This is primarily a review for the SanDisk Cruzer 2Gb Micro, however whilst I have the device for review, I thought it would be a good idea to test the Vista ReadyBoost functionality as well.
First though, let's look at the Cruzer Micro.
The little SanDisk Micro is obviously named as such on account of its size. Compared to some other devices of this type it's certainly small.
Some of this size comes from the fact that the device has not got one of the traditional caps that protect the USB connector. Instead the connector is on a slider and actually recedes inside the device to keep it safe.
This is usefully in two great ways: the aforementioned size, and most importantly, no caps to loose while it's in your pocket.
The white slider area locks the USB connector either in or out, and with just a soft press-down-and-slide action will show or hide the connector. The slider also acts as the in-use light as it glows orange.
Even though the device is small, it does not disappoint in the performance stakes.
As you can see to the left, the device performs slightly better than its bigger (and more expensive) brother the Cruzer Titanium.
This is possibly due to the fact that the Titanium was benchmarked under Windows Server 2003, and the Micro under Vista. However, even if the benchmark results can be treated as the same, it still shows the other competitors in this market section a clean pair of heels. This is particularly evident in the 512b performance section (where it scored 563649 operations per minute read and 13913 operations/min write) and performed at around 16Mb/s read and 17Mb/s write on average over the entire space of the drive.
The device may not be the leader in the size field any more (the SanDisk Ultra II SD Plus wins that award) however for a USB Pen Drive it certainly performs more than adequately and even has the smart SanDisk U3 software which allows you to cary a virtual office around with you, using any PC (although not Vista at the moment) as your own, as you get a virtual office environment when you plug the device in.
Article comments
1 - Sandesh Sadhale
A few days back I bought the Sandisk Cruzer Titanium 4GB edition, hoping it will give a readyboost to my windows vista. But when I plug in the device, vista carries out a test and shows that the device DOES NOT have the characteristics required for readyboost :-( dont know why! I am bit disappointed at this as I was expecting readyboost to help me speed up my system.
2 - JohnL
It works great on a XP system. There are NO DRIVERS for Vista. If you have Vista don't bother.
3 - Zbigniew Michalak (Mitch)
I got my self 'mini cruzer 2GB' and it works perfect with my desk top PC on windows XP but now I bought lap top with Vista Windows and it doesn't work at all so what's the trick if any one knows? I looked for drivers all over the internet and couldn't find one, does that mean I can't use my cruzer on my lap top? WASTED MONEY IN'T IT?
4 - Scooter
Just called SanDisk support. A patch to the Cruzer Micro 4GB is being released 'before the end of 2007' that will allow the Cruzer to work with Vista. As others have posted, mine worked fine on an XP laptop and doesn't do doodly a Vista laptop. Hopefully cured in a few weeks.
5 - Brian
In Vista, go into the equivalent of
My Computer and look at your flash drive. Right click on that drive and go to Properties. There is a tab entitled ReadyBoost. Go to this tab, and select Use this device for ReadyBoost. Done!
6 - Divez
for me, its not working! I have Sandisk cruzer micro 1.0GB and nothing´s working! help!
7 - Mike C
This works
C:windowsinfINFCACHE.1 is most likely corrupt and should be deleted.
You will need to edit its file permissions to give Full Control to the
User Group before you will be allowed to delete it.
8 - Azkeyz
This buggered me for a while about what exactly is going on , with sandisk micro cruiser 2g U3 on vista , mine was not working on other USB my extended USB ports , but when I move this little jewl to primary USB port headers , vuala everything returned to normal.
hope that helps some people
May the nforce2 be with you , always.
9 - makki
i have uninstall the u3 software but can not restore the u3 software