The Next BIG - Little thing!
Written: Apr 08 '04 (Updated Apr 25 '04)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Small, large capacity, extremely easy to use. Secure feature if you need it. Keyring connector.
Cons: Shouldered USB connector awkward. Slow transfer speed. Costs more than others. Secure feature not unique.
The Bottom Line: The secure feature is avialable on many other models for less cost and with greater speed. Don't but this one.
|
|
|
| glake's Full Review: Lexar JumpDrive Secure 512 MB (JDS512-231) Flash M... |
The Next Thing
Flash Drives, Jump drives or USB drives, call them what you want, but these tiny things are the next BIG thing in portable data storage. Imaging carrying 8 CD’s worth of data in a rugged device not much larger than your car key? Actually, you can get twice that much data if you want to spend the money, but I settled for the 512MB model and I choose Lexar’s “Secure” model, mostly because it was on sale.
All of Them
Let me explain some things that apply to ALL USB drives first and then we’ll discuss my opinion of this particular model.
These relatively new devices plug neatly into your PC’s USB port and Voila! You now have a new drive to store data on. If you have Windows 98 or 98se you’ll need to install drivers but most Windows and Mac Operating systems will recognize and install this device automatically every time you plug it in. The USB drive will be assigned the next open letter on your PC. You can then use any file management program, such as Windows Explorer, to copy files from any of your PC drives (including network drives) to the USB drive and back again. Obviously a nice tool for people who take work home and don’t want to burn CD’s. It's faster than remote access programs and easier to carry than a laptop. But it’s also good for carrying Power Point presentations to general meetings (where a PC is usually already available). Or in the case of IT guys, you can carry some of your utilities or even a small disk image around to those PC’s you support. I guess you could even mail pictures to Aunt Emily but I’d want to make sure she’ll send this valuable device back first!
Standard Features
The old 3-1/2” floppies would fit in my short pocket, but files today are too large to fit on a floppy disk. CDs and DVDs hold a lot more data but they don’t fit in my pocket and can easily snap in half. I could fit three or four of these nifty devices in my shirt pocket (some come with pocket clips), attach 1 to my key chain, or throw 10 of them into a briefcase and still take less room than 1 DVD-ROM. The plug and play convenience is more so on PC’s with front USB ports or on laptops where reaching the back isn’t hard. For back-only USB ports you can get a small USB extension cable and leave it connected. All USB drives get their power from the USB port so no power plug or batteries are needed. All the ones that I’ve seen have a small led which lights when a connection is made and blinks when data is being transferred. And some sort of Dust Cap is usually provided. I’ve seen one model with an attached dust cap which swings to one side for use, but the Lexar Secure 512, like most, have a cap which is easily lost, misplaced or just plain forgotten. My cap is on my Jump Drive about 25% of the time, and sitting forgotten on my desk the rest of the time. That is, until the day I loose it altogether. Some of the older models only support USB 1.0 or 1.1, but the newer ones are all USB 2.0 compliant, which makes data transfer FAST! Which brings us to...
Speed
Though none really take full advantage of USB speed, they are still fast. Many don’t list transfer rates but those that do brag 5 or 6 MB per second, which means a CD's worth of data (640MB) would take about 120 seconds to read. Most write about 10-15% slower than they read but that still puts you well under 3 minutes. You can’t possibly burn a CD that fast! The Lexar 512 Secure does not list a speed so I tested it myself. I copied a 110MB data file from my hard drive to my Lexar jump drive and it took 2 minutes and 5 seconds. That would make it a LOT slower than the models that do list speed. A full CD’s worth of data (which won’t quite fit, I know!) would take about 18 minutes. I CAN burn CD’s at that speed! This is certainly something to consider if you’re planning to use it for any but the smallest files.
Now more to this model specifically:
Memory Capacity and my Initial Choice
I choose the 512MB size by looking at all the Excel spreadsheets and Power Point presentations I had and seeing that many were bigger than 126MB but only a tiny fraction were bigger than 512MB. Since more memory equals more bucks, I think this is a good way to decide on size.
I then looked at one of my favorite on-line suppliers and found they were pushing the “Lexar 512 Secure” so I bought one. Using my company discount I paid $132.72 for it. I now know that I could have done better if I’d put a bit more time into researching the options. First of all, this model can be had for $115 without much shopping around. Also, this model is more expensive than some other brands with similar size and features. But mostly I wish I'd shopped longer because I was disappointed by it’s SHAPE.
