SanDisk Cruzer Micro 16 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive SDCZ6-016G-A11
by SanDisk
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List Price: Our Price: $38.95 You Save: $31.04 (44%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $22.98 (click here) Category: CE See more product details |
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Customers in the UK,
Buy this product at amazon.co.uk
for British Pounds
Digital Cameras Photo Reviews of SanDisk Cruzer Micro 16 GB USB 2.0 Flash Drive SDCZ6-016G-A11
Customer Review: Excellent value for a 16-gig flash drive
Summary: 5 Stars
I agree that the U3 software is not for everyone. If you seek a flash drive for storing media, e.g., music and/or photographs, then you can easily disable the U3 software upon inserting it into a USB drive. (The U3 software may be restored should you decide that you need it at a later time.)
That being said, having access to a frequently used software application, e.g., Mozilla Firefox, and preserving the manner in which you have configured it is extremely nice, especially if you spend time working on different computers. Your preferences, shortcuts, and bookmarked Web sites all remain in tact.
My jaw dropped when I found this particular item on Amazon. For the past three years, I have been using a 4GB SanDisk Cruzer. I have been repeatedly considered purchasing a larger Cruzer but have been reluctant to do so because of the prices that major retailers, e.g., Best Buy and Office Depot, command for 8GB and 16GB models. A quick check of several Web sites confirmed my suspicions: Amazon's price of $34.95 (as of this review) is a steal when compared to the sites of said major retailers, who sell the exact same Cruzer for $79.99 or more.
Upon opening the Cruzer's shipping materials, I suspected that the flash drive might be counterfeit as the plastic packaging seemed to be more minimal in nature that what I expected. It also noticed subtle differences between my 4GB model and this new 16GB model.
Fearing that I may have purchased a counterfeit Cruzer, I visited an Office Depot in order to compare the flash drive that I had received versus the ones being sold at a brick-and-mortar store. Sure enough, SanDisk has changed the manner in which it packages its flash drives in order to use as little packaging as possible. My few other misgivings were addressed, too, one of which concerned the SanDisk logo on the packaging. (Apparently, SanDisk has refreshed its corporate logo a bit.)
In summary, I cannot believe that I was able to purchase a bonafide 16GB SanDisk Cruzer for approximately half of what I would spend elsewhere. If you are in need of a flash drive, I would not hesitate to recommend this SanDisk model, as well as this seller.
Customer Review: 16GB Sandisk Cruzer Micro much slower than 4GB version
Summary: 3 Stars
Two years ago, I purchased the SanDisk Cruzer Micro 4 GB USB Drive (SDCZ6-4096-A11). It worked well without any problems (after I uninstalled the accursed U3 software, at least), and I liked its compact, retractable design very much. So when it comes time to upgrade to a larger capacity USB drive, my logical choice is this SanDisk Cruzer Micro 16GB (SDCZ6-016G-E11).
The good news: U3 is NOT pre-installed on this USB flash drive. That saves me the trouble of uninstalling it.
The bad news: the write speed of this 16GB Cruzer Micro is much slower than my old 4GB drive. The following is my benchmark result, using the free Flash Memory Toolkit:
- The old 4GB version writes at about 4.7 - 5.8MB/s (depending on data file size), and reads at about 27MB/s.
- The new 16GB version writes at only 2.0 - 3.5MB/s, and reads at about 24MB/s.
(See my Customer Image for charts of the benchmark)
I visited Sandisk Technical Support (kb dot sandisk dot com) to ask about the transfer speed of this Cruzer Micro 16GB USB flash drive. Here is the response I received:
"There is no guaranteed speed for SanDisk Cruzer Micro flash drives, as the speed for these flash drives have not been tested. If you need a flash drive with fast data transfer speed, we recommend SanDisk Extreme Cruzer Contour for this."
Due to the slower speed of the new drive, it will take me twice as long to do my routine backup. So I am now using it for playing video files on the Western Digital WD TV Live HD Media Player instead.
I recently tested the Transcend 16 GB JetFlash 500 Flash Drive. It looks exactly like the Sandisk Cruzer Micro, but its data write speed is 50-200% faster! So it is a much better value than this Sandisk.
Customer Review: Great flash drive!
