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USB Flash Drive Roundup - 10/2005
USB Flash Drive Roundup - 10/2005
Date: October 4th, 2005
Topic: Memory
Manufacturer: Various
Author: Anand Lal Shimpi
Buy the Crucial JDP8GB-431 USB 2.0 JumpDrive
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Lexar JumpDrive Lightning

Lexar's only entry in this roundup is their top of the line JumpDrive Lightning. The high end Lightning drive is only available in two sizes: 1GB and 2GB.

Lexar advertises 256-bit AES encryption support, and is implemented similarly to Kingston's DataTraveler Elite. If you use Lexar's bundled tool to partition your drive into a secure and a public partition, anything stored on the secure partition goes through Lexar's 256-bit encryption engine. Lexar also offers support for you to encrypt individual files on your system, which can only be decrypted if you have your JumpDrive Lightning plugged into that system. Lexar improves functionality one step above and beyond Kingston by allowing you to mount both public and secure partitions at the same time, as separate drive letters.

The only downside to Lexar's drive is that the flash controller that Lexar uses does not have a hardware encryption engine, thus there is a significant performance penalty for reading/writing to your secure partition. The table below displays read/write speed for various file sizes to a Secure as well as a Public partition on the Lexar drive.

   0.5KB   32KB   256KB   2048KB   65536KB 
Read Write Read Write Read Write Read Write Read Write
Secure 984 4 14809 279 16990 1903 17033 4881 17476 8738
Public 1000 69 19099 3507 26176 11750 26624 14131 26214 15292

As you can see, reads are noticeably slower to the secure partition, as are writes, especially at smaller file sizes. In many cases, the performance of reading/writing to the secure partition is far less than half of working with the public partition. It's a major downside to the security benefits that Lexar offers.

The Lexar drive is a bit more stylish than what Kingston has to offer, but the downside to that is, of course, that it shows fingerprints and smudges much like an iPod. Lexar includes a polishing cloth to remove the blemishes, which although it works very well, it is still a pain that you have to do it. The case of the JumpDrive Lightning adds significant weight to the unit, which is another expense that you pay in order to support the style of the drive.

If you purchase the drive from Lexar's online store, you can get a free engraving on the unit itself, which is a nice option that's offered.

 Lexar JumpDrive Lightning
Sizes Available 512MB - 2GB
Lanyard Included No
USB Extension Cable Included No
Data Encryption Yes (Windows only)
Password Protection Yes (Windows Only)
Secure + Public Partitions Simultaneously Accessible Yes
Flash Controller ?
Flash Memory ?
Warranty Lifetime Limited

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37 Comments - Last by BJL, 1131 days ago
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by Phantronius, 1508 days ago
1st!!!

I love my OEM made from some pretty lady in china USB 2.0 stick, its saved my ass so many times for my work, especially in data reterival and spyware removal.

Reply
Not too bad an article...has some good info by Souka, 1508 days ago
I've had the Memina Rocket for a couple months now....before they even announced it (thanks to NewEgg)....write spead defintly kinda bite with small files especially, but usually I put drivers and stuff there once, then read mutliple times....so its a good match for me.

PQI's I got over a year ago, and completely made everyone jealous.... for once, mem were bragging theirs is smaller than someone else's. :D

I still use a SanDisk Titanium.....only a 512mb module, but still works well.





Reply
RE: Not too bad an article...has some good info by Souka, 1508 days ago
oopsss...typo

meant to say...

PQI's I got over a year ago for my office, and completely made everyone jealous.... for once, men were bragging theirs was smaller!! :D

Reply
I wonder.. by SpaceRanger, 1508 days ago
Are USB drives able to be made Bootable?? I know that systems can recognize USB Floppy Drives, and boot from those, but I was wondering if you could take a USB Flash Drive and make it a bootable device.

Reply
RE: I wonder.. by Phantronius, 1508 days ago
depending on the flash drive and the motherboard BIOS, yes you can do it.

Reply
by Pete84, 1508 days ago
Bummer, OCZ's dual channel USB stick didn't get in.

Reply
IDIOT by jkostans, 1508 days ago
Someone didn't read the article......

Reply
by sxr7171, 1508 days ago
Time to get a Lexar JumpDrive lightning. This may not be important to a lot of people, but a USB drive IMHO needs to have a loop for a keyring. It is the most convenient way to carry the thing and always have it with you no matter what. I guess this applies more to people living in the city and not needing a car and the big bulky car keys/remote that come with that.

Reply
by TheInvincibleMustard, 1508 days ago
Speaking of, is there some reason the Lexar isn't on the RTPE? I mean, it did just win an Editor's Choice and all, so you'd hope it would be one of the drives listed in the newly-announced Flash Storage section ... :(

-TIM

Reply
lol by yacoub, 1508 days ago
What's with all the scratches on the Corsair Flash Voyager's USB connector?

Reply
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