Anyone got any good 1gb thumb drives?

[adrian]

My current 512mb thumb drive is practically bursting from all of the various files (from word documents, to powerpoints, security apps, portable firefox, photos, and other files I can't leave home w/out) so I think I'll get myself an early xmas present (probably the second one this year). The thing is, that I only had one thumb drive from PNY technologies and I bought it from compusa.

Can anyone point me in the right direction in getting a high capacity drive for under $100? If you already have one, then can you comment about the r/w speed, size, and ease of use?

[lavagal]

My current 512mb thumb drive is practically bursting from all of the various files (from word documents, to powerpoints, security apps, portable firefox, photos, and other files I can't leave home w/out) so I think I'll get myself an early xmas present (probably the second one this year). The thing is, that I only had one thumb drive from PNY technologies and I bought it from compusa.

Can anyone point me in the right direction in getting a high capacity drive for under $100? If you already have one, then can you comment about the r/w speed, size, and ease of use?


You mean like a SanDisk Cruzer Mini? I got my 1GB at Costco. I think there was even a coupon or a rebate, and that was some three-four months ago. I'm the same way I use three of these suckers. Two litte ones and the 1GB. Such a breeze! It was around $70, I think.
Good luck!

[tutusue]

I use a Digitalway mpio 1.5gb drive. There's also a 5giger.
http://www.mpio.com/product/productview_hs100.html
This is a more updated version of mine, which I've used for at least 2 years. It's great but is double the width of the standard flash drive...approx. 2"x2". BTW, I just saw one on eBay for under $30. Ships from Singapore so you'd need to check the feedback and shipping. :D

[mel]

I have a 1 Gig Lexar drive. Bought it about 2 years ago for around $89 at Comp USA. It's attached to my keychain that I carry with me everywhere. Great for use as temporary backup storage until I burn files to CD for archival storage. In a pinch if you have a digital camera, you can use the removable media cards as portable/temporary backup storage. I have several compact flash and memory stick cards that I occasionally use for this purpose. And if I am really desparate I can always use one of my 2 iPods for temp storage too.

[craigwatanabe]

I have a Sandisk and the transfer rate is astonishingly fast. PNY sells cheap memory so if you want to see faster downloads and uploads, buy a SanDisk. I also keep a small 128mb thumbdrive from GE in my wallet.

Yes wallet, this thing is as thin as a credit card and has the width of a USB slot with a length of about 2" including the connection. This will fit into any USB 2.0 slot and it comes with an adapter to make it work with the USB 1.1 slots. But even with the adapter it's still smaller than my SanDisk thumbdrive.

[adrian]

Yes wallet, this thing is as thin as a credit card and has the width of a USB slot with a length of about 2" including the connection. This will fit into any USB 2.0 slot and it comes with an adapter to make it work with the USB 1.1 slots. But even with the adapter it's still smaller than my SanDisk thumbdrive.
Is it thin enough to break if something hits it while connected to the computer? and how much is it?

[craigwatanabe]

Is it thin enough to break if something hits it while connected to the computer? and how much is it?

It's pretty durable and it seats pretty deep inside the USB socket. I bought three of them believe it or not from the Home Depot in their electrical department (they sell wireless USB adapters, wireless G routers and some LAN stuff there too) for $19.97 each. I also bought from the Home Depot three micro optical mice with retractable USB connections for less than $9.00

I wouldn't be surprized if this thin USB format would replace the SD card since it's about as thin, narrower and about 3/4" longer...actually about the dimensions of a Sony memory stick about 2" long but it plugs directly into a USB 2.0 socket.

[pzarquon]

I'd recommend the Sandisk Cruzer from Costco as well. I have a -- believe it or not -- 256MB version around my neck that I've used since... well, since 256MB was a pretty decent chunk of storage.

There was a model with a stronger metal housing and a retractable USB plug (most of these things use crappy caps that wear out or get lost), but I'm not sure where it stands now. For the price, the Cruzer is tough to beat.

[Pomai]

Not that this is more practical than a thumb drive but...

My coworker used to use space on his (Canon) Digital Camera's Compact Flash cards .

Mount the camera through the USB connector and place/remove files to a specific folder on the card through the OS finder window. Quark XPress files, Powerpoint, Excel, Illustrator, Photoshop, you name it.. it's been put on there.

He was a bit concerned it would either corrupt his CF card(s) or the camera's firmware, but it never harmed a thing. Camera still works to this day. ;)

[Pomai]

My question is: Why on earth do PC manufacturer's still include a 1.44mb FLOPPY DRIVE?

Apple's got rid of the format ever since the introduction of the first iMac and has never looked back.

Which leads to this next question: Why on earth do portable boomboxes still include CASSETTE PLAYERS? Not only that, they give you DUAL CASSETTE! Why don't they just include 8-track players too while they're at it. :p

[lurkah]

My question is: Why on earth do PC manufacturer's still include a 1.44mb FLOPPY DRIVE?
For one, floppies are very cheap portable storage and kids still need them in school for saving and transporting, or printing their classroom and homework assignments. Thumb drives are still too expensive for them to lose.

