The Patriot Xporter XT Boost.
Spending Smart
Store your data in a flash
Improved technology leads to a wide range of drives - but which suits your needs?
The Patriot Xporter XT Boost.
Punch cards, diskettes, CD-R disks, and now tiny, portable USB flash drives. The way we store our vital personal data - and downloaded photos and music - has evolved faster than arguably the computer, itself.
A decade ago, it would have taken three to nine diskettes to store the equivalent of a single song downloaded from iTunes. Then we thought we had it made when writable CD-ROM disks came to be - each could fit dozens of songs. But today, a USB flash drive can fit hundreds, even thousands of songs on one little stick.
But which brand or style flash drive should you choose? Floppy diskettes and CD-Rs were simple, and largely the same brand to brand. Where technology has improved, diversity has emerged: Now, there are flash drives in a wide range of storage capacities that serve different purposes. Some are ultrasecure and encrypted, others are waterproof, and still others are inexpensive and provide good value.
There’s also a good amount of junk out there, with sliding parts that tend to fail and USB connectors that break and snap off, ruining your drive and putting your data at risk.
Size is also a consideration. If you’re only backing up text documents and spreadsheets, then you don’t need much space. Standard 1-gigabyte or 2-gigabyte drives will be more than sufficient. If you’re backing up your photos - and you have a lot of photos - an 8-gigabyte drive should be all you need. But if you’re saving MP3 music files, you may need a 16-gigabyte or 32-gigabyte drive. Flash drives are not (yet) practical for backing up collections of video files such as feature-length movies. You will want a portable hard drive for those.
The Globe found four flash drives that passed muster and suit different needs including speed, security, durability, and value.
Speed
Patriot Memory (a brand of PDP Systems Inc.) makes some of the best drives you can buy, and the prices can’t be beaten. If you’re looking for a super-fast drive that is built right and won’t cost you more than you paid for old episodes of “Friends,’’ then check out the Patriot Xporter XT Boost. The 8-gigabyte version is the best value at $19.99, but you can get the 32-gigabyte version we tested for $60.99 online.Security
Kingston Technology Corp. is the king of flash drive security. Kingston’s DataTraveler Vault secures all of your data using 256-AES encryption. The drive literally is a vault for your critical data. However, that security comes at a price (literally and figuratively). The 32-gigabyte drive runs about $500, but you can get a smaller and older 2-gigabyte drive for about $50. You also lose some speed and convenience, because the drive requires you to enter a complex password every time you plug in.Durability
Whether you’re a Navy SEAL on a covert operation or just a klutz who tends to drop your cellphone in the pool, nothing beats the Corsair Survivor flash drive. The company boasts that the drive’s anodized aircraft aluminum case can survive being dropped into 600 feet of water, run over by a car, and thrown against a brick wall. The drive also has some built in encryption options, just in case the enemy penetrates your underwater bunker. The 32-gigabyte drive that we tested will run you $90.Value
We went back to Kingston for value. The company’s DataTraveler line, even without the encryption, is excellent. We found a four-pack of 8-gigabyte drives for $66.99 on www.newegg.com.
© Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company.
