What to look for in flash drive

iviv · 29 Jul 2008 at 10:15

I'm on the lookout for an 8Gb flash drive to carry around, to act as mobile wikipedia. Essentially an encyclopaedia in my pocket (I'm going to use a compass to scratch 'don't panic' into the case).

But anyway, will any flash drive do? I know I'll need to make it NTFS, as the data file I'm using is 6Gb, larger than FAT32 can handle. Would input/output speeds matter too much, or would it be a case of using something cheap and cheerful?

iviv · 30 Jul 2008 at 13:43

Bump?

DavidS14 · 30 Jul 2008 at 14:02

There are speed differences between different drives, I'd buy a decent drive though as I've had a few cheap ones fail after a while, I've always liked the corsair ones myself and have a few of them with no problems.

Ben M · 30 Jul 2008 at 14:04

one that has a cap that isn't going to come off and get lost.

attatchable to a keyring or not.
write and read speeds.

Greenlizard0 · 30 Jul 2008 at 15:49

I can't quite recall model numbers and names, but I think the fastest ones are by OCZ and PNY.

I have a PNY one and it's lovely. Averaging around 30MB/s for reading and 25MB/s for writing. It has a swivel cap which means there's no lid to lose.

mk17 · 30 Jul 2008 at 16:01

Corsair Voyager 8GB - but the cap does come off, depends on how prone you are to losing things I suppose.

Ch3m1c4L · 30 Jul 2008 at 18:26

corsair or ocz are the best imo

nft_99 · 30 Jul 2008 at 19:06

Corsair Voyager, leave the cap at home so you dont lose it

or get the survivor model in the metal tube?

scruffeh · 31 Jul 2008 at 09:48

I'm not sure about speeds but the Sandisk Cruzer range has a retractable usb connector which I find really useful. You should be able to pick up an 8 gig one for 15 quid (I just ordered one to replace my 1 gig model)