Customer Reviews

Imation 8GB Swivel Flash Drive

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

 

 

The version I received DOES NOT have a write protect switch. The switch, present in the picture of the product and mentioned in some of the other reviews, is the main feature I was looking for. The version I received matches the one on the Imation website, which I looked up after receiving my drive and seeing that it wasn't like the one in the Amazon picture. I should've looked it up on Imation before buying. I would've seen the switch is no longer there. For reference, the drive I received is the all black version on the Imation website and the one in the Amazon picture, at the time of purchase, is silver and black. I'm guessing the silver and black one isn't made anymore. This information is good as of 5-25-2011. By the time you are reading this, versions and pictures may have changed.

I received this flash drive as a gift for some work I did over the summer. It worked very well from the start - pretty decent read/write times, more space than I could reasonably use, and the write lock on the drive itself was extremely useful. Then, after just over five months, the drive suddenly died. When I try to access it, Windows either tells me to "insert a drive," or explorer stops responding altogether. The activity light on the drive hasn't flashed once. It's a good thing I have only been using it as a live CD for Ubuntu recently, or I might have lost some pretty important files. Unless you're ok with risking your data on an unreliable piece of hardware, I'd go for something else.

I have this 8GB one and several of the older/smaller ones. The non-Pro Imation Swivel Flash is really the "only" USB flash drive that has a write protect switch on it. If you are a system administrator-type person or just someone who wants to make sure that Windows/viruses/etc. don't tamper with your data, then these drives are about the only game in town. I only give them 4 stars because they are not that fast and rather overpriced these days. You're essentially paying a 100% premium for a switch that probably costs 5 cents. But, flash drives are cheap anyway, and you won't lose the cap.

I use many of mine as boot drives with drive/network/backup utilities on them. 8GB can hold most installed OSes or a dual-layer DVD installer for administering systems without floppies or optical drives.

i bought two. one is still working. i cannot get around the other one not being recognized by any computer. very disappointed. also, i thought the swivel would be fab but easily broke off BOTH of the drives

I bought this drive for the purpose of having a small public drive partition for swap space, a large partition that could only be accessed by entering a password (in case I were to misplace the drive), and the write-protect switch feature.

What you get in the package is the drive and a very nice lanyard. The drive contains the IMATION drive manager software, which provides what appears to be a convenient interface that allows you to configure the size of a "public" partition that can be accessed just by plugging in the drive, and a "secure" partition that is configured to be the remainder of the drive capacity. You switch between the public partition and the secure partition by running their "lock.exe" program which requires you to put in a password for access.


As purely a USB flash drive, no problems whatsoever. However, if you expect to use the secure partition(I use the term loosely, as there is no actual encryption to my knowledge), be prepared for a nightmare for the following reasons:

1) When running the lock.exe to switch to the secure partition, one would expect that it would simply map another drive letter so you could still access the public partition at the same time. This is not the case; you can only access one or the other because they're both mapped to the same drive letter.

2) Which switching from the public partition to the secure one, suppose you run the lock.exe file from windows explorer. When you make the switch, it automatically closes out windows explorer application, and you must re-open it to browse to the files of interest. If you anticipate the need to frequently work in the secure partition (I do), this is a ROYAL PITA.

Like I said, if all you need is an 8GB flash drive with public access, then this is a nice drive with a great lanyard. It's too bad the software interface has to ruin an otherwise great flash drive.

I love the Imation Swivel drives. I bought a 512 MB one in 2006 and got the 8 GB one 10 months ago. There are cheaper USB flash drives, but for a given size cheaper usually means slower. That said, the Imation Swivel drives tend to be pricey for the speed you get. I don't know why. There's no cap you have to worry about losing, which is great. I've never had any problems with either Imation Swivel drive. I'll come back and change this review if I do.

I bought this flashdrive brand new and sealed in his package (I must admit its one of the two flashdrives i did not buy on amazon, i almost always buy them from here). IT worked for about 8 months, then suddenly died. I was furious, i have never EVER had a problem with an Imation flash drive, in fact its my preffered brand, and i have bought only one flashdrive that wasnt imation, and that was for someone else. I would suggest not buying this 8 GB version, instead getting either the 16 GB or the 4.