Small, Durable Flash Drive for my Keyring

[ElectroPulse]

Hello, all!

I am going to be headed off to college in the next month and a half or so, and am looking at getting a 32gb or 64gb flash drive to leave on my keychain.

I have been looking around, but haven't really seen anything that strikes my fancy...

The flash drive that have the exposed contacts worry me (don't want the bare contacts rubbing against my keys in my pocket). I'm not wanting one with a detachable cap (unless it screws off... not wanting it to fall off and get lost).

Requirements:
1. No exposed contacts (don't want the bare contacts rubbing against my keys in my pocket and getting scratched).
2. Some kind of cap that cannot fall off (don't want to lose the cap... So either the type that rotates out (like the Patriot Axel), one that screws on (like the Corsair Survivor), or one that is attached to it in some way).
3. Small (It's going on my keychain, so am not wanting something large... this is the only thing that disqualified the Corsair Survivor).
4. Waterproof/shockproof/whatever (I want to be able to walk through the rain without worrying about my flash drive... Also, would like it to survive a run through the laundry if necessary).
5. Capacity: 32gb or 64gb (would prefer a 64gb... am considering installing Linux on a partition to boot from so that I can install a few commonly-used programs, so I can use them at another computer without installing anything, if necessary).
6. Price: Looking for around 50-75 cents/gb. Up to $50.

So, any recommendations?


Thanks!

 

[Binky]

Supertalent Pico.

http://www.supertalent.com/products/stt_flash_drive.php?category=Pico

The exposed contacts have not been a problem for me. I've had one of these on my keychain for years with zero issues.

Water resistant is easy. Running a drive through the laundry is another thing entirely. Good luck on that one...!

 

[razel]

Agree. Love the Pico and Pico mini. Performance of the Pico tends to be a bit faster than the mini. Construction of the Pico since it's metallic is tougher as well. I had both in the wallet mixed in with coins. No issues with the contacts.

By the way, I wore my 8GB Pico out and SuperTalent replaced it outright. I think it had a lifetime warranty.

 

[ElectroPulse]

So exposed contacts aren't a problem? I guess that's why there are so many manufacturers that make them... My gut feeling is just that they'd get scratched up. Oh well, I could give 'em a try.

Unfortunately, the Pico is over what I was wanting to spend on it... In my head, what I was thinking was somewhere around 50-75 cents/gb... Updated the OP to reflect this clarification. I would probably only pay $30 or more on a 64gb, unless necessary for an increase in durability of a 32gb.

A decent drive at the prices of the Patriot Axle would be nice... Not sure if that's going to happen, though.

 

[Coup27]

Corsair flash survivor?

Edit: Overlooked you have ruled out the survivor. Shame that. It's no bigger than a car key. It meets all of your requirements and I doubt you will find anything smaller. If Corsair could have made it smaller I am sure they would have. And it's USB3 and cheap.

 

[ElectroPulse]

Corsair flash survivor?

Edit: Overlooked you have ruled out the survivor. Shame that. It's no bigger than a car key.

Yea, but it's a bit thicker... I'm about to head out, so I'll measure it out on a piece of paper to give myself a better idea of how big it is when I get home... I don't do well with visualizing sizes.

If it's small enough, the Corsair Survivor would probably be one of the few drives I would be willing to go over my budget for...

 

[Throckmorton]

This one has a sliding cover for the contacts http://www.supertalent.com/products/stt_usb_detail.php?type=Pico Mini-D

 

[LagunaX]

I've lost a couple of the pico drives as the string or wire or lobster claw they were attached to on my keychain just simply broke.

What I have now and works really well are the 32gb SuperTalent short key drives:
http://www.superbiiz.com/detail.php?name=STU32GCKBS

 

[Obsoleet]

Supertalent Pico.

http://www.supertalent.com/products/stt_flash_drive.php?category=Pico

The exposed contacts have not been a problem for me. I've had one of these on my keychain for years with zero issues.

Water resistant is easy. Running a drive through the laundry is another thing entirely. Good luck on that one...!

I ran my PicoC through the wash multiple times. I've had it since August 2008. Still works like day 1.

 

[Blastman]

I just bought one of the new Kingston Data Traveler Elite 3.0 USB drives (16GB).

They have the 32GB model for ~ $40. It has a slider to expose the USB port. Quite small, has a keyring hole and is fast for the price. 70MB/s read, 30MB/s write. In testing it actually writes in the mid 30MB/s on USB 3.0.