Product Details
- Product Dimensions: 2.2 x 0.4 x 0.7 inches ; 1 pounds
- Shipping Weight: 1.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
- Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
- ASIN: B004TS1J18
- Item model number: DT101G2/8GBZET
By : Kingston
List Price :
Price : $6.98
You Save : $17.02 (71%)
Product Description
Size: 8 GB|Product Packaging: Amazon Frustration-Free
Kingston's DataTraveler101 Generation 2 is a convenient storage companion that lets you take all of your data to your home, office, school and anywhere you travel. It comes with urDrive1, preloaded software that gives you a new and exciting way to look at your data. When you launch the software, the urDrive interface pops up like a desktop for your USB. It features drag-and-drop and double-click capabilities to help organize all your files, photos, videos, music and more. It's easy to use and even includes a built-in Photo Viewer and mp3 player, plus a 2GB online backup account to keep your important files secure online.
Kingston Digital 8 GB USB 2.0 Hi-speed Datatraveler Flash Drive DT101G2/8GBZET - Red
Technical Details
- Supports Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP ; OS X 10.5.X and above
- urDrive Software ? customizable, portable desktop ? anywhere
- Sleek capless design; no cap to lose
- Available in multiple colors by capacity
- Dimensions ? 2.25 x 0.68 x 0.39 Inches (57.18mm x 17.28mm x 10.00mm)
- Storage Temperature ? -4° - 185°F / -20° to 85°C
Customer Reviews
This Kingston DataTraveler DT101 Gen2 32GB USB flash drive has a very nice compact design. It is about the same size as the SanDisk Cruzer Micro (with the USB port retracted). See the size comparison picture I uploaded to Customer Images section. What cannot be seen from the picture is that the Kingston drive is slightly thicker. That makes it impossible to insert two Kingston flash drives into two adjacent USB ports, whereas two Sandisk drives can be stacked one on top of another.
I benchmarked the Kingston DT101 G2 flash drive as soon as I received it. The initial result I got, using the free "Flash Memory Toolkit" program, was not very impressive. It shows that for smaller files of 1-5MB, the write speed is only 5.7 - 6.2MB/s (see the Customer Image section for screenshot). In contrast, the Transcend 16 GB JetFlash 500 was able to achieve higher speed of 6.8MB/s (for 1MB file) to 11.3MB/s (for 5MB file).
For transferring very large files, however, this Kingston drive really shines. I benchmarked its read/write speed using 1GB video files, and was able to achieve up to 11.4MB/s in write, and 20.2MB/s in read. This is over twice as fast as its rated speed, which claims just 5MB/s write and 10MB/s read. In contrast, the Transcend drive only achieved 7.5MB/s in write and 13.4MB/s in read, under the same test conditions.
In summary, the Kingston DT101 G2 flash drive may not be suitable for tasks which require frequent read/write of smaller files, such as using it for daily backup or as a 'ReadyBoost' device. But for transferring large chunk of data, such as storing temporary video files for playback on my WD TV Live Media Player, it performs the job really well. I consider this product a very good value, especially at its present low cost of just $1.60 per GB.
Some additional notes:
- The good thing about USB flash drive is that: the unit cost ($/GB) drops by half every year. So I can get this 32GB flash drive for about the same price I paid for a 2GB drive four years ago. The bad thing is that: no matter how large the drive capacity, I always manage to fill it up to the brim in seemingly no time.
- The capacity for this Kingston '32GB' flash drive, as reported by my computer, is 29.7GB. Note that this is actually normal, because 1GB to computer people means 2 to the power of 30, which is about 7.4% greater than 1 billion. So 29.7GB translates to approximately 32,000,000,000 bytes, which means '32GB' according to marketing people.
- This Kingston flash drive came pre-loaded with 'urDrive' software, similar to the infamous 'U3' software for previous generations of Sandisk flash drives. I have no intention to use urDrive, so I renamed the 'Autorun.inf' file (found on the root directory) to 'Autorun._inf'. That way, I don't have to be bothered by it ever again - but it is still available in case I changed my mind.
- The drive is pre-formated in FAT32 file system for maximum compatibility. That means its largest file size is limited to 4GB. If you need to transfer files larger than 4GB, you have to reformat this drive to NTFS. Be warned that doing so wipes out all existing files, including urDrive.
The best thing USB flash drives have going for them is their price, which has been in a free fall for several years and about to go below $1 per GB at the time I'm writing this review. In addition, if your goal is storing data independently of any specific piece of equipment - camera, reader, music player - their size/bulk is an advantage because it's so much easier to lose or break an SD card once it's out of its host.
Briefly, this is what it's worth knowing about this item:
- I can't see that I've had a big problem with losing caps but the 'capless' design is quite innovative and it does not hurt.
- It's fast enough to support video transfer but, of course, it does not come close to the theoretical 60MB/sec max I/O speed that the USB 2.0 specification allows.
- Installs itself and does not require any software to be recognized as a 'drive' on a Vista or XP computer. Can't speak for other operating systems.
- It formats and partitions as any 'spinning' drive.
- Can be used to store data, to attach to players (my car plays MP3s off an USB drive) or to move it between unconnected devices.
- Tolerable when used with apps that require some moderate I/O but I would not try to make it a swap drive.
When it comes to Kingston - and, over the years and as prices were falling and the capacity grew, I've bought their 2GB, 4GB, 8GB and now the 16GBs - they never let me down. I don't believe I've lost one bit of data so far and, affordable as they are, I can make multiple copy of the data I can't afford to lose and keep it stored at different locations.
Considering price and reliability, this is a well-deserved 5-star.
Kingston Digital 8 GB USB 2.0 Hi-speed Datatraveler Flash Drive DT101G2/8GBZET - Red
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