Customer Reviews

Corsair Flash Survivor 32 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive CMFUSBSRVR-32GB

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Purchased this for use with a MacBook Pro. As formatted from the factory, it was fast for reading any kind of files, and for writing large (multi-megabyte) files, but painfully slow for writing many small files. Benchmarking tools (and most online reviews) don't appear to pick up this random small file problem.

Since I don't need to use it in a Windows environment, I reformatted the device as a Mac OS Journaled GUID partition, and the write speeds improved somewhat. I then created a 31 GB "sparse bundle" image on it, which is a OS X "Leopard" technology that makes a growable disk image of many 8 MB chunks. This seemed to accelerate writes significantly, but still nowhere near the maker's claimed write performance.

For Mac users who have no plans to plug it into a PC, I recommend reformatting it. As a bonus, if you create a sparse bundle disk image, you can set that disk image to be AES-128 or AES-256 encrypted, giving you peace of mind in case you lose or misplace the USB drive.

I'm very happy with the apparent durability, and very happy with the read speed. I'm less happy with the write speed, but since I'm using it for write-once/read-many type of backups, it's okay.

Note that flash memory technology for sizes 8 GB and up is different than the 4 GB and smaller drives, and all manufacturers making this size seem to share this "slow for small files" problem when doing "real world" file tests instead of benchmarks.

I've been a big fan of Corsair as I have their dominator memory in my rendering rig... but this Survivor 32gig is the biggest piece of garbage I've set my hands on.

The first one I had was so dreadfully slow it was taking around 6 hours to copy 18 gigs and then crashed. It had all the symptoms that everyone else has been complaining about online... do your homework. So I RMA'd it to Corsair and it took another week and a half to get another which appears to be even slower.

I've had it. I'm returning it to for a refund. It completely infuriates me that companies will produce such garbage with no consideration for people's time. I expect a product to work, and don't have 6 hours to waste testing their product... they should have invested in a little Quality Assurance on this one.

I bought this out of self defense after I sent my third USB flash drive through the washer and dryer. My only wish for this is a short cable to connect the cover to the unit to make it harder to lose the case. Without the case this is just another USB drive made out of aluminum. Durable but no longer waterproof.

Otherwise great drive and survives just about anything I can throw at it, including being run over by an electric cart (accident) when setting up at a trade show.

I purchased the drive back in 2008 when it was still $110+, and I have to say it was well worth the money. I carry around all my netscan tools, portable wireshark, winsysinternals, and the like, so for me it's a very portable IT toolbox. I even carry a full-blown version of UBCD4 on it.

Sure I could say that it's slow with the smaller files, but the benefits totally outweight the cost. I thing the only issue I have had with this unit is that the small washer like piece between the shell and the usb connector fell out, so every once in a while when pulling the drive from my laptop or a desktop bends the usb plug depending on the angle of the usb port.

I highly recommend this unit for folks that are either:

- Working in a dirty, electronically unfriendly environment,
- Hard on USB devices
- Like to carry all their IT software tools in a convenient place,

A really great added feature to this device is if you are like me, and have people washing clothes that don't check pockets before they launch your clothes in..... it's waterproof (as long as you keep in tight).

Cheers :-)

Great size and can travel in my lunch box without fear of a liquid leak killing my data.

Fantastic product! It's tough, looks cool, and has a huge data capacity. And it's fast too.

This is a great alternative to an external hard drive, its more portable, more durable and as a bonus it fits in your pocket without anyone noticing its there!

The CorsIR 32 gb fLASH DRIVE IS Excellent USB Drive to back up your data, compact relable, quick, and very durable

Briefly: I have no complaints. I like it. It does what it is supposed to do and is probably the most physically durable flash drive I've ever used. If I ever had to evacuate due to a hurricane I'd have important things backed up onto this flash drive.

I have to format under NTFS the two I got so they can use all the space they have. So far, no problems at all.
Nice shipping and purchase process.
More options on color case would help to distinguish them.