Hello all. I am looking for a decent USB flash drive (4GB+) to run portable apps from. I did a lot of reading of reviews on the net but I can't come to a solid conclusion. Currently the OCZ Rally2 Turbo is the fastest, but prices are high right now. Also, as this is a new model, the competition hasn't caught up with OCZ yet. When it does, I'd imagine prices to fall. Is this a bad time to buy? I don't have a lot of cash to spend, I just want a fairly quick and reliable drive for my money.
Thanks for any help.
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I've not compared speeds, one drive to another, but I've been pleased with the performance of my SanDisk Cruzer Micro 4 gig. They make an 8 gig as well as Titanium models also. I've heard from at least one other user that he enjoys his 8 gig Titanium Cruzer.
.02 cents from a rookie...
is the U3?
Need Portable Things
It's removable
Release Team Member
Corsair @ newegg. $20 for 4 gb
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
What if I only have $15?
Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
offer to mow five of your neighbours lawns at a dollar a time? *ducks*
Seriously, though, newegg do actually have 4Gb drives as low as $14.99
In that case, I wanted a new drive for a while because my current is so slow.
And all the neighbors were lazy enough to hire people to spray pesticides (which then implies that my dad is a madman).
Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
Bum $5 off your Dad? That's all you need. Shippings included.
Too many lonely hearts in the real world
Too many bridges you can burn
Too many tables you can't turn
Don't wanna live my life in the real world
he wouldn't let me buy an 89 cent toy with my own money :P.
Insert original signature here with Greasemonkey Script.
*holds back outburst of laughter*
I couldn't control laughing. Well, tell me Ur address and I will ship one for you
I have a microvault 4gig and it works beautifully. The drive looks nice, is fast, and comes with a cool compression utility. Although I did find one thing out the hard way. Don't use automatic file compression while running programs. It's really a bummer when you do. The other I would recomend is a cruzer.
Release Team Member
Thanks for the replies.
I've considered the Cruzer Contour, it seems like a pretty decent little drive, but I read a few negative things about it also. I'm still not sure which one to get, so maybe I'll just save a bit more money and get the OCZ Rally2 Turbo. All reviews have been great so far.
I can recommend the Cruzer Contour. I have the 4GB version and have had no problems for the past 6 months. It is a fairly fast USB thumb drive, although it is a little pricey.
Yes, the contour is excellent and very fast. Comes with U3 but can uninstalled if you don't like it. It's sliding design is also ridiculously fun to slide.
I ordered the OCZ. Should be here by the weekend, hopefully. I'll report back and post my thoughts. Thanks again, everyone!
I'm currently using a Kingston DataTraveler 4GB, and it works very well. I got it six months ago, and never got a problem with it.
There is also a 8GB version available.
... Flash Survivor GT 8GB. Tons of space and lightning fast. And durable... I watched a video of some guy running his car over it. Repeatedly. Watertight, all that jazz. I wouldn't give it up for anything. I love it.
My Lexar USB 512MB key went in the washing machine & the dryer, still works fine after two years.
Nice.
I have a Cruzer Titanium 4GB, paid £20 for it, got rid of the U3 crap and I/O is faster that a rocket! Very happy with it and it's weight is reassuring in your pocket.
I live in Europe so my comments might not be immediately helpful to you but maybe for others. I use a generic 4Gb USB stick branded by play.com. Cheap at today's price of £8.99 (current exchange rate that's about $22). Their 8Gb version is £15.99 (~$40) and 16Gb £32.99 (~$82). The devices appear to be manufactured by a company called something like "Generic USB Devices". At these prices it's cheap enough to throw away in the event of a failure.
My play.com 4Gb has proven to be reliable. I have the full PortableApps suite installed (v1.1 release) plus a few other apps (e.g., Abiword, GNUCash, Inkscape, The GIMP). A few other apps have been installed and removed because they don't work (specifically LyX and [La]TeX). The drive gets a pounding when I use OpenOffice.org and The GIMP as I work directly onto the USB drive; not usually recommended behaviour. However I'm always careful to dismount the drive using the operating system's procedures. (My professional choice is Mac OS X, where I have the same applications installed so pick up files from the Document sub-directory, but for this discussion I also use it on customer PCs when visiting their corporate premises.)
I'm also using a Kingston Data Traveler 8gb and I love it so far.
I have a DataTraveler 4GB at the moment, and the read speed are pretty average to any normal USB thumb-drive. (read at 5MB/s, write at 4MB/s). I might consider purchasing a faster card when they become more affordable. I might consider upgrading my PC to USB 3.0 when it will be available.