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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.
On the KT3 Ultra2 though, there is actually an option for the Trek Thumbdrive...
 
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... but unfortunently, that is about as far as we got. 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"
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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.
Agree? Disagree? Discuss it in our forums
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Trek ThumbDrive Smart: Floppy disks are pretty useless, but on occasion, you'll still need them. We look at something that may finally do away with the floppy forever.
