Need one of those USB thumb drive things...need info on them!!!

M

Metallica_Band

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Oct 23, 2002
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Hey there...I am taking an Intro to Mac class and I gotta have one of those USB thimb drive things...u know...where u have the USB thing and it acts like a revmovable storage device...I need it cause the Mac teacher is too retarded to either know how to ADD more data to a CD-R (muti-sessions) or shes got crappy CD burner software installed

She says that if we store our stuff on CD's that we will end up having a pile of CD's cause "once you write something on it then you can't add/delete anything else"...I swear...I am gonna HATE this course...Macs sux0rz!!!!

ANYWAYS...I need one of those USB storage device toys...I've actually always wanted one but just wanted to invest the money to other hardware...so what I need is info on these USB drives...how much are they, what brands are the best, are they all compatable with Windows and Macs, what are the sizes avaliable, etc...

Any help would be greatly appreciated...THANX
C'YA ?:-D
 
some are usb 1.1 - others are usb 2.0. They have various amounts of storage. Often you can get good deals on them after rebates at worst buy, office max, and staples.

That's about it.

You might also want to think about one of those flash card thumbdrive emulator things - where you plug a flash card (CF, MMC, etc.) into something and then plug that into a usb port - and it acts as a thumbdrive.
 
You probably want something like this...

You'll probably want something with 128MB, i find that 64 is often too small at times. The one in the link is also USB 2.0 which is a handy little bonus for faster transfer althoug it won't make that huge of a difference since you'll only be transfering a max of 128 MB at a time. You can check out a few of them at NewEgg is you dont like the one in the link. Most all of them have free shipping from NewEgg.
 
Well the have sizes varying from 32MB and go up to 2GB(i'm not sure about anything after that. Some are cheap and then some can be about $600+(like the 2GB model) I'd check newegg and search for "Pendrive" or "Thumbdrive" and check the product details. I got a 128MB "Pendrive" for $30 without rebates, i think 1GB model's standard price is about $300(i wouldn't mind having one of those). One problem with the one i have though, which i would look into, try to get a fairly slender one, in my case some of the computers at the school i attend have a bunch peripheals cluttering up the area where the USB ports are so my drive is just a little bit too wide to fit in there. So i have to take the housing off to get it to fit in there, unless i happen to have a spare usb cable with me, which i always forget. As far as the MAC/PC compatability, i would think that they are cross platform compatible as long as it supports Plug 'N' Play which i think Macs always have for awhile. Could be wrong though since i never use them.
 
They are cross-platform compatible. The Macs have always been ahead of the curve on that, and can read Windows-formatted disks.

Like NleahciM said, there's not much to them. Don't bother paying more for USB 2.0, since as has been said the difference in time spent waiting is minimal. And don't go hog wild on the drive size. I've got a 128 MB drive and even with an entire backup of my registry on it it's not even close to full.
 
Yeah, those things are great. I just picked up a few Kingston USB thumb drives from Newegg about two months ago - a 128MB for my boss and a 256MB for me. From what I recall they were like $50 and $76 respectively. In that ballpark at least... I don't feel like looking them up again right now.

As has been said they will work on Macs just fine.

Also, Metallica_Band has your teacher not hard of CDRWs? They are rewritable like a floppy so I have no idea why she claims "once you write something on it then you can't add/delete anything else." :confused:
 
good info here, the only other thing I would add is that the physical size of the thumbdrive can be a factor. Many PCs have recessed USB ports which may prevent you from plugging your drive into a front USB port. My 64MB trek drive is under 3/4 inch wide and just a hair wider than a USB port. Other drives I've seen are wider and people have to use USB extension cables to plug them in. Not a big deal but something that may help you choose between 2 similar drives at the same price.
 
i got a cheap one on rebates from my local officemax. it cost me $10. i think the brand is Micro advantage or something like that. it works great. it is USB 2.0 mine is a 64meg card.

