USB pen drives with write protect switch?

Fonz-Valo · 16 Sep 2009 at 12:47

Hi all i hope someone can help,

I'm looking to buy a USB pen drive that features a write protect switch on it (like you get on SD Cards)

The reason being I am doing a lot of pc virus/spyware cleanup work for people at the moment and don't want to risk infecting my own pendrive whilst doing this.

Can anyone point me towards any particular brands that feature a physical lock on the drive?

Thanks a lot

5abr3 · 16 Sep 2009 at 13:11

Write protection switches on aren't very common on USB drives, infact the only one I own is 32MB and is now about a decade old!

Coldzero · 16 Sep 2009 at 14:09

Yeah my 128mb one has one lol, haven't seen them on any recent ones though. Ill keep my eye out.

sketch145 · 16 Sep 2009 at 14:27

I looked into this a while ago and found the PQI u339 pro which seems to be the kind of thing you're after, but in the end I just decided to use an SD card reader and a cheap 4gb card as it was a fair bit cheaper.

Fonz-Valo · 16 Sep 2009 at 14:42

hmmm.... i thought that might be the case

I'll have a look at the PQI one mentioned above but it looks like I may have to do with a SD card and SD reader combo, i think it might be the cheaper option.

Thanks for your help guys

MikeHunt79 · 16 Sep 2009 at 15:01

you may be able to write protect with software

PistolPete · 16 Sep 2009 at 16:00

How about one of these and an SDHC card?

J.B · 16 Sep 2009 at 16:06

PistolPete beat me to it!

Most SD cards have a write protection switch.

Ryan-3 · 16 Sep 2009 at 18:34

I'm not sure, but this.

An Iron Key flash Drive

This may be what you want

sketch145 · 16 Sep 2009 at 18:45

Ryan-3 said:
I'm not sure, but this.

An Iron Key flash Drive

This may be what you want

Have you seen the price of these? they're about £80 for the 2GB version :eek:

Besides, you'd have to be pretty paranoid about getting a virus to shell out for a thumbdrive with military grade encryption.

Also, your sig is too big

Fonz-Valo · 17 Sep 2009 at 09:45

PistolPete said:
How about one of these and an SDHC card?

That's perfect! I've just managed to order one for £3 just need to find a cheap 4gb sdhc card for it

Thanks again

5abr3 · 17 Sep 2009 at 10:22

I found there to be little difference in the price of an 8GB and 4GB card and managed to get an 8GB SD card for £9 inc postage, could have gotten 2 for £17 but I don't have anything but the Netbook that uses SD cards!

NozzaC · 26 Sep 2009 at 15:08

Pretty much all the Kanguru drives have a write protect switch. Also Imation Swivel and some other Imation models.

JonJ678 · 26 Sep 2009 at 15:24

Write protection isn't really needed. The approach I take is:

Set up flash stick with desired programs
Image the flash stick
Use on computer
Reformat flash stick
Flash the image back onto the stick

Which I thought was paranoid enough