Thoughts on some USB keychain drives *Updated*

[Jeff7]

I'm looking at this one. Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas? Equations? Anything?

Just found this one too which includes the extension cable. Has anyone read anything about these, or used them? They sound really nifty.
I just hope Apacer does a better job making USB drives than they do at translating. From their product page: "Have you been trouble in taking a lot of 3.5 disks for business?"


I bought the Apacer drive, and so far I like it. Quick and easy - plugged it into the USB 2.0 port on my 8RDA+ motherboard; WinXP ID'd it right away, installed drivers, and it was ready in about 15 seconds. A subsequent plugin took only maybe 2 seconds to ready the drive. I just transferred 24.1MB of data (14 video files from this awesome site and it took 8.76s to complete; 2.751MB/sec, translates to about 22Mbit/sec transfer speed. Not exactly USB 2.0 specs, but it's fast enough for me.
It is quite light - almost feels like it's completely empty actually. It also gets a little warm when it's plugged in. The cable it comes with can be handy for those of us who don't have USB ports on the front of our PC's.
Win98 compatibility just tested: The USB drive needs a driver installed for this OS, downloadable from Apacer's website; I decompressed the ZIPfile's contents to a RAMdrive, burned it to a CD, and installed it on a P2 366 laptop running Win98, and rebooted. I stuck the USB drive into the laptop's USB port; it was ID'd, drivers installed, and it was ready, just like in WinXP. I was able to play the MPEG files directly off of the drive with no problems. It really is handy.


Update: The USB drive is still working just fine; the difference between USB 2.0 and 1.1 is quite significant, having tried it on both. It's pretty quick on USB 2.0, but USB 1.1 - much slower, which is to be expected.
Also, some of you inquired about booting off of a USB device. That may be possible; I've not yet explored that fully. However, I found this page, which says this:

While having a bootable USB device may be handy for those needing to do extensive anti-virus cleanings or hardware testing, I do not recommend using the bootable feature for BIOS flashes; if a BIOS change involves USB accesses, the USB change could stop the flash from functioning properly and thus render your computer dead. This is true with every USB drive, not just this one ? be smart, flash from a floppy!

I guess it's like doing brain surgery on yourself - cut the wrong thing, and your arms are rendered useless, and so you're screwed.

 

[cycleman77]

I breifly looked into these awhile ago, but they didn't seem worth it.
CDRW drives are becoming more and more available everywhere. So, to me, it makes a lot more sense to cough up 20 bucks for a pack of CDRWs that can hold 650-700MB, then to cough up 50-100 bucks for a USB drive that can only hold 128-256MB.
Anyways, thats just my 2 cents...

 

[Jeff7]

Well I've already got a CD-writer in my main PC, and a DVD writer in the secondary one. This could finally be a reason though to let my floppy drive collect dust. I'm thinking that, instead of finding a CD-RW, waiting for Nero to blank it, and then write the data, I could just pop the USB drive in, copy files, and be done.
I don't use packet writing, because I have the recurring problem that the disc appears blank in the other PC - then it also looks blank in the PC that wrote the data to it, until I reboot the system each time.

 

[gramboh]

I'm looking at getting one of these as well, I've heard some of them can be made bootable (assuming your mainboard supports booting from a USB device). It would be cool to make one of them bootable as well as use it for storing documents, would be really handy. Anyone know of a reliable bootable USB key that supports USB 2.0 and 1.1/1.0 backwards? I'm not sure if all the Dell P4's at school have USB 2.0, this is my main purpose for buying one (the Dell's have front USB) - to transfer documents/files from home to school incase my internet goes out and I can't get at my FTP.

 

[abovewood]

USB keychain drives are great, best thing ever happened to computer after optical mouse.

 

[abovewood]

Dell USB keychain drives are bootable (tested on a 64mb version).
Lexar jumpdrive 128mb is also bootable.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: abovewood
Dell USB keychain drives are bootable (tested on a 64mb version).
Lexar jumpdrive 128mb is also bootable.

Is this feature specific to the keychain drive being used, or to the computer that it's in?

 

[abovewood]

Your mainboard has to support booting from a USB device.
There is a software that makes those two USB keychain drives bootable, it may work on other drives as well.

 

[Jeff7]

Ok; I remember seeing a few boot options in my BIOS that were USB devices. I am leaning toward getting the Apacer one though.

 

[Karpl]

I've thought about these also.

