These USB flash drives are pretty cool!

[pyrate83]

I just got a 512mb one for Xmas and I think it's pretty useful. I can take files from work and go home with them and visa versa. Makes it easy to transfer music and other stuff to listen to at work. It just amazes me that you can get these things in 1GB now when only a year or so ago they were pushing 128MB and 256MB. I wonder how large these memory sticks can get before they have to go to a hard drive?

[Capmaster]

I was looking at the little pen drives and realized that I had (6) 256MB CF cards I had bought for our digicam for our Egypt trip. They just sit there and the 64MB card holds everything I need until I can d/L to the PC.

So I'm using one of the cards as a personal file storage device that I carry from home to work and back. It's got all my web site files, all my Videohelp files, bookmarks, and assorted personal files with finances, card numbers, gun serial numbers, etc.

My PC at work has a PC card reader and I have an adapter for it, and I bought an inexpensive FW CF reader for the home machine. When I need more space, I'll just throw another card in my briefcase 8)

[pyrate83]

I wish I could afford computers with card readers.

[tekkieman]

I wish I could afford computers with card readers.

Just get a USB or FW reader. They run around $19-39 depending on sales.

[redwudz]

Here's a picture of one of my USB flash drives after going through a full washing machine cycle and 45 minutes in the dryer. The case separated, but was easily glued back together. (It was broken before) I was surprised that it still worked with no data loss. Those little buggers are tough! BTW, I don't recommend using this method to clean them.

[pyrate83]

Did they get cleaned on the heavy duty setting or just regular...that may be why they still work.

[makntraks]

Here's a picture of one of my USB flash drives after going through a full washing machine cycle and 45 minutes in the dryer. The case separated, but was easily glued back together. (It was broken before) I was surprised that it still worked with no data loss. Those little buggers are tough! BTW, I don't recommend using this method to clean them.

Mine did to... Two cycles in the washer and still works like a charm...
256 meg of "portable pr0n".....

makntraks

[northcat_8]

I would be lost without my Pen Drive. Hell, I don't even have floppy drives in any of my computers anymore.

They are also extremely useful if you have to transfer a file from a PC to a MAC.

Welcome to the future pyrate

[tekkieman]

Welcome to the future pyrate

Yeah, northie...and they even make 16x ones!

Oh no, that was something else....

[vitualis]

I love my USB pen drive too. I haven't used a floppy for years. Now, if only they made a standardised encrypted filesystem for these drives. I such, I have to put files (e.g., patient discharge summaries and notes) that don't need to be accessed immediately inside an encrypted zip file and passwords on my word documents (insecure).

Regards.

[JohnnyCNote]

It sure would be nice if these could replace the floppy disk. Has anyone ever tried to boot off of one?

[northcat_8]

I think that has more to do with your BIOS.

My PC will boot from USB, or at least it has that option in the BIOS.

I haven't used it, I try to keep my computer out of the "have to start from a boot disk" situations

@tekkie - who the hell would buy a 16x DVD burner? My 4x will burn a full DVD in 12 minutes...who the hell needs to burn DVDs at a 3 minute per DVD clip? I mean hell, a HD will only hold so many ISOs, and people are backing up DVDs I know encoding them with IC8 or Shrink takes "slightly" longer than 3 minutes to compress them.

I mean it's not like downloading ISOs goes as quick as downloading mp3's.

<and for all of you do-gooders, I don't download ISOs either. I'm on a dialup, it would take me 3 weeks to download a 4 GB file, hell 1 MB takes almost 20 minutes at my blazing 2.6 Kbps >

[jimmalenko]

I got a 32MB flash disk for free 12 months ago just for attending a Microsoft security conference (I know, I know .... contradiction of terms there )

Last week my boss decided that it would be good for our whole department (all 3 of us, including him ) to have 512MB flash disks, so he went out and bought them for us

For some incomprehensible reason, certain PCs at work were bought without any optical drives, so this has been a life-saver. Previously, I'd share the server's CD-ROM and access it across the LAN.

[mrtristan]

I'm in the same boat as Cap. I have a couple extra flash cards, from my digital cameras. I use one for transferring files between work and home. I built my work computer with a card reader and I bought one for about $20 for my home computer.

[Capmaster]

Here's a picture of one of my USB flash drives after going through a full washing machine cycle and 45 minutes in the dryer. The case separated, but was easily glued back together. (It was broken before) I was surprised that it still worked with no data loss. Those little buggers are tough! BTW, I don't recommend using this method to clean them.

You know ...they have antivirus apps for "cleaning" your files

[Garibaldi]

I just got a 512mb one for Xmas and I think it's pretty useful. I can take files from work and go home with them and visa versa. Makes it easy to transfer music and other stuff to listen to at work. It just amazes me that you can get these things in 1GB now when only a year or so ago they were pushing 128MB and 256MB. I wonder how large these memory sticks can get before they have to go to a hard drive?

I also got a 512 MB Lexar Flash Drive. I love it! Its so easy to transfer files, I had a 32 MB one but it was stolen This one is so great, its so easy to transfer files, no extra cords or baggage. BTW has anyone else here bought any add on things for your flash drive? I bought a mp3 attachment, just plug my flash drive in and it will play mp3's from it (its still being shipped here), only for $35, for under 75 bucks I can have 125+ songs in my pocket!

