USB Flash Drives for your Notebook and Desktop Computer Posted October 2004 by Lisa Gade, Editor in Chief
As you probably already know, the world of flash memory
is large, encompassing myriad storage solutions. Flash memory is
used to make cell phones, PDAs and cameras, and you can buy flash
storage media to extend the capacity of your devices. These include
the many kinds of storage cards reviewed on this site: CF, SD, MMC
and Memory Sticks. In this review, we'll take a look at another class
of flash memory product: USB flash drives. These devices use the
same kinds of memory found in PDA storage cards, but unlike cards,
flash drives have USB connectors and you can plug them into the USB
port on your computer to backup or transfer files easily.
USB flash
drives require no driver under Windows XP/2000/ME or Mac OS 9.1
or later: simply plug them and they're recognized as an additional
drive on your computer. These drives come with drivers for older
versions of Windows that are able to support the USB standard (Windows
98). You can drag files to these drives, create folders and delete
data just as if it were a standard hard drive. Not only that, but
these drives are incredibly small, measuring 2.5" long
and approximately .5" wide.
That makes them ideal for transferring files between home and work
or simply bringing a large collection of photos or MP3s with you
anywhere. In addition, flash drives are solid state and there are
no moving parts so your data won't be jeopardized if the drive bounces
around in your pocket or purse.
Flash drive performance depends on two things: the
speed of the flash memory and the USB bus speed (USB 1.1 vs. 2.0).
All flash memory is faster at reads than writes which means loading
and viewing files on the drive will be faster than copying files
to the drive. We'll take a look at a few of the latest USB 2.0 flash
drives which offer excellent transfer speeds.
Kingston DataTraveler Elite
Kingston's impressive security software sets
their USB drive apart from the competition. If you'll be carrying
important, highly sensitive personal or company data on the
drive, you'll want to consider the Kingston Elite. Why? USB
flash drives are inherently portable and very small, which
means the odds of forgetting it somewhere or dropping it without
hearing it hit the ground are high. Nobody wants to leave their
company's financials sitting unencrypted on the table of the
local Starbucks, after all.
On the flash drive you'll find applications for
encrypting the Elite, and you can create both public and encrypted
partitions if you like. TravelerSafe + is the Windows-only
application you'll use to create a password and encrypt the
drive. PDF manuals on the drive walk you through the simple
process and state that the application currently won't work
if you have the Elite plugged into a port on a USB 2.0 PCI
card. So use the built-in USB ports on your PC if you wish
to encrypt your data.
What happens if someone tries using brute force
to guess the password? After 25 attempts the software will
lock down the drive and the drive must be reformatted. Kingston
employs 128 bit AES encryption and unlike most other USB flash
drives offering encryption, the Elite's is hardware based.
The drive has a co-processor that handles encryption/description
which means no performance penalty in drive speed and
better security (the AES key isn't stored on the host computer).
You can read Kingston's white paper on the security and data
transfer speeds of this drive at www.kingston.com/digitalmedia/dt_elite_wp.pdf.
In fact, the Elite is Kingston's fastest USB
flash drive, offering a peak read speed of 24 MB/sec and a
peak write speed of 14 MB/sec. Those are very good read
and write times, and the Elite is 2x faster than Kingston's
DataTraveler II product. Since the drive supports USB 2.0,
the USB will never be the bottleneck. But if you have only
USB 1.1 on your computer have no fear, the Elite, like all
USB 2.0 products, is backward compatible with USB 1.1.
We tested the time it took to copy a 220 meg
Windows Media Player movie file to the drive. Using a Windows
XP Pro machine with a USB 2.0 interface, the movie copied in
a blazingly fast 10.8 seconds. The movie played perfectly from
the drive.
Kingston DataTraveler Elite flash drives are
available in 256 meg, 512 meg, 1 gig and 2 gig capacities.
The security software is pre-installed on the drive and the
unit comes with a protective cap for the USB connector, a key
ring and a lanyard. It has an LED activity light that lets
you know when it's safe to unplug the drive.
Price varies with capacity: Manufacturer's suggested
retail prices range from $50 (256 meg) to $274 (2 gig).
Crucial Gizmo! Hi-Speed USB Flash Drive
If you need lots of portable storage but don't have super-serious
security needs, check out the Crucial Gizmo line of USB 2.0
flash drives. The Gizmo is one of the smallest flash drives
and you won't notice it in your pocket.
The Gizmo line comes in 128, 256 and 512 meg capacities as
well as 1 gig. They are up to 40x faster than first generation
flash drives, and are very fast at file transfers. Flash memory
is faster at reads than writes, so we tested the time it took
to copy a 215 meg Windows Media Player movie file to the drive.
Using a Windows XP Pro machine with a USB 2.0 interface, the
movie copied in a quick 48 seconds. Read speeds are great and
the movie played perfectly from the flash drive.
The Gizmo drive has an LED that indicates activity
and a removable cap that protects the USB connector. It comes
with a lanyard and key ring.