FYI: in maxpc they did tests on the things and they are surprisingly very durable. they were run over by cars, put through the washer, frozen and unthawed. and they still worked.... so it'll take a lot to destroy one of them;)
 
haha i have a photoshop class (which i hope to learn something new from, the first day i just sat there and surfed the web for about 70% of the class, the rest she lectured)

same deal, the teacher is on a mac campaign
how i hate the mac propaganda she spews about how great they are
give me a break ahhhh
i loved the fact that two of them fucked up during the class
one the cd drive kept ejecting out of no where, and the other wouldnt post past the splash screen

the one that had the problem with the cd drive was funny
the dialog went something like this...

teacher: "i have no idea why it would do that"
me: "its because its a mac"
her in a pc hating tone: "well i've owned macs since 1989 and never had problems like that"

trying to hide the blame ;)

ahh good times
 
Originally posted by Scalpel
They are cross-platform compatible. The Macs have always been ahead of the curve on that, and can read Windows-formatted disks.

Like NleahciM said, there's not much to them. Don't bother paying more for USB 2.0, since as has been said the difference in time spent waiting is minimal. And don't go hog wild on the drive size. I've got a 128 MB drive and even with an entire backup of my registry on it it's not even close to full.
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure they can only read fat/fat16/fat32 formatted discs. I know that I had a firewire enclosure with two partitions on it - one fat32 the other ntfs - and the mac (running OS X) could only read the FAT32 partition. Created quite a pain in the ass too since there's a file size limitation to FAT32 and I was transferringa 30GB movie.
 
I have a Lexar Jumpdrive USB2 Pro 256MB that I am very fond of. I move stuff between my work computer and home pc with it, and it fits the bill perfectly. Pretty solid construction too. I wouldn't throw it off a building or anything, but I floats around my bag without any problem. And yes, you don't need USB2.0 speed, but its nice when you're in a hurray.

MaximumPC did a 'test' a few months ago, not like they're the most critical reviewers, but you might want to take a look.

Erik
 
i picked one of these up at BB for right at $200. Not flash, mini hard drive, USB 2.0, 1.5gigs of storage in my pocket. Handy as hell too, I use it at work with a default bare bones install of XP on it (yes, XP will install on it right from the CD without any additional drivers) incase we have a box poo the bed. Just plug it in and change the boot order. Speed isnt the best (since its a HD instead of solid state) but it works.
 
You got eBay...I bought one made my Pingtec and I think they are the smallest ones out...I love it...


BTW...Pen drives are suppose to install drivers the first time you run them on a computer you haven't yet right?
 
Originally posted by jamezzz122

BTW...Pen drives are suppose to install drivers the first time you run them on a computer you haven't yet right?
Click to expand...

Usually, with a modern (post Win98) OS...no. By default they (the OS and the drive) support a sort of 'standard' USB mass storage driver that will work.
 
All currently produced USB flashdisks/thumbdrives comply with the USB Mass Storage standard. (unless you manage to get one of the first generation of USB thumbdrives that came out.... A lot of first gen USB drives required their own driver)

USB Mass Storage is a set of standardized commands, methods, and interfaces that are designed just for data storage devices. The whole idea was so that USB hardisks and the like could be used on any computer on any platform without having to install a driver.

The following come with full USB Mass Storage support built-in:

Windows ME
Windows 2000
Windows XP
Windows 2003 Server
USB MS support has been in the Linux kernel since the standard was introduced.
Mac OS 9 and higher include it as well.

All of the above OSes will immediately recognize any USB storage device plugged in. And provided the disk is formatted with a filesystem your OS understands, you'll be able to access it without additional software.

Older OSes such as Windows 98/98SE and Mac 8.x will require a a driver to be installed. This is usually provided on a CD with the USB Thumbdrive. Install the driver BEFORE you plug the USB disk in!!!! However, once this driver is installed all USB MS devices plugged into the system will use it.


Flashdisks under 512MB use FAT16, while those 512MB or larger use FAT32. Why FAT? Because its simplistic and universally supported by every major OS and small time hobby OS out there. (though it took a little more time for the hack to add long filename support to become as widely supported)

All versions of Windows can read FAT16/32. As do all versions of Linux. Mac OS 7.x does with the right extension installed. 7.1(?) and higher include this extension :D. Mac OSX has had native FAT support from the start.


If you get a drive 512MB or larger definitely get a USB 2.0 model. The faster interface helps greatly when moving that much data to/from the drive. And don't worry about compatibility. It'll work just fine in a normal USB 1.1 port too. (though at USB 1.1 speeds)
 
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