Black Box Innovations Personal Pocket Safe 1 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive PPS8100

by BLACK BOX

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 1.7 x 10.6 inches ; 1 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B001B498FW
• Item model number: PPS8100
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: May 1, 2009

Product Description

A must-have for every household to collect and protect important personal and family records, such as financial accounts, credit cards, insurance policies & passwords, this USB-compatible smart drive utilizes world-class security measures to ensure that only the owner has access to stored information. Security features included DataLock PIN Protection, military-grade encryption, and epoxy shield that destroys contents upon forced entry. No PC installation required and will work on any Windows XP or Vista computer without leaving a trace.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good except for the software., November 30, 2009

By 

Thomas A. Ertman (Missouri) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Black Box Innovations Personal Pocket Safe 1 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive PPS8100 (Personal Computers)

I have this little dandy, and it does its job quite well. You enter a PIN number and then connect it to the USB port on your pc. If you dont input the right pin, you cant access your data..the drive wont even show up. Input the wrong pin number 3 times and it locks you out for a few minutes. That being said, its a good device to keep your data safe from the average nosy joe. I doubt that it would withstand a serious hacker or fbi agent trying to crack it, if you want something of that caliber then your going to have to pay $100+. But its a good deal for the money.

However, you would have to be clinically insane to use the provided information manager to store your 'valuable' data i.e. credit card numbers, account information, passwords, etc. The program that runs off the flash drive automatically checks for updates, which is a red flag IMHO. So I would just ignore that program entirely and just use the thing for storage. Also, kind of an afterthought, the thing does have a small battery inside it so i'm guessing that if the battery craps out your out of luck?? Anyways I wouldnt put anything on here that you couldnt survive without in case of an accident.

All in all a good buy.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for traveling, October 25, 2008

By 

C. Overgaard (Scottsdale, AZ) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Black Box Innovations Personal Pocket Safe 1 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive PPS8100 (Personal Computers)

It has become necessary to have different configurations for different passwords and my memory is not good enough to remember most of them. The Pocket Safe is invaluable when I travel. It took awhile for me to figure out how to use it but now I have no trouble getting it to work.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Some Helpful Tips., August 26, 2011

By 

mwrobison (MPLS, MN) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Black Box Innovations Personal Pocket Safe 1 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive PPS8100 (Personal Computers)

I am a college instructor, and I use one of these as my go-between, between classroom and home. Here are a few things that I have figured out that may help other users. 1) You can use the PPS software to keep the drive active for up to 60min. Without the PPS software running, you will have to constantly re-enter you PIN in order to keep the drive active (very annoying). Even if you don't use the PPS software, you can leave it running in the background, and it will hold the drive open for you. Go to Settings within the PPS software to choose how long you would like the drive to remain open (the max is 60min). 2) The PPS software won't run properly on Vista (anymore). To get it to work, you need right-click on the PPS .exe file, go to Properties, click on the Compatibility tab, and then choose Windows 2000 for the compatibility mode. You will only have to do this once, and then it should work from that point forward (even on different computers). I hope these tips help.

As a general review, the drives do work as advertised, but you should know that they are no longer supported by the manufacturer. Black Box Innovations is closing out all of their inventory (hence the low price), and they no longer provide any sort of tech support. I also have no idea how long the drive's battery life is. Presumably it has a re-chargeable battery that charges every time you use the drive, but even re-chargeables wear out. Just make sure to frequently back up your data.

UPDATE: My drive crashed in December 2011. I got less than one year's use out of it. I also lost a lot of work. I have two others that I now no longer trust. All are going into the trash (after I back over them with my truck).