The big question: Do they require a driver or can you just plug one into any computer with USB and go?

If no driver, it would be great for swapping files with that friend that has no cd burner.
It's not always easy convincing someone to install a driver on their computer.

Do any of the new external hard drives require no driver?
I'm thinking some do, but muy expensive!

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Karpl
I've thought about these also.

The big question: Do they require a driver or can you just plug one into any computer with USB and go?

If no driver, it would be great for swapping files with that friend that has no cd burner.
It's not always easy convincing someone to install a driver on their computer.

Do any of the new external hard drives require no driver?
I'm thinking some do, but muy expensive!

From Newegg:
"No Drivers needed for WINXP/ME/2000 and MAC. OS 8.6 and linux 2.4.0 or higher. driver support for WIN98/98SE"

 

[Electrode]

USB storage devices do not require a driver, unless the computer you plug it in to is running Windows 98. If it's running WinMe, Win2K, WinXP, Mac OS X, Linux, FreeBSD, or pretty much any other OS that supports USB, you don't need a driver.

 

[bluntman]

I bought on for work, a 128MB Apacer USB 1.1 model - the one you have linked is their new USB 2.0 model. I sure saves me from having to hunt for the right 3.5" disk all of the time. Transferring large files (presentations, photos and other documents) is much easier now as well. I picked up the little stand that is available from Apacer so I don't have the keydrive flopping around on my desk all of the time.

 

[draggoon01]

assumin the motherboard supports booting from usb, why are some usb drives bootable and others not? how's it different than a floppy where you just need to copy over the right files and set the mobo. do the usb drives have to be formatted a special way?

 

[DurocShark]

I considered them myself, and decided against them. I picked up a USB 2.0 2.5" hard drive case. It's smaller than my wallet but I can put whatever size drive in there I want. And it's bus powered, so it's no more of a pain than a thumb drive. But the cost per megabyte is a fraction of the cost of the thumbdrives.

I currently am using a 2 gig lappy hd I have that has a bad boot sector. There's someone selling a 30gig drive that would fit in there for $70 over in the FS/FT forum.

 

[msvman]

Originally posted by: Jeff7
I'm looking at this one. Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas? Equations? Anything? ;

I think this one looks pretty good. I like the leather case. My Lexar 128 has already broke and I can't use it on my key chain anymore.

These are great to transfer files from work to home. Very small.

 

[50]

Get the Lexar Media Jump Drive Pro (USB 2.0), 256 mb, i've seen them as low as 60 bucks, they are the best. I have a 64 mb one which i got for 20 dollars and i really like it.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: msvman

Originally posted by: Jeff7
I'm looking at this one. Thoughts? Suggestions? Ideas? Equations? Anything? ;

I think this one looks pretty good. I like the leather case. My Lexar 128 has already broke and I can't use it on my key chain anymore.

These are great to transfer files from work to home. Very small.

Leather? Thanks for seeing that - I'm not a leather fan at all. Smells too much like the old cow skin that it is.

 

[LeeTJ]

Can you install DOS on one of these and boot to DOS??

that would be cool for troubleshooting PC's.

 

[Jeff7]

Thread updated.

 

[TheCorm]

Originally posted by: LeeTJ
Can you install DOS on one of these and boot to DOS??

that would be cool for troubleshooting PC's.

If the bios supports booting from USB...then I can't see why not!

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: TheCorm

Originally posted by: LeeTJ
Can you install DOS on one of these and boot to DOS??

that would be cool for troubleshooting PC's.

If the bios supports booting from USB...then I can't see why not!

So do I just create a bootable floppy, and then copy the files to the USB drive? If I try to format with Explorer in WinXP, the Create MS-DOS Startup Disk option isn't available.

 

[Chadder007]

I would think that Card Readers would be more useful. You can plug them up to USB and put in any CF or Smart card into them and go like you can with the USBkeys....but you can then use the cards in other equipment.

 

[draggoon01]

Jeff7: how's booting from the usb drive? can you just copy over files from a boot disk, or do you need special software?

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: draggoon01
Jeff7: how's booting from the usb drive? can you just copy over files from a boot disk, or do you need special software?

Don't know, haven't tried it yet - that's why I asked what I did above (and below now) :

So do I just create a bootable floppy, and then copy the files to the USB drive? If I try to format with Explorer in WinXP, the Create MS-DOS Startup Disk option isn't available.