alternate USB devices

[mindwave]

Hey, your MCNL pain here with what MAY turn out to be a valid question of interest!

 

I was in Circuit City the other day buying another 2GB drive (hey $19.99 ya cant beat it) I noticed an 8GB USB key that I hadnt seen before .

 

and at $80 its not a bad price:

 

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Kingston-8G...roductDetail.do

 

but if its STORAGE size you can get a LOT more lor that same $80.

 

I KNOW that MCNL will work just fine and dandy on a WD passport USB powered HD:

 

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Western-Dig...roductDetail.do

 

so i imagine that it will install in a LOT of other USB storage devices.

 

BUT in the case next to the key i saw this:

 

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Samsung-Ple...roductDetail.do

 

It's an 8GB "microdrive" apparently it has a physical spinning HD inside (7200RPM's) but is smaller than your keychain.

 

Now I cant figure out why you want to spend $30 more and buy that over the USB key, but they have been around longer than 8GB keys, so again, not sure of it's advantages. But i DO know that SOME OS's were having issues with them a few months back because it was a HD but not in the "normal" method.

 

Of course in the same case was a 250GB USB HD, for the same price, BUT it needed an external powersource.

 

Thoughts, opinions?

 

J

[{BBI}Nexus{BBI}]

With a usbkey there's no moving parts to go wrong, and it's definately going to be quiet.

[scarecrow]

With a usbkey there's no moving parts to go wrong, and it's definately going to be quiet.

 

I won't argue about the "quiet" part, but the average life of a usb key is *way* smaller than a harddisk- for various reasons.

[mindwave]

I won't argue about the "quiet" part, but the average life of a usb key is *way* smaller than a harddisk- for various reasons.

 

 

but is there an 'different' preps that have to be made between a USB key (HARD RAM) and a USB Micro Drive (Spinning Media)?

 

again i dont know why there WOULD be, it just seems that at one time there was.

 

j

[{BBI}Nexus{BBI}]

but the average life of a usb key is *way* smaller than a harddisk- for various reasons.

Under certain conditions, yes I agree. But the balance swings way over in favour of the usbkey when things like portability, durability, physical size and performance (with the exception of writing) are taken into account.

Edited June 29, 2007 by {BBI}Nexus{BBI}