Kingston DataTraveler I - 8 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive DTI/8GBET (White/Black)

For the guy who posted above, there is no lanyard included with this flash drive.

I got this a couple days ago. Looking for something that could hold large files to let me switch from a laptop to desktop and back more easily (no more toting a whole external hard drive back and forth).

Other than cost (and this seems to be a good bargain), my other issue when looking at flash drives is speed (also I didn't want any of that U3 crud). I transferred a 490 MB file to the flash drive in just about 3 minutes. That's more than fast enough for me.

The flash drive has turned out to be a silver lining too. After I found out I would not be able to install Linux on my desktop, I found that I can actually install various Linux distros to the flash drive and boot from it instead (search for pen drive linux), with plenty of space still to spare.

After opening the package, I popped my DTI/4GB into a USB port and copied a number of relatively small files to it (310 files totalling 5.1 mb). It took a full 2 minutes (that's 44 kBps), which was slow enough to convince me I'd gotten a lemon (I copied the same files to my old Sandisk Cruzer 1 gb in 20 seconds). After a couple emails to tech support, Kingston advised me to return it for a new one.

The new one arrived quickly, but performed identically to the old one. For kicks, I installed Sandra 2008 and benchmarked the device's performance. I found that, for small files (512 B), the transfer rate was barely 1 kBps. I contacted Kingston support again, this time providing more details about my testing and the benchmark results I'd gotten out of Sandra. The tech confirmed that this is a low-end device, that the slowness I was experiencing was normal, and that I probably should have sprung for something in their DTS line (too rich for my blood).

Now the good news...Read more

Kingston 8GB DataTraveler USB flash drive - High Speed USB

In terms of meeting it's function, this Kingston Data Traveler seems very good so far, certainly as good as the other smaller capacity ones I own. And the 8 GB capacity on this guy makes it very useful for a lot of large file backups or USB storage and transfer. There are a few things to keep in mind but overall this is a solid product.

Pros:

+ Kingston brand is well deserved

+ Reliable performance

+ Nice capacity of 8 GB has you future proofed as smaller USB drives start to disappear

+ Durable body and NAND memory stands up to a lot of abuse

+ Compatible with old and new Mac and PC Operating Systems (XP, Vista, OS X)

+ Very light

+ Rear bar to connect a lanyard or keychain...Read more