for capacity I honestly take a hard drive put it in a case that converts it to a usb and bamb much cheaper means to a much larger usb.

capacity

I like the OCZ ATV of all the flashdrives on the market. They are just as fast as the Rally and are practically indestructable. They also come with somewhere to put the cap...the Rally's only problem. The ATV may look ugly from a picture standpoint but once in hand you will fall in love with how rugged it feels. In the end, the ATV is just like the Rally but with the various benefits of being rugged

Why are they testing 4gb flash drives? Who actually buys one that small these days and cares about performance? Feels like I've stepped back into 05. Can we get reviews on more 32GB+ models? Capacity is key with these things and while I can't speak for everyone, I know I want to see which 64 and 128gb drives are quickest.

agreed, thats like testing newly released 7200 rpm internal desktop drives now. I went to raptor drives back in 2007 and have 2 velociraptors in raid 0 now and waiting for high capacity ssd drives to come down in price next. Its all about speed and having better than the average joe.

I actually use 1-2GB drives, they hold enough... and if/when lost or destroyed - its not much data. With that said.

My favorite USB Flash Drive is Sony. They cost a bit more, but there is NO cap to lose and its slide-design is excellent. I've used some sliders by PNY which you have to FIGHT to keep open when inserting into a PC... and on others, even if the CAP does fit onto the key, I lose them.

But the Sony Microvaults work great. Its worth it.
They look great, work great. You push in the click-button and it pops open and stick it into the USB port. When you pull the stick out, it snaps shut. Check out the link below!

Here: http://newsweaver.co.uk/catalusltd [...] 105279.cfm

BTW: The 2~4GB models currently include Michael Jackson's Thriller Album + modern remixes + Music videos (500mb) for $2 more than the empty packaging (discontinued) - they are DRM free.

PS: I just washed mine 2 hrs ago... this time it didn't go into the dryer. Still works, like the ones that have been dried.

This the BAD thing about thumb-Drives that we didn't have problems with FLoppies or CDRs... leaving them in our pockets

Agree with earlier comments, who is going to spend on a 4GB drive in 2009, regardless of performance? Needs to be 16 GB to get consideration.
How about including eSATA sticks for comparison/testing. I have OCZ Throttle and its great, USB or eSATA, direct to laptop. eSATA loads quicker and seems to read n write quicker too. Is this limited by flash structure? or USB speed? Maybe Win drivers?
Can we beat up on manufacturers who make USB caps that fall off and get lost in the first days of ownership. I have OCZ ATV, which is great but have now drilled the cap and the case and attached with thin parachute cord. Its the only stick I have with a cap now.

At the end of the day it's all well and good to compare drives accross the board but you have to do it based on what site you prefer really. If they don't stock it then it's not an option, I went for the OCZ Diesel 16GB which has fairly impressive write and read speeds at 30 and 15 though drives have moved on a bit since then and the cap issue as raised by Belardo is a good point.

Speed Vs. Capacity Vs. RELIABILITY:
2 facts hold true: Drives advertised as particularly LARGE or FAST tend to be UNRELIABLE. Just take a gander at newegg's reviews of 'turbo' drives and 'ultra high capacity' drives. They tend to have data corruption issues from 'pushing the envelope'.

Don't dismiss 4GB drives. They are great for mounting Vista or Windows 7 ISO images to let you install in a fraction of the time. I could see myself grabing a few just for that purpose.

I use to love flash drives because I was too lazy to transfer files with CD's or floppies. But now I'm getting too lazy even for flash drives. I mostly use file sync tools like Live Mesh to transfer all my documents now.

Usually, my philosophy is "bigger is better". However, smaller USB drives still serve a purpose. If you are using a flash drive for work and nothing else (spreadsheets, backing up emails, docs, etc.), a 16 or 32 GB+ flash drive is overkill. Only when you get into transferring large media files and backing up things like .isos, etc does a larger USB drive really serve a purpose.

Personally, I have a few different small USB drives that I consider to be "disposable", meaning if they are lost, damaged, or god forbid stolen, I wouldn't completely freak out. All of these disposable drives are 2 and 4 GB models, and are easily replaceable (as in they don't hit the wallet too hard).

I miss the easy-to-use write protect switches. Memorex had them on their old thumb drives. Malware can't infect it if it's write protected.

And what about the security/privacy features in some USB drives? Like Verbatim's Store 'n' Go Pro? Does anyone have any experiences to share on those? How much do they slow file I/O?

It would be great if they could squeeze an HD radio into one; that would help put a nail in the coffin of the last great analog medium: broadcast radio. Yet how many products include HD radio? Mostly higher-end receivers as far as I know.

This is the fastest drive on the market period. The write speeds spoil you. You can never go back. Too bad it is so expensive though.