Imation 8GB Swivel Flash Drive

The version I received DOES NOT have a write protect switch. The switch, present in the picture of the product and mentioned in some of the other reviews, is the main feature I was looking for. The version I received matches the one on the Imation website, which I looked up after receiving my drive and seeing that it wasn't like the one in the Amazon picture. I should've looked it up on Imation before buying. I would've seen the switch is no longer there. For reference, the drive I received is the all black version on the Imation website and the one in the Amazon picture, at the time of purchase, is silver and black. I'm guessing the silver and black one isn't made anymore. This information is good as of 5-25-2011. By the time you are reading this, versions and pictures may have changed.

I received this flash drive as a gift for some work I did over the summer. It worked very well from the start - pretty decent read/write times, more space than I could reasonably use, and the write lock on the drive itself was extremely useful. Then, after just over five months, the drive suddenly died. When I try to access it, Windows either tells me to "insert a drive," or explorer stops responding altogether. The activity light on the drive hasn't flashed once. It's a good thing I have only been using it as a live CD for Ubuntu recently, or I might have lost some pretty important files. Unless you're ok with risking your data on an unreliable piece of hardware, I'd go for something else.

I have this 8GB one and several of the older/smaller ones. The non-Pro Imation Swivel Flash is really the "only" USB flash drive that has a write protect switch on it. If you are a system administrator-type person or just someone who wants to make sure that Windows/viruses/etc. don't tamper with your data, then these drives are about the only game in town. I only give them 4 stars because they are not that fast and rather overpriced these days. You're essentially paying a 100% premium for a switch that probably costs 5 cents. But, flash drives are cheap anyway, and you won't lose the cap.

I use many of mine as boot drives with drive/network/backup utilities on them. 8GB can hold most installed OSes or a dual-layer DVD installer for administering systems without floppies or optical drives.