I wonder what the limit is on size of these flash drives?

You know ...they have antivirus apps for "cleaning" your files

[mrtristan]

The biggest I've heard of is 2Gig, for CF. They may have already surpassed it and gone to 4Gigs. Even think about buying it, and it's already obsolete.

[mpack]

BTW has anyone else here bought any add on things for your flash drive? I bought a mp3 attachment, just plug my flash drive in and it will play mp3's from it

When I first heard about these memory sticks a couple of years ago it was always in association with MP3 players. Since I have a CD player at home and in my car and don't download music I didn't pay much attention... then I saw the light! More exactly, I saw a guy at work using one as a disk drive: until that time it had never even crossed my mind that you could! And he didn't have to install drivers or anything - he just walked up to an XP machine and plugged it in. I bought my own 256MB one the following weekend, and its been a godsend.

Up until then, for small files I used floppies (slow, minute capacity, and they were never reliable). For big files I had to burn a CD. I know that CDs are dirt cheap, and burners are fast and reliable now... but it just never seemed right to use a 640MB CD to hold one 5MB file... Now I have the perfect solution - something with the capacity of 200 floppies that is fast and reliable and can be rewritten again and again. Mine is USB 1.0, for really big files I could wish for USB 2.0, but otherwise - perfect.

[Capmaster]

The biggest I've heard of is 2Gig, for CF. They may have already surpassed it and gone to 4Gigs. Even think about buying it, and it's already obsolete.

Last time I checked, they're up to 8GB 8)

[mpack]

Last time I checked, they're up to 8GB 8)

If they get too big then the speed of the USB port (even USB 2.0) is going to be a problem - it would just take too long to get files of that size on and off the thing.

On the other hand: everyone is assuming that, ten years from now, maybe Blu-ray or HD-DVD is going to be the next big media format... but maybe not? Memory sticks are small, there is no real upper limit to their capacity, a player wouldn't need complicated mechanical components, and if really mass produced could be incredibly cheap. Maybe they will be the new media format?

And to rent a movie from Blockbuster you would just go along to the shop, plug in your own (or rented) memory stick, and download the movie of your choice. Always in stock!

Of course, copy prevention would be a big issue for the studios... but they have those issues already...

[Capmaster]

Last time I checked, they're up to 8GB 8)

If they get too big then the speed of the USB port (even USB 2.0) is going to be a problem - it would just take too long to get files of that size on and off the thing.

On the other hand: everyone is assuming that, ten years from now, maybe Blu-ray or HD-DVD is going to be the next big media format... but maybe not? Memory sticks are small, there is no real upper limit to their capacity, a player wouldn't need complicated mechanical components, and if really mass produced could be incredibly cheap. Maybe they will be the new media format?

And to rent a movie from Blockbuster you would just go along to the shop, plug in your own (or rented) memory stick, and download the movie of your choice. Always in stock!

Of course, copy prevention would be a big issue for the studios... but they have those issues already...

It would be nice because you could kiss off scratched discs from Netflix. On the other hand, there'd always be someone who has been tap dancing on a carpet in an unhumidified house, and then draws a three-foot-long lightning bolt off the connector pins

[Garibaldi]

If they get too big then the speed of the USB port (even USB 2.0) is going to be a problem - it would just take too long to get files of that size on and off the thing.

Maybe they could start making firewire ones, since firewire is faster than USB. That would at least let them go a little bigger.

[Guest]

I just got a 256k jump drive for $20.I love it.

[mpack]

Maybe they could start making firewire ones, since firewire is faster than USB. That would at least let them go a little bigger.

Firewire is about the same speed as USB 2.0 isn't it? I thought they were both rated at around 400mbit/s max throughput.

[Garibaldi]

Firewire is about the same speed as USB 2.0 isn't it? I thought they were both rated at around 400mbit/s max throughput.

They are close, but I thought I remembered reading that firewire is somewhat faster, I'm not sure though.

[Guest]

Firewire is about the same speed as USB 2.0 isn't it? I thought they were both rated at around 400mbit/s max throughput.

They are close, but I thought I remembered reading that firewire is somewhat faster, I'm not sure though.

I agree.Isnt there a new firewire format?

[babyboo]

...there'd always be someone who has been tap dancing on a carpet in an unhumidified house, and then draws a three-foot-long lightning bolt off the connector pins

Nice Visual!

[Heywould3]

fireware =400mbs xfer usb2 = 480mbs xfer.. for now anyway

[Doramius]

These things are great for shipping too. I have a 1gig pen drive I got for about $90. My parents are on dial-up, so rather than setting up a site and have them waste time downloading/uploading files, I just FedEx them my drive. Tons of pictures can be stored easily. I'd like to get a 4gig sometime, but have to wait until the cost comes down a bit.

[yoda313]

Hello,

Doramius - Don't you have a dvd burner??? You can get 4.37gb on those and they are probably just as cheap. I'm sure if your parents pc was at least no more than 3 years old it would most likely have a dvd rom on it.

Kevin

(blanks are a lot cheaper and more disposable than a flash drive )