Look at any modern PC, and you'll notice 2 things consistent with all of them. They will likely have a USB connection, and they will likely have a floppy drive. Floppies really aren't necessary anymore, as a PC function without them. Sure, sometime's you'll need to boot off a floppy to get to DOS, but in most cases, that's only required if you need to do a BIOS update. In anycase, most CDROMs support booting (as do most motherboards support CD booting), so there really is no need for floppies anymore. Nevermind the one obvious fact, a CDRW can hold close to 650MB, whereas a floppy a mere 1.44MB.

That being said, there are times when you don't need the storage capacity of a CDRW. Sometimes you just want a quick file copy of a word document to take with you on the road. Let's take the scenario of a desktop at home and a mobile for traveling. Let's also say you don't have a floppy on the desktop, or you've swapped the floppy drive out of the laptop for an extra battery. Although home networks are increasingly popular, not everyone has one, so we'll assume that a network copy is out of the question. Another scenario, if you do have a network connection, is your mobile is either in the car, or in your office. In that case, your options are to either:

1) Email the document to yourself
2) Burn the file on to a CD

The problems with the solutions are simple. Emailing yourself the document will be time consuming. Imagine if you're on a plane and you need access to the file. You are not going to be able to retrieve it until you arrive somewhere where you'll have internet access. The problem with the CD scenario, is it will take anywhere from one to two minutes (time to start CD authoring software, write time, and lead-out time), and in todays frantic lifestyles, that may be a minute too long. Add to the problems that CDs can be cumbersome if you have to carry them around.

The we'll be looking at today addresses the issues raised above, and it's a little more handy than just being portable storage. Before we get further into it, let's take a look at the specifications...

Specifications

Compatibility

-Windows: Windows 98, 98SE, ME, 2000, XP with USB port
-Macintosh: Mac OS 8.6 through Mac OS X version 10.1 with USB port

Key Features

-USB Specification 1.1 maximum speed of 12 Mbit/sec.
-Capacity: 8MB/16MB/32MB/64MB/128MB.
-No external power supply required.
-Mass storage compliant
-Hot Plug and Play via USB port
-Solid state drive with no moving parts
-No installation required
-Write protection switch to protect your files/data from being overwritten.
-LED indicates the current state of the drive
-10-years of data retention

If you haven't already figured out, the one saving grace about floppies is they are small, and they're relatively useful for dragging around small files. USB thumbdrives though, blow floppies away when it comes to storage, and even when it comes to portability. These drives use flash memory, which means no moving parts, and the ThumbDrive pictured above draws power directly off the USB port.

Click to Enlarge

The Trek ThumbDrive is small. It's half the size of a pen, and easily fits in your pockets, yet feels robust enough, that if you sit on it, you should be fine. So long as you use Windows Me and above, the device is completely driverless. So long as your PC has USB 1.1 connections (a standard option in the last 5 years), you'll be able to make use of the ThumbDrive. The device will work in USB 2.0 ports, but at USB 1.1 speeds. Another feature is its cross platform ability, meaning you can use it in Macs (OS 8.6 and up).

In either platform, the device will appear as a removable storage device. The capacity of the unit we've received is 16MB. If that's too paltry for you, they have models with up to 128MB. The device works like any other storage device, where you can simply copy files back and forth from the device as you would a floppy. One thing that is suggested though... don't yank the Thumbdrive out when you're done with it, or you'll risk the possibility of data corruption. The proper procedure is to "eject" the unit, by stopping it, then pulling it out.

Much like a floppy, you can write protect your data so it won't be accidently erased or overwritten. Unfortunently, if somebody wants to "accidently" erase your stuff, they can. The only security is a lock switch. There isn't any software where you can encrypt your data, nor can you reserve a section to be private, like the DiskOnKey.

Testing

One of the most interesting uses I can think of is using the Thumbdrive as a bootdisk. Although a floppy or CDROM can do this job, one problem that could come up is your filesystem. Unless you use third party software, if your drives are formatted using NTFS, you will not be able to read it in DOS mode. I mention this because many motherboard manufacturers suggest using the hard drive to run their BIOS updates. Now, you can in most cases run this off a floppy disk, but we all know how reliable those are, plus, not everyone bothers with a floppy anymore. A CDROM can do the job, but it will take a little more time to prepare a CD for this purpose.

The Trek Thumbdrive does support booting, but unfortunently, this option is available to OEMs. The retail version (which we have) will not work as a boot device. I first tested it on the Shuttle XPC SS51. Unfortunently, although I have plenty of USB options, and the Thumbdrive is detected when I bootup, nothing seemed to happen.

I left out any mention of Linux support earlier because I still have not received an official word from Trek. What I did learn from is ...

How do I use ThumbDrive Smart on Linux?
Reboot your PC. Login as root. Plug in Thumbdrive Smart (the LED should light up). Open command console: Enter the command: "mkdir -p /mnt/trek ;mount -tvfat /dev/sda /mnt/trek"

Click To Enlarge

Being on a USB 1.1 interface, the Trek Thumbdrive wasn't the speediest of drives, but it does outclass the M-Systems DiskOnKey in the SiSoft Drive Index...

In real-world tests, it took me about 116 seconds to transfer 15.6MBs worth of MP3s. This won't break any speed records, but I find that at 16MB for this model, it's better suited for small file transfers.

Final Words

The Trek Thumbdrive Smart is one of the more useful devices I've looked at recently. On Monday this week, I needed to print a couple files at my cousin's place, since my printer was busted. For some odd reason, his email wasn't working. Normally, I'd burn the files (about 11MB) on to a CD, but instead, I just loaded them up on my Thumbdrive and off I went.

What size drive you'll need will depend on your intended use. I personally would use a CD if I had over 100MB worth of files to move, but the Thumbdrive is smaller, and more convenient. The smaller model is perfect for my needs, but yours may vary. These devices have dropped in price, though compared to CD media, they are still fairly expensive. I also wished that the Thumbdrive had some encryption on it to protect any restricted files in case I misplaced it. Finally, if you're looking to get a Thumbdrive to use as a bootable device, you'll have to keep looking, as this feature is missing from the retail unit.

Pros: Compact, cross-platform.

Cons: No encryption, fairly slow, no boot capabilities in the retail version.

Bottom Line: It costs about 30$ for the 16MB model, which is about double the cost of a floppy drive. The portability and convenience does make up for it though, but it's a shame the retail unit doesn't allow for booting. If you have any comments, be sure to hit us up in our forums.

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