How is the " Kingston USB Flash memory drive " ?

[Matt_]

I need a 64mb usb drive that I can buy right away from a b&m store. There are quite a few brands to choose from, and after sifting through epinions and amazon.com I was only able to find out that there are enough negative comments about Sandisk, Lexar, and PNY that I will avoid their usb drives.
Officemax is selling a Kingston brand usb drive with a $10 instant rebate and a $5 mail-in rebate, bringing the final price to ~ $ 20

I was hoping someone would be able to comment on whether this is a reliable brand to purchase.
The box mentioned that there is a 5 year warranty. Maybe that's a positive indication about the reliability of this particular product ?

(I hope I put this in the right forum -- I didn't know if it was supposed to go here or in the "Off Topic Stuff" forum.)
Thank you in advance,
Matt

[jomar]

Hi Matt - Don't know about the Kingston. I have a 256MB Scandisc (Cruzer mini) that works great. Got it for $50 at CompUSA. I've had no problems with it. I wasn't aware others had had problems. Then again, I didn't research this purchase.

[geobel]

I use 128 Mb transcend USB flash drive since 2002 and it is still OK, though usb plug is getting more and more loose. Anyway I finally run out of space because I synchronize ALL my data with flash. So I plan to go for 256 Mb A-data Jogr (for example http://www.achieva.com.au/pd_jogr.htm or http://www.adata.com.tw/en/p-f1.htm ). Alternatively I may go for something thin enough to fit in my wallet.

Gosha

P.S. IMHO, 64Mb is not price effective now...

[c888a]

I have a 1GB SanDisk (Cruzer mini, USB 2.0) that works great.

[hausman]

Alternatively I may go for something thin enough to fit in my wallet.

My digital camera uses CF cards. After I bought it I got a Verbatim PCCard/CF adapter (similar to http://www.adata.com.tw/en/p-f3-02.htm) for my A21p and a generic USB CF reader (similar to http://www.adata.com.tw/en/p-f3-09.htm) for my Netvista desktop. Total cost for the two adapters was under $20.

Not only does this arrangement allow me to more easily move photos from the camera to a PC, but it also lets me use standard CF cards for data storage and transfer. And at least with my Canon camera, both photos and other data can coexist on the same CF card (in different directories) so you can buy a small number of large CF card(s) and use them for both purposes, e.g. when travelling.

Of course, CF cards are not as sturdy as complete drives, but they will fit into a wallet. Just don't put that wallet in your back pocket and then sit on it

[Matt_]

Hi all

I apologize that I haven't been able to return to this thread until now. It's been one thing after another this summer.

Because I ended up needing a usb drive right away to store my personal files before returning a laptop, I took a chance and made a blind purchase of the Kingston 64mb usb drive ( http://www.kingston.com/literature/MKF_ ... aveler.pdf ) and then, later on in the summer, (because I ended up filling that so fast) a 128mb Kingston usb drive when Circuit City had it on sale.

So far I've been very pleased with it. One of the things about it (that at the time of purchase I didn't give any thought about) that has wound up coming in *very* handy over and over is that it comes with a 6inch USB cable. You can see a picture of the usb drive here ( http://www.kingston.com/products/datatraveler.asp ). The desktop computers at places like the local library and Kinko's copy centers have usb ports that are located too close to the shell of the desktop case and/or (in the case of Kinko's Dell desktop computers) are too recessed such that I can't completely insert the usb drive. Thanks to the usb cable, that's not a problem.
Plus what also impressed me a bit about this purchase is that the packaging states that this product has a five year warranty.

With regards to the Sandisc, I am glad to hear that it has worked out for you all. Being that my first post was back in June, I can't remember now where all I had looked, but I remember that one of my first stops was amazon.com to look for customer feedback on the different brands. What made it too hard to survey the feedback on the internet on the different brands of usb drives is that unfortunately the different manufacturers have decided to use their own names (e.g., "jump drive", "flash drive", "usb drive", "memory drive", "thumb drive")

geobel:
That Jogr flash drive looks fantastic ! I'd never heard of it before. I wonder where I could get order one ? Luckily there is some contact information for those in the U.S.
If/when you purchase it, I hope you can come back and let us know what you think of it.

hausman:
I wasn't aware of something like that. My Dad for awhile now has been wanting to get back into his photo hobby and buy a good quality digital camera. I'll have to let him know about this.
I assume that "CF" is one of the 7 or 8 different media used for storing digital photos ?
I don't know anything about this field.
I've seen the devices in stores that advertise being able to read 5-8 or so different .. uh.. thingies used by digital cameras for storing photos -- Are those readers unable to store files other than digital photos in comparison to what you bought ? It seems like another advantage of the PCMCIA adapter is that it would be smaller in size and therefore more portable than the devices I'm describing ? (e.g. this)

[hausman]

I wasn't aware of something like that. My Dad for awhile now has been wanting to get back into his photo hobby and buy a good quality digital camera. I'll have to let him know about this.
I assume that "CF" is one of the 7 or 8 different media used for storing digital photos ?

It's also the most popular format. Obviously if he buys a digicam that uses a different format he'll need to get adapter(s) that supports it.

I've seen the devices in stores that advertise being able to read 5-8 or so different .. uh.. thingies used by digital cameras for storing photos -- Are those readers unable to store files other than digital photos in comparison to what you bought ?

The readers/adapters can't store data per se. They simply accept several different types of flash media and make them look like a flash drive. If you or your dad only need one media type, then it's best to buy an adapter just for that media because it's usually smaller and cheaper than the multi-format ones.

It seems like another advantage of the PCMCIA adapter is that it would be smaller in size and therefore more portable than the devices I'm describing ?

Yes, if you have a computer that accepts PCMCIA cards. With the adapter I have, the CF card slips almost entirely into the PCMCIA adapter. When inserted into a PCMCIA slot in my TP nothing protrudes, so apart from an extra ounce of weight, I don't even know it's there.

[Matt_]

I wanted to say a belated big thank you for your help. I'll pass this along to my father for when he's ready to research/buy a digital camera.

There is something that I am curious about regarding your using your CF card for data storage.
Why is there such a big price difference between large capacity CF cards and a USB drive of an equivalent capacity ?
I don't remember the exact ad (and price) that I saw in a magazine. But it was some CF card with a capacity of, maybe, ~ 1 gigabyte. The price for it was much less than the current average price for a 1 gigabyte usb flash drive.

With your familiarity with PCMCIA cards, do you have an opinion on the different brands of (firewire) cards that I mentioned having come across ?
I want to do some basic video editing. I've just about finalized my choices for the enclosure and internal 3.5" hard drive.
But as for the firewire PCMCIA card, I've tried looking for opinions in message-boards such as those for cd/dvd burning but couldn't find much except for some comments that said that Adaptec was a reliable, established brand.

Also, most of the brands of firewire cards look like this, but I also found one that looks like this.

Do you have an opinion on the pro/cons of the two designs ?