USB Pen Drive options and opinions wanted

[Calvin-N-Hobbes]

I'm looking for some sort of portable storage, and the USB Pen drives seem like one option I might pursue. Nearly every computer has a USB drive, right?

First, I would like to ask people who own them how about their durability. Can these things really live through being carried around in your pocket all day, banging against keys and change?

How quickly can you transfer data to these?

Finally, I realize that these are small and relatively inexpensive up to about 128 MB and they start getting a little pricey there. 512 MB would be nice sometimes, and a GB or two wouldn't be overkill in the forseeable future. While pursuing that path, I came across media players such as the Ipod, etc... that had much larger storage, 5GB and beyond, for not a huge price.

So here's my next question: What's the most amount of portable storage space you can buy for under $200? $300? I'm ruling out CDs/DVDS unless there is a solution that can easily fit in my pocket.

 

[Stedeman]

If you need a GB or more you want to get a USB Hard drive (Laptop type) I use this and the key chain (thumb) drives and would have to say each serves it's intended use well. Just remember going from one computer to the next with them may mean you need ti install drivers all the time. The thumb drives are not to bad and most new systems don't need you to install a new driver to use them.

 

[I.M.O.G.]

I've carried my mini-cruzer USB drive since fall semester started and it is still like new except it's got all my programming assignments on it.

Mine supports USB 2.0 so it can transfer pretty quickly on mobos that support USB 2.0. Even with USB 1.1 it transfers fairly quickly... It's only a 128 MB drive.

This doesn't answer you high capacity or high dollar storage question... But if you can live with 128, I think I got this drive for like $30. Cheap.

 

[noble2501]

You could get one of archos' jukeboxes or harddrives. My brother has a 20 Gig jukebox he got used for around 300 €. It's the older model, but still very good.
Now he's planning to get the newer model, he's nuts i tell you. Anyway here's the link to their homepage.

- noble

 

[Ravsitar]

In the Jan edition of MaximumPC they did some durability test on a couple of usb key drives. Droped them, froze them, washed them in a washing machine, dryed them in a dryer, etc. Some of them handeled it well. I don't have the mag here at work though. I'll post tonight if you haven't decided already.

 

[Calvin-N-Hobbes]

That's just the info I was looking for... It seems like 128 MB is the breaking point. After that, storage gets really expensive. I'll probably end up getting one of the 128 MB Pocket storage devices, since almost every file I work with is under 30 MB.

Thanks!

 

[Arkaine23]

I love my 64mb pen drive! They were going for $7 on black friday.

There are also those 210mb mini CD's.

 

[eaglescouter]

I use the 64mb drives by micro advantage. Office max has them once in a while for free after rebates

I've got one running seti 24/7 on the thumb drive, the others I use transferring files at work. They are terrific.

 

[noble2501]

I got me an 16 meg usb mem drive with some magazine I ordered. You know as an gift, I only took that one number paid for it and then stopped ordering.

 

[9mmCensor]

I think they are great, but not all OS support them natively. They are perfect for paranoid security freaks.

encrypt data put it on one, delete origninal, and unplug it ... no one can then touch that data unless they steal it and crack it.

 

[noble2501]

Yeah, my usb pendrive only works with win 2K and xp, without installing drivers. It should work with older windows if I install drivers, but I haven't tried that. I seriously doubt that it would work with sey linux or macOS, but I could be wrong.
I can't fit too much of secure data on 16 mbits, but that doesn't matter.. I don't have that much data to be secured. =)

- noble