Size and Shape
Yes, I said SHAPE. The main advantages of this type of device are small size and easy USB connectivity. Well its size is only slightly larger than most but the UBS connector itself is mounted on a shoulder piece that made it impossible to plug into the front USB ports of my Compaq Evo PC. Now part of the fault there is that Compaq decided to recess the front USB ports about 1/2" for no good reason. But that shoulder mount also caused problems on several other models of desktop and laptop PC’s. If the PC has 2 horizontal USB ports side by side, you cannot plug this device in while something else is plugged in next to it. On many laptops, the USB ports are vertical and side by side, in that case, using both ports is possible, but the entire USB drive is a little wide and won’t fit without lifting the back of the laptop off of the desk. I’ve had a chance to try a few other models and have found that the Lexar Secure 512 is not alone in these problems, but is pretty much the worst of the lot. And there are models out there slim enough to not be a problem at all. I’ve ordered a new one and will review it later. In the mean time, if the USB port you’d use is in a tight space, or jammed up against a used port, check the shape and length of the USB connector on the USB drives of your choice and don’t buy this model!
Secure
One thing this model has that most don’t is the ‘secure’ feature. Sony, Kingston and Iomega all have models with some sort of password protection but if it doesn’t say specifically that it has it, assume any model you buy doesn’t. Now I’ve tested it and it works well and is very easy to use. A program provided on the USB drive is run (they recommend copying it to your hard drive first) and it lets you partition the USB drive and assign a password to one partition. You cannot make the entire drive password protected as it reserves 2MB on the main partition which is good to keep a copy of the program on in case you need to access the password partition from another PC. Unfortunately, you cannot access both the secure and non-secure partitions simultaneously. If you just plug it in, you get the non-secure part. If you want the secure part, you must run the software and supply the password. This switches you to the secure part, but the non-secure part is now inaccessible unless you run the software again to switch back. Removing and reseating the USB drive automatically puts you back into non-secure mode. This works OK and you can switch fast enough, but the one disadvantage I see is you can’t copy files directly from the non-secure to the secure area, or back again.
At one point I dropped the drive in a field. In the 10 minutes it took me to find it, I was kind of glad it was password protected, but for the most part it’s not a feature I’d pay extra for. In the case of Lexar, the secure models not only cost more, but also are larger than thier non-secure equivalent models. The smaller non-secure models still are not easy to plug in next to a used USB port, but they will connect to the Compaq’s recessed ports and they don’t lift a laptop off the desk. So this feature is an option each buyer should consider before purchase. If you need secure data, weigh the advantages and disadvantages, but if you don’t need it, don’t pay for it!
Misc. Features
Some models have a ‘write protect’ switch that prevents accidental erasing or overwriting data. That's not available on the Lexar Secure. I’d think this was important if I planned to lend out my Jump Drive to others, but I don’t plan on that and I don’t personally find this feature worth paying for.
About the only other ‘feature’ I know of is storage related. Not data storage, but storing the whole USB drives. As I mentioned, I already almost lost mine in a field because I had it loose in my pants pocket. Apparently it fell out when I pulled out my car keys. But the Lexar secure 512 has a small key ring attached to the back end so mine is now securely attached to my key chain and I don’t think I’ll loose it again. Other models, including Lexar’s Non-Secure ones, have a shirt pocket clip, which has to be the ultimate nerd turn on, but the Lexar Secure models do not.
Bottom Line
I LOVE the whole idea of USB drives, and plan to buy more. I’ll also be buying some for co-workers (providing IT equipment is part of my job) and encouraging them to use them instead of burning CD’s or carrying floppies, or worst of all, taking home a laptop. However, this is NOT the model I’ll be buying or recommending! I’m comparing price per MB storage, features, and the all-important SIZE and SHAPE and I’ll be buying a couple different models in the near future to evaluate. Even so, I know already that this models slow speed, it’s inability to easily fit into 9 out of 10 USB ports, plus it’s slightly higher cost than comparable models means it’s out of the running and I won’t be buying any more.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
glake
|
 - Top 1000 |
|
Member: George
Location: Baltimore, Maryland
Reviews written: 128
Trusted by: 123 members
About Me:
I like ALL kinds of movies and books but prefer to review the odd ones.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.