Memorex TravelDrive 2 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive 32509070

by Memorex

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.8 x 1.5 inches ; 3.2 ounces
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B0009WDM36
• Item model number: 32509070
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (42 customer reviews)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: June 6, 2007

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

The TravelDrive USB 2.0 flash drive offers users a convenient way to store data, digital photos, video and MP3 files and then easily access them from any PC or Mac using the computer’s USB port.

The USB TravelDrive is now slimmer and cooler than ever before. At .85 inches wide, these USB flash drives are 30% smaller than the original TravelDrive, while retaining a round, textured gripping area that makes for superior ergonomics. The transparent cap that protects the device’s USB connector is specially designed to fit on the back of the drive, like a pen cap, to prevent loss. A reinforced aluminum lanyard loop on the back of the drive is highly resistant to breaking, and a blue LED indicator adds to the cool factor of this versatile mobile storage device.

Special Features:

• Slim design perfect for tight spaces
• Ergonomic gripping area
• Reinforced aluminum lanyard loop
• Metallic "Charcoal" finish
• Detachable cap clips on the back of the TravelDrive, just like a pen
• Cool, blue LED light indicates drive’s status
• Cross platform compatible- works with Windows, Mac, and Linux

Product Description

Memorex 2GB 2nd Generation USB 2.0 Travel Drive

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

67 of 71 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Necessity At A Great Price, January 28, 2006

By 

Julian Nam (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Memorex TravelDrive 2 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive 32509070 (Personal Computers)

Everybody needs a USB flash drive. Really, you NEED one. The days of the floppy disk are long gone, and the USB flash drive has become the new standard in portable data storage. $70 for a 2GB drive (as of 6/18/06) is an excellent price for this item. Just a few things of note:

1. BLUE LIGHT. A lit blue light indicates that the drive is connected. A flashing blue light indicates that the drive is reading or writing. DO NOT UNPLUG while the blue light is flashing. If you do, then the files may get corrupted, or in a worse scenario, you may need to reformat the drive to make it usable again.

2. SPEED. This drive is a bit slower than most USB flash drives that I've tried. But it's fast enough for general purposes. Be sure to connect to a USB 2.0 port (most computers nowdays should have USB 2.0); when connected to a USB 1.1 port, the transfer speed will be painfully slow.

3. SIZE. While this travel drive is small, it's not THAT small. The Sandisk Cruzer Micro and the Sony Micro Vault are each only 2" long compared to this Memorex which is 3" long. This is noticeably bigger, definitely not a tiny product.

4. CAP. You can very easily lose the cap within the first couple months. Be very careful not to lose it or ... get a USB drive that has a retractable USB connector (like all of the new Sandisk Cruzers) or a swivel cap that do not detach (like X Digital or Sony drives).

42 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Should've read the specs first...., February 7, 2006

By 

Joe Vanderbilt (Irving, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Memorex TravelDrive 2 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive 32509070 (Personal Computers)

I bought this drive to replace my 1GB Lexar which I have absolutely no complaints about. I bought it because it was $50 cheaper than most of the other 2GB thumb drives that are out there and I'm running out of space on the Lexar.

That was a mistake I hope I don't repeat. This drive is so cheap because it is... well... "cheap".

Unlike my Lexar, XP identifies this drive as a "Removable Media" device much like a ZIP drive or CDROM instead of as a removal hard drive. The downside of this is that you can't delete the factory-installed partition that's on the drive - XP won't let you.

If you try and format it as NTFS - something my Lexar had no complaints about - XP will tell you that you need to change the policy for this drive to "Optimize for performance" instead of "Optimize for quick removal". If you -do- make that change, the write speed of this drive becomes absolutely horrid. I'm talking about a little under a minute to copy a 20 meg file to this drive! Completely unacceptable for a USB 2.0 device.

The only way to get decent performance out of it is to go FAT/FAT32, file systems I haven't used since about 1997. Robocopying about 20 megs to the drive, my benchmarks put the write speed at ~ 2.5MB/s using FAT32. You can actually sit there and watch its copying process. By comparison, when copying the same files to the Lexar drive, it's virtually instantaneous.

So now I'm back on Amazon looking at the specs for this drive (albeit it's a little late for that) and see that the write speed is a paltry 1.5MB/s. I'd agree on that when you're using NTFS, but not FAT32. Memorex has another 2GB drive listed that provides 5x write speed (whatever that happens to be) but it's back up in the $150+ range.

Still, despite the awful speed of this drive, it IS only $95 when other 2GB drives are going for around $150 or more. If you're willing to put up with the speed of this thing, go for it. Me, if I'd known it was this slow I would've spent the extra $50 and would've stuck with the Lexar brand.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Great storage, Lousy drive, June 6, 2006

By 

Steve G (Richmond, VA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Memorex TravelDrive 2 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive 32509070 (Personal Computers)

I recently bought this drive because for the price, nothing else came close to storage capacity. I was upset when I got home and realized I could not easily remove the preinstalled partition with all the junk software on it. The device has what I call a "mini-OS" that you have to wait to load up each time you plug it in. It's neat at first but gets old quick when all you want to do is transfer some files. And most importantly, the speed of file transfer is lowsy imo, it seemed more like I was connected via usb 1.1, not 2.0.

If you only care about storage vs cost, then it's a no brainer, get this drive. If you don't mind paying more for a better quality drive, then continue your search.