Introduction

The world of digital data is taking over with everyone needing the ability to store, share and transfer files in there everyday lives. There are lot of different methods to do this but the majority of them are not portable. There's floppy drives but there slow and old providing you with barely enough space for a few word document's. Firewire HD's; another great idea but there a little bit on the large side both in dimensions and capacity. CDRW's then. Well yes these work, but cd's are not exactly something you can put in your pocket, plus there's the burning time to consider. What is needed is something that can transfer a decent amount of files with the smallest footprint. Something you can put in your pocket. Something that can be used on a multitude of systems quickly and easily. DiskOnKey from M-Systems say they have the solution so let's take a closer look.

The review piece we have here today is the 128MB DiskOnKey and was supplied to us by M-Systems , so many thanks to them.

Specifications

Interface Compliant with Universal Serial Bus
(USB) 1.1 and USB 2.0 full-speed devices

Power Supply USB bus-powered
No external power required

Power Consumption Standby: 320 µA (typical), 500 µA (max)
Read/Write: 65 mA (typical), 94 mA (max)

Performance(read/write) 1MB/s data transfer rate

Operating Systems Supported Windows 98(1) Second Edition, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows XP, MacOS 9.0 & higher, Linux 2.4.0

Capacity (MB) 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 and 512

LED Indicator Slowly flashing: Connected and inactive
Quickly flashing: Transmitting/receiving data

Operating temperature 0° C to +45° C (32° F to 113° F)

Storage temperature -20° C to +60° C (-4° F to 140° F)

Environmental conditions Relative humidity during operation(Non-condensation): 10% to 90%
Relative humidity during storage: 5% to 90%.
Maximum wet bulb temperature: +38.7° C (101.6° F)

Dimensions 9.81x2.53x1.84 cm /3.86x0.99x0.72 inches (LxWxH)

Weight 20 grams (0.7 ounces)

Vibration Operating: 5 G, 10 to 500 Hz, 0.5 Oct/Min sweep rate
Non-operating: 5 G, 10 to 500 Hz, 0.5 Oct/Min sweep rate

Shock Operating: 10 G, 11 ms, half-sine.

Maximum Altitude Operating: 3,048 m (0 to 10,000 ft.)
Non-operating: 12,192 m (0 to 40,000 ft.)

Service 1 year full warranty

Certifications - USB Interface 2.0, Full Speed
- WHQL for Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows ME and Windows 98
- CE and FCC

In The Box

1x DiskOnKey 128MB
1x Protective Cap
1x User Manual
1x Label
1x Warranty Card

The Technology

The DiskOnKey is a removable, portable disk drive utilizing the Flash technology. The interface for it is USB 1.1 or 2.0 and it is designed to work under Windows 2000/ME/XP/NT 4/CE 4, Mac OS 9.0 and higher and Linux 2.4.0 without software drivers . The reason it can interface with all these systems without the use of software drivers is because the unit has its own CPU onboard. Software drivers ARE required for Windows 98/98SE however. The unit is powered from the USB Port so no batteries or external power input is needed; you literally just plug and play. The DiskOnKey is available in 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256 and 512 mb sizes.

First Looks

The DiskOnKey as you can see is very small indeed, and has a keyring on the cap. I thought that it would have personally been safer to put the keyring onto the unit itself rather than the cap, but after repeated removal of the cap I doubt very much that you will accidentally lose it. The cap also has a belt clip in case you want to put the DiskOnKey into say a shirt pocket.

Removing the cap provides access to the USB interface for the unit. When you plug the device in the device is recognized as a removable drive and can be used as such. To let you know that the device is working properly there is an LED that pulses on the neck of the unit. When data is being transferred this LED well flash much the same way that you're HDD LED on your tower will.

