Customer Reviews

Corsair Flash Voyager 32 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive CMFUSB2.0-32GB

5 star:		(60)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

I love it! I've backed up my files on this, and can carry it around in my pocket, wear it as a necklace or drop it in my purse! No problem toting the grandkids' (and great grandkids') photos, they are right there on my Flash drive. My genealogy files are all right with me when I do research. If my computer crashes, my necklace becomes a great backup.

I am a global traveller and as always I back everything up. I recently purchased this device with a massive 32G memory and encryption software. This is a second backup to a seperate hard drive.

A whole weeks training class, power points and documents where carried on this in my pocket through numerous airports, security searches and road trips. Very robust, water tight and easy to use.

Thankfully I didnt need to rely on this but it was always there...

I had this, on my Wish List, for a while. Finally, I had to buy it. I was only content with my SanDisk 8 GB Cruzer Micro USB 2.0 Drive with U3 SDCZ6-8192-A11 (retail packaging), with "U3" technology. That drive allowed me to store a lot of info, college projects, research, and to save large files for various Operating Systems.... However, being a Tech Geek, I was drooling over the 32 GB flash / thumb drive, and I am very happy with the product.

I researched, for a while, due to the fact that prices were higher when I began drooling over the 32 GB availability, and the Corsair drive was my choice after reading reviews.

The drive arrives clean, and ready for possibilities. My Cruzer drive has the U3 system built in...which is nice...but also can be a pain, on older computers, some public computers, or computers with slow memory.

On the other hand, having all of your email, browser settings, and favorite programs in your pocket is wonderful.

I have read several books, about how to create a Linux /home file, on a USB drive -- Knoppix Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips and Tools, for an ENCRYPTED /home file, to run "in Persistent mode," with a Linux "Live CD," such as Knoppix, or Ubuntu 8.04 DVD --and I have read about how to hack a Linux OS into a USB drive.... Hacking Ubuntu: Serious Hacks Mods and Customizations (ExtremeTech)...so the possibilities seemed limitless....with more GB !

Although I may use the above books, to later create an encrypted /home file, for USB "persistent mode" (carry your Desktop, anywhere....except across Borders, according to the news) /home file directory, for now I have simply setup an easy solution to duplicating a U3 type of setup.

You can purchase this 32 GB drive, then go to Portable Apps (on the web), and install the "Suite" package, then update the programs, and install new programs. You can even import your email into the drive, and it works with multiple Operating Systems (see Portable Apps, for a list of supported OSes).

So, if you like the idea of U3 type technology, but you want more GB, you can purchase this drive, and use Portable Apps to turn the drive into a pocket Office, or organizer.

If you want to really Geek out, and you do not cross Borders (where Homeland Security is taking laptops and thumb drives), you can put your entire Desktop environment (Linux), in your pocket...then boot with a Live CD, and save data without leaving any traces on the machine that you boot from.

Either way, this drive gives nearly unlimited possibilities, until Uncle Sam takes it away from you...or hires you to teach him how you tweaked it.

As a fantastic bonus, instead of providing a small, old school extension, Corsair provides a fancy, sleek, LONG, "new fangled" extension that works very well, and gives you a lot of flexibility and reach. Extensions are important, especially for office workers, and more so when the PC units are on the floor. Who wants to get their nice dress slacks dirty? Simply plug in the fancy, long extension, and you can have access, no matter where the USB ports are located, or what weird angle (Dell) they are placed.

Furthermore, the drive comes with a nice cap, and a durable lanyard, with a strong clip. One loop through the beltloop, and if the drive falls out of your pocket....no worries.

I purchased this item because I needed more backup space and general use space than the smaller flash drives offered. I've not been disappointed at all. The ever so slight extra width has not been a problem for my day-to-day use. It works side-by-side with my other USB connectors without using the extra extended cable. There may come a time when I'll need the cable adapter but for now it will collect dust for me.
I've used a 512MG, a 1GB, and a 2GB flash drive and needed something bigger. 8GB was my target but then an article I read spoke of this 32GB flash drive. I didn't even know they came this big so I refocused on this size and it's been absolutely great.
Lastly, it comes with TrueCrypt software, though not installed. I downloaded the most current version instead of using the one on the drive. Either version will work just fine.

