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USB flash drives

I

imnotquitesure

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 21, 2004
42
0
I want to get a usb flash drive to transport files back and forth between work with out burning a CD all the time. My friends in school had several different brands and I noticed some brands required being plugged into a port in the back of the machine and some allowed them to use the hub on the apple keyboard. I refuse to use anything other than my keyboard ports for something this simple. My question is, does anyone know what brands do or do not require being plugged into the ports on the back i.e. directly powered ports and which can be used off of a non powered hub like the keyboard? Thanks, sorry thats a long explanation.
Im looking at the Crusers and the Jump Drives, but other brands are welcome.
 
i have a san disk mini cruzer 256, it works in the keyboard. however, i will say that i have had problems with the drive losing information, often when switching between OS, but not always.

jay
 
Got a handful of sandisk mini cruzer 256MB here. Use it to transfer huge files from OS 9 to Panther, and from Panther to WinXP Pro and Home. No problem. Don't even know what data lost is. Knock on wood.
 
Are you sure that they have to be plugged into the back? Every USB flash drive I've seen has been able to be plugged into the keyboard USB port.

And the keyboard is a powered port, the device just has to share power with keyboard and mouse.
 
My Memorex USB 2 drive plugs into the keyboard and works fine.

I have heard of this issue though. Certain brands seem to need more power than they keyboard port gives.
 
FuzzyBallz said:
Got a handful of sandisk mini cruzer 256MB here. Use it to transfer huge files from OS 9 to Panther, and from Panther to WinXP Pro and Home. No problem. Don't even know what data lost is. Knock on wood.
Click to expand...

Same here. I just got one (Mini Cruzer 256) and used it yesterday to fix some computers at work. Worked lovely, except the Windows 98 machine there didn't have a driver for it or something, but other than that it was great.
 
i have a micro advantage 64 MB one. it's USB2 and draws too much power when plugged into a hub. so i have one of those that needs to be plugged into the back.

it was $10, so i guess it's ok, though a little inconvenient...

i previously had lexar jumpdrive 128 MB for USB1. that one worked fine on the keyboard hub.
 
just out of curiosity, i have USB 1.1 on my Powerbook (rev a 12")...will the Flash drives that are 2.0 still work? i know its going to be a slower speed no matter what, but are the backward compatible? or do i have to go hunting for one that is 1.1?
 
PlaceofDis said:
just out of curiosity, i have USB 1.1 on my Powerbook (rev a 12")...will the Flash drives that are 2.0 still work? i know its going to be a slower speed no matter what, but are the backward compatible? or do i have to go hunting for one that is 1.1?
Click to expand...

2.0 is backward compatible with 1.1/1.0.
 
Yes it will work, just slower...much slower.

On USB2 I have transfered 40MB in about ~2-3 seconds (basically a blink and its done). USB1.1 will be like maybe 30 seconds (should be up to 12Mbits or 1.5MB/s).
 
cool, i really only need it for word files and small things so the speed shouldnt be too noticable....thanks for the fast reply too!
 
PlaceofDis said:
just out of curiosity, i have USB 1.1 on my Powerbook (rev a 12")...will the Flash drives that are 2.0 still work? i know its going to be a slower speed no matter what, but are the backward compatible? or do i have to go hunting for one that is 1.1?
Click to expand...
will work. no problem.
 
I have a 64MB USB 1.1 drive from www.usb007.com (smaller than most), that works fine in the keyboard port.

I have a 256MB USB 2.0 Iomega Micro Mini (way way smaller than most) that draws too much power to be used with the keyboard. It shipped with an extender cable that I plugged into a port on the back. It would be cleaner to use it with the keyboard, but the tiny size and USB 2.0 speed make this the best flash drive I've ever seen. Just wish they made them with higher capacity.

Cheers,


Crikey
 
haha depends on your needs. I back up XP patches (cuz I'm using a PC), programs, drivers, so I don't have time to be waiting 2-3 minutes for each patch/program/drivers, when I'm constantly shuffling stuff on my USB drive.

I have a 512MB, so I'm regularly moving 100-200MB of data, so again, it depends on your needs.

On USB1.1? 200MB (with an avg transfer rate between .15MB and 1.5MB/s); that takes a lil bit over 4 minutes.

USB2.0? 200MB translates to ~8-12 seconds. My parents use 1GB USB sticks at their work place, to transfer presentations, PDFs, and other kinds of reports. I think the difference between 8-12 seconds and 4 minutes is rather huge (that's a factor of 20X).

If time is money, I'd like a factor of 20X working FOR me, not against me.
 
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