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Hi-speed USB2 Flash Drive Round-Up

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i-hid-it-in-my-space-cavity dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Ars Technica has a USB 2.0 Flash drive review featuring 8 drives from different manufacturers. What's so interesting about the review is that not all Flash drives are created equal. Some have very unique features while some are clearly better than others. They also took a detailed look inside one of the drives as well as put two drives in a RAID-0 array (a la Mac OS X). Now that's cool!"

5 of 264 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Putting USB flash drives... by Adriax · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is quite a big geekier if you ask me.
    Striping floppies to get better speed and storage...

    --
    I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!
  2. MRAM by AnwerB · · Score: 5, Interesting

    NAND Flash is what's making this possible. It's denser and faster than NOR Flash.

    If you haven't heard of MRAM, that's definitely another technology to be on the lookout for. According to IBM and Infineon Technologies, it's supposed to start shipping this year.

    Basically, it has the density of DRAM, 15ns access time, and doesn't loses it's state even when powered down.

    Google turns up some articles: here, here, and here.

  3. Strapping 1GB around your neck by kyoko21 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Well, for those that are interested in the 'bulk' data, you can pickup a 1GB SanDisk Cruzer Mini for only $162 after an instant rebate...

    http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_getprod.php/m as terid=1956584/search=1gb%20usb

  4. Can you dual boot a bootable USB drive? by DroppedAtBirth · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Can you dual boot a bootable USB drive? Sounds like a fun way to waste a few hours....

    --
    Rob
  5. Does write protect work with Linux? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I noticed that some of these flash drives have "write protect". However, I noticed that some manufacturers claim that Linux cannot use the write protect functionality:

    " When you put the write-protect switch to "ON" position, you cannot write any file or data into the device. You still can view and read the files and data in the device. You can switch the "Write-Protect" switch even you do not disconnect the device. Due to Linux OS limitation, the write-protect switch will not work on-line."

    Flash drive manual

    But I see in status messages when people plug in the flash drives that it says "write protect is off".

    Does anyone have experience with these products in Linux and whether write protect works with the flash drive connected?