Customer Reviews

Transcend JetFlash 220 - 16 GB Biometric USB 2.0 Flash Drive TS16GJF220 (Lime Green)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

I took a gamble on this product since it did not say if I needed to install any software or not to use it on other computers. I found out that you only need to install software if you plan on changing the partition size. You can uninstall the software when you are done.

Pros...
1) Large size to handle just about anything you want.
2) Easy to use application that plays well with IE
3) Software makes it easy to customize the private/public space.

Cons...
1) I'm annoyed that public space is not accessible when you log in to get access to the secure space. It's public, it should always be available.
2) NO FIREFOX SUPPORT.
3) The software sometimes does NOT quit properly when the drive is removed. The software stays resident in memory and needs to be manually turned off from task manager.

Edit (January 3rd, 2011): Added a third CON

Pro: reasonable security at a reasonable price. Covers and protects the fingerprint scanner. Quite difficult to retrieve the data without the finger.

Con: It requires software be run on the host computer - this is a risk! The software resides on the device, so it need not be installed on the host. But then the transfer of the key from device to host is a security hole.

I'd prefer all encryption/decryption be done on the device, and I think only IronKey and Sandisk Cruzer do this, at about double the price. Another problem: if your USB port is vertical, then swiping your finger at the proper angle would be difficult.

Conclusion: For the price, this device offers adequate protection. I would not use this for transferring data from my PC to a client's PC because it would require the client to run software on his PC. But only for a moment, and it doesn't stay resident. It's safe - trust me!

I had mixed feelings after having bought the "Transcend JetFlash 220 - USB flash drive". While initially expecting it to be a vital security product I could rely on to store my gobs of password files, vital financial backups, and other personal "necessary evils", I found it to be less than up to my expectations of security. As any Google search could tell you, this is one of the many types of fingerprint flash-drives which are easily "unlocked" with a publicly free, available tool on the internet. Repeat: this does not have the security expected of a "biometric" device, with little more protection than would deter the casual snooper.
This is not to say the device is useless, however. For mere convenience purposes, it's extremely useful. While there is still not Firefox support (and I assume Mac OS X and Linux support lack as well), these aren't major problems in the grand scheme of things.
Overall, take the pros with the cons: don't expect this to be the major tower of security it claims to be, but for convenience, it's worth the price.

I have had this product for months and have yet to have any major problems with it. Software was easy to set up. It allows you to select which files require your fingerprint to open them: a nice extra layer of protection. Password storage is another plus.

I would have rated it 5 stars if it weren't for the fact that it occasionally does not recognize my fingerprint--particularly my thumb, for some reason. If you have trouble accessing the flash drive with your thumb, try another finger. Strangely, it seems to be less finicky with those.

Excellent product if you want a flash drive with more features than most at an affordable price. Highly recommended, especially if you frequently carry important/private data outside of your home and into more public places (an office, a coffeehouse, a college campus, etc.).

I wanted this USB drive and got it for xmas this past year, I love it for the most part. It holds your passwords, and can encrypt data for you. those functions work but are a little clunky, but they work. the best part is that the drive will not appear until you swipe your finger, so all your data on the drive is off limits until that point. And that aspect works well. The most annoying part is that I have never ever been able to get the thing to work with one finger swipe, it normally takes four or five swipes, and I have had to try as many as 20 swipes before it would work, which is just ridiculous. I have even tried different fingers and redoing it all together. The funny thing is that the picture it shows you of your finger swipe looks amazingly detailed, much more detail that other Biometric scanners I have and use. My laptop (A Motion Computing LE1600) has one and I rarely ever have to swipe it more than once to get into it.

I would recommend this drive, just know this annoying trait and you'll be fine. Maybe they will update the software one day and it will fix this problem ( I will keep checking ).

EDIT: 2/18/2010 I dont know if this thing gets better with age, or maybe I get better at using it but lately it has worked when scanning my figer on the first or second try. thought I needed to update this review since the only issue I had with this unit is becoming a none issue.

The (proprietary) software needed to access the content crashes, which makes the device useless.

Fingerprint scanner alone is ok.

This device could have been very useful for carrying sensitive data.

When my Sandisk Cruzer with fingerprint scanner started to fray after over a year of hard use I looked for a replacement that was larger, didn't have a cord between the scanner and the drive that could fray and was Vista compatible.

I need to be able to move proprietary research from my computers at home to my laboratory computer without worrying if someone can steal it. While I've never lost a flash drive, I like the biometrics as a good security feature and it makes the company bosses happy.

I got the proprietary software to run no problem, plopped the flashdrive into my computer at home, run run run, no problem.

Took the flashdrive to work and BOOM. No administrator rights on the computer (a common enough situation)=no access to data.

That makes this useless for me and I can't even give it to my so to use in the computer labs at his school.

Waste of money.

On the cruzer, you can run your finger even if the proprietary software doesn't display on the computer and access your data. On this...no dice. no admin, no data.

I was expecting a USB key protected by my fingerprint.
Since I am travelling a lot, risk of loosing my USB key is high and I have lots of confidential documents, hence my choice for a secured USB key.
The extra feature I wasn't expecting is a double partitioning: one private (accessible only after finger-printing) and one public.
Nice feature that allows you to still use the key to share documents with others.

I have been using this product for the past few years. The typical life-cycle of this product is about two years. It worked quite well for me as I like the convenience of not needing to worry about losing the passwords to access the sensitive data. It also works pretty well on windows XP and windows 7 OS.

A word of caution in using this device. The device is partitioned into both public and private partitions. The private partition is where it stores the finger-print protected data. The device came with a default of 100%l public partition but zero private partition. If you move your data to the device without repartitioning, the data will be stored in the public partition which everyone can access even though the fingerprint protection is enabled. You would have to manually create the private data partition and then put your sensitive data there. The other area of caution is that once you have the device plugged in and unlocked with the fingerprint validation, the data is still accessible even after you power off and reboot the PC without the need to go through the fingerprint validation again. I believe this applies to PC with USB ports which power stays on when the PC is powered off. This leaves a security risk if you forgot to unplug the device.

By the way, unlike what one other reviewer stated, there is no way other unauthorized users can access the USB's private data once the fingerprint protection is set. You have to unlock the device with a valid fingerprint before you can reset the password and/or creating a new account to access the data.

This jump drive functions well. The only problem I have is that I cannot get the drive management software to run. Thus, I can't change the finger that I originally used to secure the drive, or add additional finger prints.