Your keychain usb drives

[zenlunatic]

I've so far destroyed several usb drives that I've had on my keys. I mostly go for the kingston data travelers.

What do you guys use on your keys? I'm thinking I might just start pocket carrying.

Pics welcome.

[Ra-Hoor-Khuit]

Personally I love my DataTravelers but it sounds like you need the "ToughBook" of thumb-drives.

Corsair's Survivor thumb-drive to the rescue!

Break this... I dare you (link goes to 16GB version, 8GB and 32GB versions also available):

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3344791&csid=ITD&body=MAIN#detailspecs

[Firestem4]

I have an 8gb Dane Elec usb thumb drive i normally carry everwhere with me with all o the essentials. (Malwarebytes, music. siw etc)

[djmh]

my problem is not breaking them.... its losing them !

but i had a sandisk cruzer.

http://www.sandisk.com/Products/Item%282729%29-SDCZ7-016G-A11-Cruzer_Titanium_USB_Drive_16GB.aspx

(comes in 16,8,4)


theres videos of it being run over by a car, and i had mine on a lanyard which i repeatedly would swing in a circle .... till it went flying, generally straight into the ground ...

never broke though, including in the car run over videos. so maybe that would be a good drive for you, it also has a retractable usb tip, so you cant lose the tip cap, or bend the tip.

[tjwoosta]

Never lost one, but I had a kingston data traveler go through the wash because I left it in my pocket. I just let it dry out and it still works fine :)

[The Real Dave]

I usually carry 2 or 3 flash drives, usually my 16Gb Sandisk Cruzer Micro, a great, fast and reliable drive, and my no-brand 2Gb Ubuntu Live Flash Drive :D

http://www.techgadgets.in/images/sandsisk-cruzer-micro-8gb.jpg

[zenlunatic]

Don't those sandisks have U3 on them?

[Maheriano]

Got a 8 gig Data Traveler that I can't seem to find after moving, plus a 2 gig Sony that I lost last year while working on the car. I managed to find it in the glovebox after a few months but now it's MIA again.

[mr.propre]

Don't those sandisks have U3 on them?

True, but you can remove it easily.

I have 2 Sandisk actually. A black and a white one. The black for files between work, windows PC, Ubuntu laptop and a white one with portableApps.com to use on my work or other windows PC

They hang together and most of the time I keep them in a pen bag.

[MikeTheC]

I've an 8GB SanDisk Cruzer here, too. I have a few others kicking around, but those I've had for ages.

I had a 2GB Cruzer take a dump on me with no abuse or mal-treatment. Fortunately there was nothing on it that wasn't elsewhere at the time, so I just pitched it and bought a larger one (the prices had dropped radically between purchases).

I don't keep it on my keychain, though, and frankly it rarely leaves the house. When it does leave the house, it:

1. Never has data that's not elsewhere;
2. Is normally in a separate bag (with books for school, etc.);
3. Goes straight to the remote location (school, friend's house, etc.) and straight back.

USB storage media is a *convenience* and I treat it as such. In my view, anyone who doesn't treat it that way deserves to lose their data if they expose it to unnecessary risk.

[earthpigg]

True, but you can remove it (U3 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U3) on SanDisk thumb drives) easily.


without using windows or WINE?

when i purchased mine, i was still dual booting Windows, and google told me the only way to remove the pre-installed malware was with a windows app.... iirc, even gparted was powerless against it.

it is an outstanding piece of hardware, but i would be hesitant at present to purchase another if malware removal required windows - since i no longer have windows.

[mr.propre]

without using windows or WINE?

when i purchased mine, i was still dual booting Windows, and google told me the only way to remove the pre-installed malware was with a windows app.... iirc, even gparted was powerless against it.

it is an outstanding piece of hardware, but i would be hesitant at present to purchase another if malware removal required windows - since i no longer have windows.

Format ?

[earthpigg]

Format ?

if i remember correctly, that was ineffective. if i remember correctly.

my best guess at the time, if i remember correctly, was that there was a piece of hardware in between the physical USB interface and the standard storage part of the thumb drive that contained firmware that could only be disabled via the windows app.

[geoken]

How are you loosing them? Are you loosing all your keys or are you using the thumbdrives where only the cap attaches to the key chain, so if the thumbdrive falls off the cap it's lost?

[The Real Dave]

if i remember correctly, that was ineffective. if i remember correctly.

my best guess at the time, if i remember correctly, was that there was a piece of hardware in between the physical USB interface and the standard storage part of the thumb drive that contained firmware that could only be disabled via the windows app.

Formatting worked fine to remove U3 for mine, just selected fat32 in Gparted =].

And I wouldn't exactly call U3 "malware"

[Maheriano]

How are you loosing them? Are you loosing all your keys or are you using the thumbdrives where only the cap attaches to the key chain, so if the thumbdrive falls off the cap it's lost?

Don't you mean loost?