chance to win a Grand Prize of 1,000 1GB prepaid flash drive cards or one of our weekly drawings for 20 prepaid cards. Each Prepaid card is redeemable for a 1GB personalized flash drive. Larry Carpenter, Guidance Counselor at Ashbrook High School in Gastonia, North Carolina entered the contest at an education trade show. Ashbrook High School intends to use these flash drives to enhance student learning and support technology initiatives. Most of the 1,000 click here to read more

She started the conversation by saying. I have to tell you¦Im an idiot when it comes to computers. That being said, and for reasons no one seems to be able to figure out, joAnne Dingles computer at home will not accept attachments from her work email address. This has been a major source of frustration for her. as an ISO auditor, there are tons of reports, analyses, and audits she has to generate from home. Technology challenged or not, joAnne was pretty smart when it came to solving her problem. After listening to a product training given on flash drives at her company, joAnne realized a thumb drive was the answer to her prayers. Even though she hadnt known the technology even existed, she could instantly recognize the value of the device. She immediately bought a flash drive which she loads with any files she might need each night before heading home. No hassle to set up and easy to use joAnne admits to being like a kid in a candy store she was so thrilled with her solution. Gone are the frustrations born of not having the files she needed at her finger tips at all times. We think youre too hard on yourself joAnne. Congratulations on coming up with such a smart solution. Read more creative ways to use Pexagon Flash Drives

Ars Technica takes a look at 8 different USB 2.0 Hi-Speed Flash drives. Are they commodity products, or are there enough differences to make shopping around worthwhile?

Some of the drives featured in this review are still available for purchase, while others are not. Since there is a new generation of flash drive out, we recommend you read the USB Flash drive review for 2005.

Whether you refer to it as a pen drive, jump drive, thumb drive, key drive, or memory stick, you have to admit, the USB Flash drive is pretty darn cool. Just stick it into the USB port on your computer and within a few seconds a new drive appears on your desktop. So simple and so easy. What makes them so good is that they have a spate of desirable features such as no need for batteries, solid state storage, good transfer speeds, durability, portability, and expected data retention of ten years. All of these features allow these little babies to practically replace the floppy, the Zip disk, and the CD-R/RW all in one fell swoop. Unfortunately, when comparing USB Flash drives side-by-side in a computer or electronics store, it can be awfully difficult to decide which is best for you just by looking at the drive and the packaging. It would be easy to make an assumption that all drives are pretty much the same and that shopping for the best price is the smartest way of deciding. We are here to inform you that USB Flash drives are not a commodity and can be very unique offerings. As you will soon find out, some are clearly better than others while others come bundled with nifty features that can really make your day. In short, not all flash drives are created equal.

It seems that performance for USB peripherals within PCs vary tremendously between machines. I'm not referring to the bandwidth of USB 2.0 mind you, but rather the performance of USB peripherals when working on different brands of PCs. USB ports on PCs seem to be connected to I/O buses that have widely varying performance depending on the manufacturer. For example, I have two different laptops and both of them boot off of USB Flash Drives, but one of them, when I tried the USB flash drive boot, installed Windows Vista relatively slowly whereas the other one was nice fast. Hence - YMMV.

I never intended on this being a really scientific analysis/time-test for installing Windows Vista so please don't take any numbers I wrote as gospel thinking that your company's Windows Vista deployment should use USB drives because you think you can lower your install time by x%, minimizing your cost of deployment by y%, and reducing your Windows Vista TCO by z%. I haven't run any real benchmarks. This was supposed to be just something nice for my customer's IT guys to try, okay? us. ORIGINAL POST I've been thinking about writing a post about How to install Windows Vista from a USB Flash Drive for a while but just never got around to doing it. What got me thinking about it was a post on Josh's board (windowsconnected. com) about running WinPE from a bootable USB Flash drive and it seems to me like there's be a lot of folks that would want to install Windows Vista entirely from a USB Flash drive as well. WHY INSTALL FROM USB FLASH DRIVE?Why would someone want to install a client OS from a thumb drive instead of a DVDROM or over the network? One reason.

Installing Windows Vista from a high speed USB flash drive is in my experience the easiest fastest way to complete a Windows Vista install. This is much faster than using a DVD, gigabit ethernet, or possibly even some external USB 2.0 hard drives, due to differences in access speed transfer rate. To put this into perspective, y'know how installing Windows on a Virtual PC virtual machine from an .ISO CD image is really, really, really fast? Imagine something roughly just as fast, except for doing installations of the OS on to actual workstations. STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONSHere's some step-by-step instructions on how we do this, some of which was adapted from Josh's instructions, again, kudos to Josh.

