How Reliable are USB Memory Keys?

Posted by Cliff on Monday November 26, 2001 @08:45AM from the new-tech-checkup dept.

quecojones asks: "I've been thnking about getting one of those IBM memory keys. IBM's device seems a bit expensive, but I've found a few others made by JM Tek and M-Systems in a variety of sizes (16MB-1GB). They're suposed to work with Windows [98|ME|2K|XP], MacOS, and Linux. Just how reliable are these things? I figure they'd make a great little backup device. I could use one of these to keep my PGP keyrings, my PasswordSafe database, and a few other files. Why aren't these things made by other companies? It seems like a perfect floppy replacement. Another thing is, can I boot a computer with one of these things? If I get one of the larger ones (512MB-1GB), could I just install Linux on it and boot from it. It would make trying out different Linux distributions a lot easier. Jus try each one out on the USB drive to figure out which one you prefer and then install it on the HDD."

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IBM Keys by Tuzanor · 2001-11-26 08:53 · Score: 4, Informative

The IBM memory keys are reliable enough. Mine came with my floppyless Thinkpad and its on my keychain. Though its only 8MB Its survived being thrown on the table every day, dangling and hitting the door every time i use a regular key, and other general abuse. Still works fine.
My only gripe about it is when you gotta use it on computers that only have USB drives on the back. they are DAMN annoying. Oh, and maybe it could hold a bit more..say at least 32 megs.