This is a great deal if you need secure backup for critical files. But don't expect to backup and hit the road in a hurry. This baby is slow, particularly on the write. But alas, for the price, I have found it to offer me invaluable security and better sleep at night (I actually wear it to bed).

I needed a simple, easy, light way to backup data for on-the-road work.
External drives exist, but are usually large and some require external power sources, so you're stuck dragging a whole bunch of stuff around.
Memory sticks are typically too small for any "real" backups.

32Gb is still on the smallish side, but just about works.
I was a little sceptical about the reliability of this stick, but have had it for several months now, and it's performed flawlessly. There's no chance of head damage, as sometimes occurs with drives that bounce around a lot, and it's small enough to fit in a jacket or pants pocket, so that when you leave your laptop and case in the hotel, it doesn't matter if the place burns down.

Great product. Not fast, so working directly off the stick has not worked well for me, but using a backup program (like SecondCopy) works great- just set up a profile, hit it before you end work, wait 2 minutes, and you're good to go, with all work secured. Very nice.

And it's now half price compared to when I bought it a few months ago at $300 - and even then it was worth it!

I bought this thumb drive to transport large log files from a contract job.
Unfortunately I have found that the file transfer speed is *REALLY* slow.
USB2.0? Flash? I'm getting anywhere from 500KB/s to 2.5 MB/s transfer rates from my computer drive to the Corsair drive.
This is on a modern unloaded Macbook Pro. I'm currently looking at 4 hours to transfer 6GB of 100MB files. LOCALLY.

I bought the 32 GB Corsair USB Drive about 2 months ago and its fantastic. Because it has so much space, you can use it as a temporary backup of very large files with no problem. The rubberized case offers a lot of protection as well as waterproofing, i suspect. It's not the prettiest thumb drive I've owned, but its so convenient who cares. This thing holds a ridiculous amount of data.

One caveat is the lid design. It's just a rubber cap that pops off of the drive. It doesn't have a permanent attachment to the drive and isn't secured on very well. The only thing keeping it on is friction (it doesn't click or lock on), so it has a tendency to fall off when you pull it out of your pocket. Also, because the lid isn't permanently attached to the drive, I misplaced it within about a week and I suspect others will too.

Overall this is an awesome drive and I would recommend it on the size alone.

Transferring files with the drive plugged into my MacBook Pro was quite speedy. I achieved read/write speeds of 137/94 Mbps. By comparison, my 2gb Memorex mini travel drive gets an abysmal 81/30 Mbps. It would have been nice for backing up with rsync if the drive supported file permissions, but this shouldn't bother most users.

I more than echo the sentiments of the recent reviewers preceeding me, decrying the horribly slow write speeds. If you are buying a USB thumb drive of this 32 GB capacity, you likely are anticipating transferring a substantial amount of material. In such a case, I would recommend that you do this overnight, or on a day when you won't be using your computer, not only because so much time elapses in the transfer, but also because that process slows down a 3 GHz computer to little better than a crawl, so you just can't work efficiently. You could also transfer material in small aliquots, but I suspect that most people with a large amount of material would best "take their medicine" and relegate the transfer to a large single session of idle time.

If this drive will be used to backup sensitive material, and you are carrying this around, say, on a keychain, it would be wise to encrypt the drive, or a folder which can be encrypted and placed on the virgin drive. Either of these options can be accomplished with a well reviewed freeware program, TrueCrypt, which works very nicely. I elected to encrypt the entire drive, since I was only going to use this as a backup repository. Obviously, if the read and transfer speed is as slow coming back to the hard drive, recovery of large amounts of information will be equally painful, but at least you have it if need be. One downside of the encryption is that you have to have the TrueCrypt program on the computer where you are using the file, even if you use the traveling version. If you are interested, you can read the relevant documentation on TrueCrypt's site.

Please note that I have absolutely no vested interest whatsoever in TrueCrypt!!

Bottom line is that this is a well made, well functioning drive which handles transfer and usage of routine sized files and folders efficiently; however, for those anticipating frequent large data transfers, this drive format poses severe obstacles in view of its slow writing time, hence the deduction of one star.