It's the fastest USB 2.0 Flash Drive that we've found - it has a read speed of 25MBytes/sec. a write speed-14MBytes/sec and also works great as a ReadyBoost cache. You can get them from $56.99 each.

Format the Apacer Flash DriveRun CMD. EXE and type the following. Note. This set of commands assumes that the USB flash drive is addressed as disk 1. you should double check that by doing a list of the disks (type list disk) before cleaning it. If you have multiple hard drives, like an SDFlash drive or a Multibay drive, you could end up wiping your second drive using this command.

Copy Windows Vista's DVD ROM content to the Flash DriveSimply issue the following command to start copying all the content from the Windows Vista DVD to your newly formatted high speed flash drive.

Security USB flash drives can be password protected and the information encrypted. You can also use the drive as a key to your computer.

In this site, you'll find articles on thumb drives and comprehensive reviews on USB flash drives that will help you make ans informed decision on which jump drive is right for you. At TopTenREVIEWS, we do the research so you don't have to.

USB flash drives come in all shapes, sizes, storage capacities and prices. Before you purchase a thumb drive, assess your needs and wants. Then choose the drive that best fits your criteria. Below are the criteria TopTenREVIEWS used to evaluate USB Flash Drives.

Product Features USB flash drives should have practical features such as retractable USB connectors or swivel caps. The drive may also come with a lanyard or keychain or be water resistant.

Value Flash drives vary a lot in price. The best drives for your money offer more storage for less money.

To read the review on the Verbatim Store n Go, the USB flash drive our reviewers ranked #1, click here .

Say goodbye to prehistoric floppy disks, CDs and paper clutter. Store and transport your data with a USB flash drive. They are smaller, more durable and safer storage option.

Back in stock. Thanks for your patience! This USB flash drive contains the new album by The Mars Volta.

Along with album artwork and the video for "Wax Simulacra." Each USB flash drive has a 1GB capacity and are Windows and Mac compatible. And for added value - on the 29th of every month, plug in your flash drive and you can get new content from The Mars Volta all year long directly on your computer. Content includes B-sides.

Manufacturer's Description Cruzer Micro is an incredibly small, portable, and smart USB flash drive. The small, compact size fits easily on any keychain. The retractable USB connector design eliminates the need for caps and protects the connector. Cruzer Micro now ships with U3 smart technology. Co-Invented by SanDisk, U3 technology gives you the ability to carry your files AND your software on a secure USB drive. You can have your wallpaper, preferences, favourites, profiles and more - everything you need for a familiar computing experience on any PC, wherever you go. Cruzer Micro allows you to easily carry and transfer key documents, pictures, music and video clips from one computer to another. Box Contents

What is so neat about this usb flash drive is that it has U3 which really makes it easy to install portable applications on this usb drive. The design is simple and effective and no cap makes it so much more easier to carry. Overall, I cannot recommend this highly enough. Great value too!

The shock-proof ATV features mainstream speeds offering consumers an affordable option and was designed to safely accommodate a wealth of important data and media files. Not only are these premium flash drives aggressively fast at transferring files of all types and sizes, but are optimized for Windows® Vista™ Ready Boost, offering true performance advantages to this latest operating system.

ATV flash drives feature durable and colorful rubber tread housing, which is a 100% weatherproof storage solution to keep digital files safe in any conditions, even fully submerged in water. The attached cap holder will help prevent misplacement of the protective key cover, while the chain can easily fasten to your key ring for ultimate portability.

OCZ's ATV drive gets an 'A' for looks with its robust rubber two tone colored shell. Add in the fact that the shell serves a dual purpose of making the unit water proof and shock resistant is a nice bonus. In the end when you are looking at a flash drive you want it to do its job. The OCZ ATV did its job so well that it now wears the crown of the fastest flash drive ever tested here in the Penthouse Labs. Lightening fast speed, large data capacity and good looks for under $50 makes the OCZ ATV a real winner in our eyes. We couldn't find any fault with this rubberized drive and can whole heartedly recommend it to you."

