Customer Reviews

Sony MicroVault Plus USB 2.0 Flash Drive 2GB with Virtual Expander USM2GJ

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

My brother brought this drive over my house a few days ago and said it was on sale at circuit city for $20. I went there saturday and caught the last day of the sale. Lucky me! The drive performs as advertised and transfers FAST. I think the first reviewer was using a USB 1.0 port instead of 2.0 port...or something like that as I filled up the drive with multiple files from multiple different folders from multiple different hard drives simultaneously (trying to make the process as slow as possible to test his/her claim) and still clocked in well under the 5 minute mark. Awesome design, awesome functionality, and the compression software gives you as much as 6GB of virtual space. I've tested it up to about 5.5GB so far with no file fidelity issues. Now that's saying something! Another quality Sony prouct. Too bad the sale is now over as $20 was really a steal.

I was initially a bit uneasy about the earlier reviewer's claim of slow transfer speeds but with a sale at Circuit City for $20 bucks, I figured I had nothing to lose by trying it out. My initial impression after opening the package was that the drive's plastic felt a bit flimsy but as long as you aren't going to be having an elephant stomping on this, I think you'll be fine. Transfer speeds are excellent; a 1gb file took about five minutes. A neat feature is that the drive was designed without a cap (easy to lose), rather, it has a retractable usb connector that slides out when in it is in use; this makes for a slick looking design. There is an opening for attachment to a keychain, unfortunately, it doesn't come with a thread or chain. Normally, I'd deduct a star for that (how cheap can they be?) but I have to give Sony credit for a better looking design over its competitors. Finally, since I tested this on a Mac, I wasn't able to test the virtual expander.

Sony microvault flash drive is a nice little memory drive. Speed is not slow; writing 5mb took only a couple of seconds. With virtual expander program that is loaded in the drive, it automatically compresses the data & allows the 2GB memory to store 4GB. The data decompresses when it is downloaded from the drive. The drive feels well made and solid with retractable USB connector. I am very satisfied with this drive!

first of all, the main picture is correct, but the pictures in the "from the manufacturer" section are incorrect -- they are for the "tiny" version of this flash drive. dimensions on this page are also incorrect: actual flash drive is approx 2.5" long (USB connector not extended) by 3/4" wide by 1/4" thick. very light. feels a little flimsy but frankly pretty normal build for most flash drives. nice simple, sleek design.

this drive has a retractable USB connector. i actually prefer caps because the drives with retractable connectors don't really protect the tip from lint, etc but i understand the convenience of not losing caps.

i can't comment on relative speed vs other drives, but it's certainly faster than indicated by some of the posts here. when i got the drive, i removed the compression software and did an NTFS full format. attached to a computer with USB 2.0, it performed as follows on a couple misc tests (apologies for not doing real benchmarking, but that would've been too much work -- the below are just some random files):

4 files, 11.3MB:
write to microvault: approx 5 seconds
read from microvault: approx 2 seconds

311 files, 208MB:
write to microvault: approx 4.5 mins
read from microvault: approx 70 secs

i am not a techie, but i assume the # of files (not just the size of the files) has a material impact on the transfer speed. 99% of my usage will be like the first sample above (small # of files, approx 10MB), since i would just burn a CD/DVD if i was transferring a large # of files or amount of data. for tranferring 10-20MB at a time, this flash drive seems plenty fast (as measured by my personal annoyance-at-waiting meter).

I transfer data between my home PC (6 month old laptop with dual core Pentium) and an iMac G5 running on OS X in my office. The Sony microvault is SOOO slow, a problem that is frequent, which I blame on the automatic compression software that comes on the drive. The drive compresses/uncompresses files constantly so no wonder it is slow; another wrote about the same issues so this problem isn't isolated.

I typically transfer about 15MB on average ONTO the drive and this takes about 2 minutes. I recently timed a 17MB transfer onto the drive -- over 3 minutes but less than 4 minutes. Pathetic. Getting files off of the drive doesn't seem to be too slow but still slower than other (and cheaper) drives I've used. I actually reserve extra time between leaving my office and catching the bus to ensure I can transfer all my revised files each day as a back-up and so I can continue working at home.

I can burn my data onto a CD-RW about as fast as I can put it onto this flash drive. That's absurd. I got a drive so I wouldn't need to take so much time to backup/transfer files. My only gain with the drive is that it is smaller than a CD.

Update: still working (4/6/09). Speed hasn't been an issue lately -- I wish I could explain why. I'm working on the same two computers and with the same file types. Given that I actually timed the downloads with a watch, I'll still stand behind my earlier statements that this drive can be painfully slow. I'm also now thinking of getting in the market for a new drive since I'd like more memory.

Update: May 2010.
I am done with this drive... right now the expected transfer time for 1.3GB of data is over 30 minutes and it has already been loading for about 15 minutes. Not buying a Sony drive again! The good news is that it never died or lost files but I just don't have the time to wait for dinosaur-like write times. I'm looking at the Sandisk Cruzer models for my next drive, probably a 16 GB drive.

Great product. Love that it retracts, because then I don't have to worry where is the cap. It's also nice that it is slim and can fit between other USB items, especially on my laptop. A little green light to show that it's thinking.
I've put mine through the washer and dryer by accident and it still works and kept all my data on it too. I've even bent it while pulling it out of the USB port and then bent it back. Still works nice. Has a little loop on the back like a cell phone, so I can string a 'dangley' to personalize.

I bought the micro vault to transfer files from my PC to my mac - not realizing that I would not be able to open the compressed files on my mac! I am now stuck without any of my files, as I transferred everything and got rid of my PC before trying to open the files.

I've had this flash drive for a few years now. I had left it in my pocket & my wife ran it through the washing machine. I was certain that all my files would be deleted. I tried it out & everything works perfect.

While I knew the flash drive I bought was a used one, it arrived containing the former owners data, some personal, and also had a missing part of its slide essential for inserting it into the computer UBS slot.

I've had this drive for quite a while and it has been great. I love the retracting end (I bent my last one). It is big enough for files carried back and forth to the office, but if you need to backup a lot of files, it is too small. The one thing I don't like is the fact that I can't attach it to my key ring. It has a very small opening to attach a ring but too small for my keyring. Since I can't attach to my key ring, it goes in my pocket which makes it easy to lose or forget about. It actually went through the washing machine with a load of clothes and it still works great!