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Corsair Flash Voyager 64GB If you're looking for a durable USB flash drive, as well as enough capacity to store more files than you can imagine (provided you don't imagine more than 64GB), you'll want to keep on reading.
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Flash drives have certainly come a long way the past several years. When they first arrived on the scene, performance was sad sacked due to USB 1.1 and the capacity was not all that impressive. The first drive we ever looked at was 16MB and today, many of my Microsoft Office files wouldn't even fit on that. When drives finally hit 128MB, we saw the frequency of larger capacities suddenly update much quicker.
Actually, that isn't an entirely true statement. There were always larger capacities but not at what we would call a consumer friendly price point.
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Corsair Flash Voyager 64GB
Back in the good ole days of 2008, 4GB would be considered the norm, with anything higher being something extavagant. This will change again no doubt as we move through 2009. Today, we'll be looking at a behemoth of a flash drive. We're already familiar with the Corsair Flash Voyager, but the bar has been raised as the review unit we received weighs in at a very eye-popping 64GB.
The Corsair Flash Voyager is packaged in a hard cellophane case that will surely cut off afinger if you are not careful taking it apart. On the plus side, the package is very sturdy and the flash drive is well protected. Of note, the company logo and the capacity are clearly indicated, so no mistake here what you are picking up.
Once everything is cracked open, you'll have all the goodies you'll want to play with. Of course, there is the Flash Voyager, as well as a USB extension cord. The main use we find you'll get out of this cord is convenience and perhaps a requirement. From a convenience perspective, if your PC is in a position where access to your USB ports is not easy to get to, you can run this cable to bring the connection closer to you. A possible requirement reason for using the cord is that the Flash Voyager's unique shape may make it difficult to fit into an area where you may have other USB devices in close proximity.
Rounding things out is a lanyard to wear the Flash Voyager around your neck or wraped around your wrist. A small pouch is also included if you want to transport everything at once.
Rather than a straight rectangle, the Corsair Flash voyager is more of an curved shape. This does make it more ergonomically friendly, but it can cause space issues compared to smaller and straight designed flash drives. On the cap you have the company logo and the device model embossed on one side of the Flash Voyager. On th eother side, you have the manufacturer URL.
The drive itself is encased in rubber. The rubber acts as both a water resistant casing as well as making the drive able to withstand to shock and pressure. The cap is also rubber, though it does not protect the USB connection as much as the rest of the drive. As the cap is not sealed, the drive is not waterproof, but we will get into this more when we discuss the test results.
While we like the durability, the rubber is very prone to collecting dust. While this does not affect performance, it is something to point out.
The Flash Voyager does not require any drivers provided your operating system supports PnP storage devices. Vista immediately recognized the drive, and support includes XP, Linux 2.4 and later, Mac OS 9 and later.
There is a LED that flashes blue when the device is in use. You can also see that the lanyard loop is on this end of the drive rather than the cap. This will reduce the likelihood of losing the drive if you use the lanyard. The loop itself is quite strong and when the lanyard was tied around a door knob, I was able to easily pull the door open without any damage to the loop.
Above is a shot of the Flash Voyager with other flash drives and a SD card for comparison. The 64GB Flash Voyager is not only the largest capacity flash drive we've worked with, but also the largest flash drive physically as well, measuring 4" in length, and 1" wide at its center.
By default, the Corsair Flash Voyager is formatted with a FAT32 file system. For some of you, this may suffice, but note that you will be limited to maximum file sizes of 4GB. You will be able to format the drive in NTFS though you will not be able to read the drive in any OS that doesn't understand this format.
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