Kingston DataTraveler I - 8 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive DTI/8GB
by Kingston H. Corporation
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List Price: Our Price: $8.50 You Save: $25.49 (75%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Category: Personal Computer See more product details |
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Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of Kingston DataTraveler I - 8 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive DTI/8GB
Customer Review: No frills but gets the job done
Summary: 4 Stars
I've been using Kingston Data Traveler flash drives for quite a few years, all the way back to their 256mb models of the early 2000s (remember when 256mb was HUGE!?!). I've never had an issue with them for basic file transfers and simple back ups. It's important to understand what they are intended for and what they are not. These are not 'premium' high speed transfer flash drives. Their read/write speeds are average--not 'slow' as some have said in their review, just not top-of-the-line. If you want extreme speed, spend the extra money and get a high performance zip drive. They are also not for secure, protected back ups. If you want a drive with native (or built in) security features, spend a bit more to get one that does. (There are also MANY free apps available to encrypt data to any flash drive, including Data Travelers. Just do a web search to find them). It's unfair to complain that these drives are missing features that more expensive drives have; if you want additional features be prepared to pay for them and get a more expensive unit.
That said, Data Travelers are wonderful multi-purpose flash drives with extremely high reliability and ease of use. They're not the slickest or the fastest, but they are a great value for the price, especially if you only intend them for general back ups, moving files, etc. I use them as boot drives for Ubunto, disk partition software, Arconis True Image rescue programs, etc. It's nice to bee able to load a bundle of trouble shooting programs from one drive--I don't need extreme speed, just reliability. They are also great options to run with Windows Vista or Windows 7 as a ReadyBoost drive to speed up your system.
Build quality is good not great. The plastic shell of the drive is made well and is solid to the touch (some flash drives feel like they'll fall apart in your hands). The cap comes off too easily and can be hard not to lose. The back of the drive has a loop to attach a lanyard, but no lanyard is provided in the packaging. The drive is probably 25% larger than most of it's competitors, so if size is a concern for you, you might want to choose a different option.
For the price, this is a great flash drive. Not it doesn't have all the features you may want in a flash drive, but it does what it does very well and reliably. Kingston is one of the longest running maker of flash drives, and they do a great job. If you want an inexpensive and quality flash drive for a very reasonably price, you could do much worse than a Data Traveler.
Customer Review: Slow; Nearly Hidden LED Activity Light
Summary: 1 Stars
I did a lot of searching and reading of customer reviews before buying the Kingston 8GB USB Data Traveller drive; my primary focus was on the price. Now that I've used it and compared the write speed to my older Corsair Flash Voyager 4GB drive, for which I needed a back-up, I'm very disappointed. Twice a week I move 8000+ files of around 285K in size to a USB drive for distribution to additional computers (I don't have and I don't want a home network at this point). The total space required is 2.34 GB. My Corsair 4GB drive takes about 12 minutes to complete the transfer. This newer, larger Kingston drive took 18 minutes--about 50% longer.
When I'm doing this operation or transferring the files to other systems it's helpful to see the LED light blinking while I'm working on a different computer, so I can know when the operations are complete. The Corsair Flash Voyagers I have (a 2GB and a 4GB) have excellent, bright LED activity lights that flash near the end of the drive so you can see the activity even if there's another USB drive located above. The Kingston's LED activity light by contrast is a very dim green one located close to the computer end of the drive, and I can't really see it in a brightly lit room. I've read many customer reviews of this drive and didn't see another one point this out.
So, I've just bought a device here which will serve only as a back-up in case the other one fails, but which I don't plan to use regularly at all. At this point I wish I'd picked up another Corsair for a few dollars more.
Customer Review: Nice drive for the price.
Summary: 4 Stars
My purpose in buying this drive was for occasionally transferring files between two computers. It doesn't get a ton of use, maybe a couple times a month at best. For the time I've owned it, which I think is a little over a year, I haven't had any issues though. Because I don't live my life off this drive on a daily basis, I can't really endorse the long term reliability of this drive. However, for occasional use for the purpose of transferring documents its done its job without fault.
I don't think it's the sturdiest drive out there, so if your looking for something to put on a keychain or carry around a lot, I would pay a more a get something something a little better. I'm not saying its poorly made, just not made to stand up to a lot of abuse. However, for a drive that is going to live its life stuck in a drawer or occasionally stuck in a backpack, it should hold up just fine. A heavy user and abuser should get something else.
For a fairly priced occasional use drive, with reasonable storage size, where sturdiness isn't a factor, this drive fits the bill. If I was looking for unshakable reliability, I might turn else where and invest a little more in a drive.
Customer Review: Double the pleasure, double the fun (at about half the price)
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought 2 of the 4GB variety some 10 months ago at about $25 each. That was considered a great bargain at the time. I was happy when I saw the 8GB for a lot less a few days ago.
I am using the DataTravelers for exactly what the name implies. I take them with me on the road, loaded with whatever I need for my trip and I don't need to worry about bringing a laptop along. Each flash drive is viewed by the computer as a 'disk', meaning that it can be formatted, even partitioned. I usually have a 'public' partition and an encrypted section for the more sensitive files.
I have little doubt that, one year or two years from now the 16GB version may be available for about the same price or less but, until then, I have 'stuff' that I need to take with me and I am glad to be able to have something I purchased for, almost literally, the price of 'peanuts' - well... airport or minibar peanuts :)
I have little negative to say about this little devices other than... being as small as they are, you must be VERY careful not to lose them or misplace them - that's why I encrypt everything that's not supposed to be 'public'.
Customer Review: Good product, good price
Summary: 4 Stars
like a previous reviewer, I didn't want the U3 program/features (have had too many issues with it being flaky in the past). I have had good luck with a previous small (1GB) Kingston USB stick I got as a freebie from a conference and decided to give the larger one a shot. So far, so good. Performs well, good price, nice amount of storage (no need for me to carry separate USB sticks anymore, yay!), and no bloatware to have to use it.
One thing though - the packaging says that it doesn't work with Vista SpeedBoost, but every time I plug it into a Vista machine I am presented with the option of using it to speed up my system. Haven't click on that option yet, but will update my review later if I try it and find that it does/doesn't work.
The only negative I've found so far is that it doesn't have a lanyard included...but I was able to salvage a lanyard from an old USB stick to use on this one so no big deal. But would have been very nice to have that included. If you use a thin lanyard, you can still put the "cap" on the non-port side and not have it interfere.