Thinking back to my first hard drive really puts the technology growth into perspective. It was an add-on to a PC XT clone computer. It came on an expansion card that was two slots wide — which meant that it was at about eight inches long by four inches high by two inches wide. It had a 32 MB capacity (enormous for the time when you could run WordPerfect from one floppy) and cost a little more than $300. That meant a megabyte of hard drive space cost a little under $10. The new one is three long by 3/8 of an inch high by one inch wide, and $30 buys you 64 MB — or less than 50 cents per megabyte.
This review, with pictures, is also at http://www.bjkresearch.com/tips/t030821.cfm
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Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
Excellent - thanks Bruce, very informative!
2 - Craig Lyndall
I have thought about using one of these drives, but I was a little concerned about the durability based on its price tag and size.
Do you have an opinion on that Bruce?
3 - Bruce Kratofil
In terms of durability -- I haven't managed to break mine yet.
Mine's plastic wrapped around some metal - the plastic serves to insulate against static electricity, I imagine. It's probably not designed for any high-impact situation, but normal every day use shouldn't bother it. I'd be more worried about losing it -- that's one reason I didn't pick a large capacity, higher-priced one.
4 - Greg
Hey you can get a 256 MB "pen drive" here at J and R for $80... 31 cents per meg
5 - Greg Hagin
oh... the link:
http://www.jandr.com/JRProductPage.process?RestartFlow=t&Merchant_Id=1&Section_Id=2040&Product_Id=3708101
6 - Jim Carruthers
I picked up one of these keychain USB drives because they are great when you are travelling around to clients and you don't know what platform they are using.
I can carry my email with me (I like to have it live on one machine with backups elsewhere so I don't have to worry is that email message on my desktop machine or my iBook?)
And with this weather, preferable to carrying around the laptop, hub and cables and then futzing with networking various flavours of computers, only to find out they've never configured or turned on networking on their Windoze machine. Or you need to go to a service bureau to output some nice quality docs.
7 - rudolf
i want to buy 200pcs of this product below form your company
VisionTek Xtreme Go 256 MB USB 2.0 Flash Drive
8 - Distorted Angel
...but I was a little concerned about the durability based on its price tag and size.
How's this for durability? My husband has a 256MB SimpleTech flash drive that has gone through the washer and dryer at least once (probably twice) and still works. I keep one on the keychain that holds my work keys -- it gets some pretty rough treatment between getting tossed around in my purse or dragged out of my pocket, and it keeps on ticking.
9 - Matt Herrington
I have a jumpdrive like the one from lexar, but another companies name on it, but it registers on the comp as laxar. It's called impact. Anyway, you guys didn't mention much about the larger "thumb/keychain/flash drives. What about those that hold more than 512 mb, and have upwards of 1 gb. Are there any that are more affordable than 60 bucks? i got my flash drive for 15 at walmart on black friday. Could you possibly find a drive with a gb or two for about that price and still have it being reliable? thanks
10 - DrPat
Archiving is so much simpler with a removable drive - I use one 256MB stick to archive my bog entries, and another to store the backup of my book-in-progress.
So when my hard drive shuts down (as happened recently), the really irreplaceable stuff is elsewhere. I learned to do this with tape back in the dark ages, and the habit has saved my sanity more the once.
11 - Bruce Kratofil
Well, Matt, this article is well over a year old -- lots of other stuff has come out since then.
I only review what I can get my hands on -- and in the case of hardware, it's stuff that I buy myself(nobody seems to want to send me a review copy of an iPod.)
So I can't do one of those side-by-side review roundups like C Net can.
12 - vijay dhiman
please send us mini usb pen drive 3.0
drivers 98se.