The manual is really a 6 page leaflet with a 2 page insert on the KeySafe software, which is supplied on the DiskOnKey. The manual gives you instructions for using the DiskOnKey in both Windows and Mac OS as well as how to plug the unit in. To be honest I personally feel that the manual is totally redundant. This isn't brain science, there are no drivers to load or batteries to change, you just plug it into a USB port and away you go. Obviously there will be some people who are going to need the instructions if there new to computing and USB and I would have been rather surprised and disappointed if there wasn't some form of documentation. The insert for the KeySafe software describes how to set up and use a "privacy zone" on the DiskOnKey. I like the idea of this, as you could easily share the DiskOnKey with someone else whilst still storing private files of your own on there at the same time. There wasn't any driver disk included because this is a driverless device. As I already mentioned however, if you are running Win98, you do need drivers and I would have liked to have seen a floppy disk with those drivers on it. It's simple enough to get the drivers from there website but still, a floppy disk isn't going to break the bank and it would save the hassle.

Testing

I've tested the DiskOnKey with SiSoft Sandra's FileSystem benchmark under both USB 1.1 and 2.0. I've used it on 2 different systems, a Win98SE and a WinXP system with the actual benchmarking being done under WinXP. The test system is as follows:-

1.4 Athlon Thunderbird
Abit AT7 Max
256meg Kingmax PC2700
Windows XP

Comparing the performance of this drive to a floppy there is no contest. A ZIP drive which holds 100mb is also slower. The JAZZ drive stomps all over it but this is to be expected. As you can see there's barely any difference between USB 1.1 and 2.0. Looking past the numbers the units speed was very good, with MP3's taking just a few seconds to transfer; anything smaller than 5 meg was there pretty much instantly, not even giving windows a chance to display the "transfer dialog box". The DiskOnKey worked perfectly well under WinXP and Win98 SE, being able to transfer files with ease under both OS'es.

Conclusion

The DiskOnKey is an interesting little device that can transfer files with ease and speed. It's tiny and very lightweight making it an exceptionally good portable medium. For home users, a few MP3's could be transferred quickly and easily, gamers could store config files for there games before going to LAN's. Maybe you want to share your latest holiday photos? Business users could transfer that 100mb database to work on from home. Once you have finished it, just save it to the DiskOnKey and it's ready to be taken back to work. When plugged into a USB Port the DiskOnKey is recognized by the system just like any other portable media, in that you can read and write, create and delete files and folders etc.

It works very well, is extremely easy to use and it take seconds to transfer data to and from it. But there has to be a downside right? Well yes, there is. It's expensive. The unit we have here is the 128mb version which has a suggested retail price of $149.99 (though I have seen it for sale at $129.99 USA and £121.06 UK). That's quite a lot for home users to fork out for a 128mb of storage, especially with CDR's being so cheap nowadays. This device would find more use and justification of its price in the business sector, with those who regularly transfer files from home and work via mail, FTP or CD/Floppy. The majority of business users will most likely mail small things such as documents or remotely connect to transfer files VIA FTP. Larger files would be burnt to CD-RW or again slowly transferred via some form of internet use. This would be a perfect device for them in that it would in the long run save money and time. Mail can go down, as can internet connections. Buying CD's to burn your work to can be expensive in the long run. CD-RW's are not renowned for there reliability and they do have a maximum usage limit. Not to mention the time it takes to burn a disk. ZIP or JAZZ drive? Great, lot of room on those, but you would need the actual drive unit on more than one machine. The DiskOnKey has none of these drawbacks and all in a very tiny package.

At the end of the day, it does the job it was designed for extremely well and is worthy of a Viperlair recommended award on its own merits. I can't give it this award however as it is simply too expensive for what you get. If you can justify the price and are looking for some portable storage medium then this is something you should take a look at. Once again, many thanks to for supplying the review sample.

Pro's
It's tiny and extremely lightweight
Can it get any easier to use?
Keyring and belt clip for transportation.
Fast data transfers
Did I mention how small and easy to use it is?

Con's
Only one, and that's the price.

Bottom Line
The DiskOnKey is fast, easy to use, and very easy to transport. It's expensive for the storage capacity however so make sure you can justify the cost against regular use. If you have any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.

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