The OCZ ATV USB drive keeps up with and even surpasses other quality USB drives in both read and write speeds. The OCZ ATV drive appears to be at the top end of the 'consumer-range' flash drives, which is still good enough to run portable applications and stream video, in addition to your other portable data storage needs. This drive has an excellent value-to-performance ratio, making it a bargain compared to the more expensive 'enthusiast-class' USB drives."

The ATV series have proven to be as durable as OCZ claimed them to be, as we have found these flash drives to be both water and shock resistant. This is certainly an ideal product for users who wish to move large amounts of data at once. While testing these ATV flash drives we encountered absolutely no problems at all and no real design flaws. It is important to note that all OCZ ATV flash drives come with a lifetime warranty, which is something I am sure you will not find with any of the cheaper flash drives. Overall, we like these new flash drives and have absolutely no problem recommending them!"

If you're worried about the fragility of your flash drive, then the ATV may well be the answer to your prayers. This drive might just make the difference between ruining your flash drive and everything on it and keeping both the device and its data intact. Then there's the performance, which is quite simply fantastic - Even away from our more synthetic benchmarks, the additional speed of the ATV is very noticeable when you're looking to transfer data in a hurry. So, it's rugged and it's got plenty of capacity to offer - 4GB of storage coupled with this level of performance and sturdy build quality seems like a no-brainer if it offers what you need from such a device."

I can firmly state that these drives were FAR tougher than I expected. I had no doubt they would easily pass the dunk test, but all the physical abuse I dished out was sucked up and spit out by these drives. I find it amazing that after driving a 3500 pound car over it repeatedly did not affect it for even a second. Same with all shock testing I performed. Your data will be very safe when saved on these drives and I can firmly recommend them. When it is time to decide just how important you data is and just how durable you need your flash drives to be, I strongly suggest you look very hard at these units. I didn?t lose one single byte of data during all my testing. Here are some incredibly strong and effective drives that also offer some of the highest speeds available."

The ATV holds its own against some of the fastest drives on the market. OCZ's ATV was a real pleasure to test since it held up very well when pitted against our battery of extreme tests. Even after being frozen, drowned, buried, dropped, and even lost the drive performed as good as new. This is astonishing as it was tested way beyond what anyone would consider ?normal? abuse and therein lies the market segment this drive is targeted at. people who are hard on their flash drives. No matter what I threw at it, the ATV continued to work without any issues."

The OCZ ATV flash drive has the storage space to keep all your files in one place and protect it from the environment. The ATV comes with its own cover holder that is attached to the chain so you don't lose the cap. If you have Windows Vista, the ATV can be used as memory for Readyboost."

?If you need a large capacity Flash Drive, what would be the best choice? The performance comparison shows, OCZ is the clear winner! This goes for both read and write benchmarks. In addition to that the OCZ isn?t overpriced like the Corsair drive, because of that and the amazing performance mentioned above, especially on larger files the OCZ ATV receives our Recommended Award.?

The 32GB OCZ ATV is one fast thumb drive! The large capacity of the drive makes it the first and only USB drive that we need in most situations. The Read speed of nearly 30GB/Sec also makes this one of the fastest USB Flash drives that we have ever used, which is a good thing due to the amount of data that can be stored on it. When it comes to using the OCZ ATV Flash drive, it was found to be a solid performer over the months. As for the durability of the drive, it has survived being put through the laundry wash and a number of trips in the mouth of a dog and cat when they like to run off with important things. The OCZ ATV is one tough drive no doubt about that! If your looking for a USB Flash drive that has tons of storage space and can handle the abuse of real life then the OCZ ATV is worth a closer look."

ATV stands out with durable, colored, rubber, 100% waterproof casing – thanks to those features it’s a perfect solution to store data in all kind of conditions – even in full dive. Added cap-holder will protect us from loosing the cap. Thanks to cap-holder chain we can attach the pendrive wherever we want. Price per 1 GB of data stored at OCZ ATV 32GB pendrive looks reasonable and isn’t higher than this days FLASH memories prices. Pendrive is fast enough to not disturb our typical work. Looping at price, performance and construction (waterproof and shock resistance) in general purpose, we can recommend this product to everyone who is going to buy high capacity pendrive."

“In an act of great enlightenment, OCZ provides a tab on the ATV’s supplied keychain that the cap can be attached to. Performance-wise, the OCZ drives were collectively at the front of the pack, bested only by the SanDisk Cruzer. However, the OCZ drives’ street price is quite a bit less. This combination of solid design, performance, and low cost earned the OCZ drives our Editor’s Choice designation among the flash drives we tested.”