[Pomai]

For one, floppies are very cheap portable storage and kids still need them in school for saving and transporting, or printing their classroom and homework assignments.

Minutes ago @ BestBuy.com (http://www.bestbuy.com)...

10-Pack 1.44MB Floppy Discs (in colors!)
$5.49/pack
= 10MB total storage

10-Pack 700MB CDRW (with jewel cases!)
$8.99/pack
= 6.84 GIGABYTES (7000MB) total storage

The CDRW's clearly bats this one out of the price/value ball park. ;)

Besides, if the kids can't afford iPods, they'll have to use their (cheap) CD players for music. Which most now days are compatible with CDR discs.

[lurkah]

Minutes ago @ BestBuy.com (http://www.bestbuy.com)...

10-Pack 1.44MB Floppy Discs (in colors!)
$5.49/pack
= 10MB total storage

10-Pack 700MB CDRW (with jewel cases!)
$8.99/pack
= 6.84 GIGABYTES (7000MB) total storage

The CDRW's clearly bats this one out of the price/value ball park. ;)
But you're assuming most kids have CD burners. http://ohanalanai.com/lanai/images/smilies/tisktisk.gif Not mine. Not yet, anyway. Besides, 700MB is overkill as their file saving needs right now can still fit on a 1.44MB floppy disk. When the time comes that they'll be needing more than that such as for buying CDR or CDRW blanks for burning music CDs, then they're on their own. :D

Yeah, right. With two girls, who am I fooling? ;) *sigh*

[Glen Miyashiro]

There was a model with a stronger metal housing and a retractable USB plug (most of these things use crappy caps that wear out or get lost), but I'm not sure where it stands now. For the price, the Cruzer is tough to beat.I ranted about crappy USB drive caps a while ago here (http://www.hawaiithreads.com/showthread.php?t=1503). Have they gotten any better?

[Pomai]

But you're assuming most kids have CD burners.I was referring to the NEW PC's that are being sold. Not ones made say, 3 or 4 years ago. MOST new models - even bargain basement deals - include CD burners. But a CD burner AND Floppy? Waste of space and money. Keep the floppy and give me more RAM please!

DVD Burners have driven the price of CD burners into the dirt. Just like how Plasma and LCD TV's have driven the price down on CRT models.

Some even think CD burners are already archaic, like the floppy. Pass the SuperDrive please.

..........

Popular Science published a news bulletin recently on a chip maker (I think it was IBM) who invented a new "3 dimensional" chip architecture that will revolutionize the performance of solid state memory and processors.

Instead of layering a silicone chip with horizontally "sandwiched" layers of schematic circuits, the circuits are embedded BOTH horizontally AND vertically.

Terabyte and Terahertz chips may be coming to stores sooner than we think. :rolleyes:

[adrian]

My question is: Why on earth do PC manufacturer's still include a 1.44mb FLOPPY DRIVE?

Apple's got rid of the format ever since the introduction of the first iMac and has never looked back.

Which leads to this next question: Why on earth do portable boomboxes still include CASSETTE PLAYERS? Not only that, they give you DUAL CASSETTE! Why don't they just include 8-track players too while they're at it. :p
My school just purchased new computers that has floppy drives on them (then again, they got the models that has integrated LCDs and DVD readers, so if they go south, then so will the whole computer), and on average, I see atleast 10 students pop in a floppy. Plus, you can make a computer explode with it ;) LOL

And my computer doesn't have a floppy drive, although the primary reason why I don't put it back, is because I don't have any floppy disks to feed it.

[lurkah]

I was referring to the NEW PC's that are being sold. Not ones made say, 3 or 4 years ago.
For the same reasons I mentioned before. ;) Because there's still enough of a demand for fixed floppy drives, especially in the huge K-12 education market, not to mention the market for all the community colleges and other schools nationwide (and worldwide, for that matter) that have computer labs designed to cater to hispanic, migrant and other students for whom English is not their first language, and whose personal budgets might not enable them to even own their own computers. They attend classes and use those cheap floppy disks (usually donated by the school) for doing and saving their work on.

Back on-topic, I personally use a high-speed USB 2.0 1GB Lexar Sport flash drive (http://www.lexar.com/jumpdrive/jd_sport.html) that has a durable black rubber cap that actually becomes its own weather-resistant encapsulating carrying case from which, under normal use, it will never accidentally fall out of, and which has the narrow profile especially necessary for inserting into those front-loading USB ports mounted in poorly designed computer cases (Gateways are famous for this) that provide minimal side clearance which prevents wider-profile models like this one (http://www.lexar.com/jumpdrive/jd_secure.html) from being used.

[craigwatanabe]

Floppies are heading out the door but like lurkah implied, there's still a demand for them primarily schools. Thumbdrives are fine but if you lose them you lose a chunk o change.

Granted floppies are a bit more expensive than CD's however data transfer to a floppy is just a click and drag away, no cd burning software to transfer data.

Also not all computers have front-mounted USB ports so accessing some computers via USB connections can be cumbersome.

Floppies still have their place. I still use them simply because they work for small files like Word or Excel and if you lose em, no major loss. As for thumbdrives, people get all freaked out when they lose the cap for their thumbdrives!