SanDisk Extreme Cruzer Contour - USB flash drive - 32 GB - Hi-Speed USB - black

Comment: I'm writing this review because of the other reviews saying that this drive was too slow. It's not that slow, but it's not as fast as it was advertised (25MB/s read and 18MB/s write).

Here are results from my small experiment:
4GB (2 files) - write around 10MB/s, read around 25MB/s
4GB (12 files) - write around 9.8MB/s, read around 25MB/s
4GB (34668 files) - write around 1.6MB/s, read around 15.3MB/s

If you look at my results, you'll see that the speed depends more on the number of files you have and less on the file size.

For large files, the reading speed is as advertised, 25MB/s, which is great. But writing large files is only around 10MB/s. It's takes around 6 minutes to write 4GB.

Writing a huge number of small files is very slow. Actually, I gave up after 10 minutes of timing and extrapolated the results. In that 10 minutes, I managed to write around 1GB of files on the USB drive. Reading speed is also slower. If you're using it to transfer huge number of files, you might want to zip them up before transferring.

Now to the design of the drive itself. It's huge. The casing is so huge that you might have problems putting a second drive beside this if USB ports are close together. E.g. If you're using it on a Macbook, you'll not able to use this drive with other USB devices because it will block their ports - this is how bad the design is.

The mechanism for retracting the USB stick is cool but unnecessary. You have to slide back and up to get the stick out, and then up and back to get the stick back in. It's not a very good implementation of retractable as compared to the simple Cruzer.

Also , this flash drive comes with the U3 software, which gives you an additional (useless) U3 partition whenever you plug it into a computer. After uninstalling U3, this drive behaves just like any normal drive should behave - hassle-free.

To conclude, the huge case could be the deal breaker for some. The speed is alright, I guess, but I don't have other USB flash drives on hand to compare it with.

(Link to the U3 uninstaller is in the comment section below.)

Comment: Hi Speed??? Gotta be kidding!!! I understand that the real life conditions are different from the test lab conditions but write speed 14 times lower than the one declared - that's too much!!! I even didn't reach 1.5 Mb/s! Tried it on two different PCs, Vista and XP. I have old 4Gb Apacer, even that one gives me about 8-9 Mb/s. So if I'd like to fill up the whole 32 Gb I would spend the day - that is ridiculous, especially when for the same money (even less!) you can get a half Tb 2.5" HDD.
Nice design though (though, somewhat big), but totally useless unless you gotta use it as a jewelry on your neck :)

Comment: I have been playing with the Contour 32Gig USB flash drive for a month now. I wanted to use it for carrying video files around. However, the problem is that it writes at an incredibly slow write speed--less than 4 Mb/s, as compared to the promised 25 Mb/s. I have tried different formatting, and the result is the same. Apparently others have complained about this problem on their website, and their support just ignores the issue. To me their silence says they know the drives are slower than what they proclaim in the packaging, bit they refuse to do anything about it.

Guess I'm off to buy a new flashdrive--$100 wasted.

Comment: Since the advent of USB flash drives, I have used products from several companies but long ago settled on SANDISK as my preferred solution for both personal and business use. I currently have three of this particular line: 8GB, 16GB, and now 32GB Extreme Cruzer Contour USB flash drive. All have functioned reliably, all are still working; the 16GB drive is now used by my wife in her business while the 8GB is being used for MS SYNC drive (for new car) and music storage "for the road" (USB input in vehicle console).

I tend to fill each drive rather quickly (currently at 26 GB on the new 32GB drive) hence, it seems I am always ready to move up each time SanDisk offers more storage capacity. And yes, I will no doubt do it again when 64GB is released.

This product offers a convenient, reliable, reasonably fast (for a flash drive anyway) portable storage media.

It can also provide reasonably robust functionality when you prefer not to carry your PC and have access to computers at hotels, internet cafes, remote offices, etc. Let's face it - whether you work between different locations on a regular basis and/or frequently travel away from your home or primary office - we all look for an excuse NOT to schlep around a laptop if we can avoid it. Plenty of applications are available for the U3 platform; I enjoy more secure browsing (when using borrowed/rented PC) and use Cruzer Sync (upgraded to DMAILER) for documents and e-mail, anti-virus (this is a must have app when working with borrowed computers) among other (U3 compatible) applications.

Combined with my Blackberry (noting I installed a 16GB storage card on phone), the 32GB Extreme Cruzer Contour USB flash drive allows me the opportunity to travel lighter (especially for short trips) while maintaining secure access to critical information without unduly sacrificing productivity. Add in another 25 GB of on-line storage (via Hotmail SkyDrive), and I am well covered for both business and personal even when on the road without my primary laptop.

While we are waiting for the day when our increasingly powerful smartphones are finally able to fully deliver on the convergence promise of high portability, high performance, "PC-like" functionality with readily accessible and ample storage (both on board and "in the cloud" via 3G, 4G broadband), a reliable USB flash drive will remain one of the key "tools" many of us rely on every day.

Comment: I own 3 Sandisk Titanium Drives and this one particular drive is the best drive ever. This no-cap drive closes when I retract the drive back blocking dirt accumulation. Although it is not like the all hard resistant titanium drives, it is fairly strong. I believe this is the best drive I ever used because I have used other drives like PNY, Emerson, and nothing can compared to this 32GB drive.