Customer Reviews

Memorex TravelDrive 2 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive 32509070

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

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.

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.

Just a quick little review - I like the drive, it's got 2 wonderful GB of storage capacity, which is perfect for a few folders of documents that I need to carry around. My biggest issue is that it's big. There are many USB drives that are half this size, and can easily be attached to a key ring.

This one is just too big for a key ring, especially if you have any sort of new car that has a "key fob" to remotely unlock the doors. It's just too much to hang on the ring and too much for a pocket. Additionally, the little plastic cap that protects the USB port can easily get lost. While you DO have the option to attach it to the back of the device when in use, if you have connected the included lanyard onto the device, the plastic cap no longer has anywhere to go during use. Therefore, be careful that you don't set it and forget it.

I've found the lanyard to be non-useful (for the aforementioned reason), and the device to be too large to attach to my keyring. It does fit nicely by itself in my pocket, but then I have to remember that it's there.

But the biggest win for me, and why I can overlook any form factor issues, is that this USB drive stood up to my washing machine. I had the key in my pocket because I needed to take some files with me to work, but I accidentally left it in my jeans. Into the washer they went, USB key and all. I didn't realize the key was still there until I pulled the warm jeans from the dryer.

The key was moist on the inside, and I could see little droplets of water on the metal pins. I was worried that it was completely ruined, however, after I left it sitting out for a day, I plugged it into the computer and every single file was perfectly intact. I've used it over and over again since that day and not a single quality issue.

This wins it for me.

I decided to buy this after a price drop and a rebate offered. I had previously used SD cards in my laptop - and I wanted something that could hold more than 1 mb. This is great. It is small and comes with a neck strap. I keep it in my laptop bag when I travel.

It's great for storing powerpoint presentations, entire movies, music, etc. Everything! I would recommend it to everyone, especially laptop users.

This device is good except that it is very slow... the data transfer rate is really poor, 2 GB are transfered in about 30 minutes what is really bad.

I originally bought a Kingston to carry on my keychain. It broke withing a week as it was made of cheap plastic. The Memorex has a metal loop that is tough enough to take a beating. It's fast and super convenient. I highly recommend this product.

A really good buy for persons who operate in a high graphics environment and need to store large graphic files frequently. This product has not disappoint.

This drive is fine in terms of form-factor, etc., but I was appalled to see that it took more than 3 minutes to copy a 1.7MB folder to it from my desktop on a dual 2.0 G5 using USB 2.0. That's unacceptable.

As another reviewer said, if speed isn't an issue for you, the price is definitely right.

I own 2 (512Mb & 1Gb) older Memorex flash drives and thought the size and shape was very usable. When I received my new 2Gb, I was impressed that it is about 2/3 the size of the smaller memory drives and more of a "stick". All 3 are very easily portable.

Its functioning good and good looking, but i think $70 after mail in rebate is not a good cost, other brands are offering 2GB USB flash/travel drive for a lesser cost. but technically its good and i rate it 8/10