Summary: 5 Stars
At first I was dismayed that there was U3 software preinstalled on the drive. Fortunately I was able to remove it through its own deinstallation software. I personally think U3 gets in the way so it got the axe.
I then reformatted the drive then encrypted it using [...], some excellent on-the-fly data encryption software, and reformatted the mounted drive. After all, if you lose your flash drive you don't want just anyone to access the stuff on it, right? So now I have an encrypted+compressed NTFS-based flash drive
With all of the crypto and compression going on the drive was fast enough loading and saving files. And since memory prices keep going down it makes sense to have at least a nice safe spot for your very important files. So I wear my flash drive with my company's keycard.
Also it looks as though they upgraded some of the hardware within the drive. I have a much older 1GB model of the SanDisk. It too glowed orange but only turned its LED off if files were being accessed to and from the drive. On the newer 16GB model the drive's very bright orange LED always flashes on and off in a continuous pattern. But, when the drive isn't accessed, the drive's LED slowly fades on then off, like it has a heartbeat. It's not much in the way of anything that affects functionality but it's damn cool.
Anyway, kudos to SanDisk for the built-in U3 deinstallation software. Now if SanDisk's marketing department and use REAL GiB measurements instead of braindead base-10 "GB" instead of blaming the lack of extra space on "hidden" or obscure parts of the drive (the problem is base-10 math being used instead of base-2 sizing) I'd be even happier than I am now. And I am quite happy. :-)
Customer Review: Good value with some nice features
Summary: 4 Stars
I settled on this particular flashdrive because it was competively priced, and I felt the retractable format was more practical than a USB cap.
Having taken this drive through the paces, I recommend it as a good value for the money, with a nice bonus in the pre-loaded U3 application. The U3 application allows a user to load and run various U3 compatible apps right from the flashdrive (without having to install on a Windows computer...sorry doesn't work for Mac). Some of the more useful applications include Firefox, Open Office, password manager program, and a data sync utility.
I particularly like the free data sync utility and the built in password protection feature on U3 (also free). It's real peace of mind to know that if I lose the smart drive, my data is protected.
Some may find the overhead of U3 annoying, especially since most of the U3 programs are not free, but you can uninstall it if you do not like it. While the U3 app is generally stable, I have found that at times it acts slightly erratically on both XP and Vista machines. I haven't lost any data, and usually rebooting the computer seems to resolve the problem. If this behavior were to continue, I would uninstall and just use True Crypt to protect my data.
Minor U3 issues aside, my other issue is that the drive feels rather flimsy...almost fragile. SanDisk would have done well to have used a heavier plastic (it is 16gb of data after all). Also, a minor nit is that while the retractable USB does click in place, it doesn't stay in place, particularly if you wear it on a keychain. Not a major issue...more a design flaw.
Customer Review: USB 2.0?? LOL... (Deceptive Advertising?)
Summary: 1 Stars
I think I'll create a video to show what I'm talking about, because not even one day after getting this "ultra-fast" high-speed USB 2.0 flash drive, I tried dragging a 4GB file to it. On my Mac OS X, the thing CRAWLED at 4MB/sec. I thought, switch to another USB port. Neither of my three ports would matter; the darn thing simply seems to copy at about 2MB/sec, which ain't USB 2.0-type transfer rates. After stopping it, reformatting, trying, trying again, I chose to allow an even larger file - 7GB - to write. It took a little less than 20 minutes.
Now, the upload speed blazed through much faster. And so I looked at other sites where people test these thumb drives, and they seem to have the same issue. Copying onto them tends to be at least half as slow as when you drag from the drive. Why in the world does this happen, when you can have transfer rates on things like SD cards that just blaze through??
I blindly trusted the 4-1/2 star rating cos there were so many reviews, but I was so thoroughly disappointed that I will do my homework and find a drive that has transfer rates that are fast, not just one-way high speed. And like someone stated earlier, the thing is NOT 16GB, but a bit less than 15GB. YAh, they say it has 16,000,000 bytes but you will not be able to get 15.1 GB of data on it. I sure hope that some day manufacturers will state clearly what the usable free space is.
And the retractable plug feels really flimsy. I can tell it may become an issue because the plastic case is a cheap plastic, not anything that is designed to last.