usb drives

What a disappointment the Iomega Mini line has been. I purchased the 512 to have a larger capacity flash drive, but I expected the Security software to work without troubles. Was I ever wrong! None of the software bundled with this expensive drive works for me. I have four smaller capacity key drives from three (!) other companies - three of these have security software that works without a glitch. The Lexar Secure Jump Drive in particular works seamlessly in Windows XP, Windows 2000 AND Mac OS X, making it hands down superior over this awful Iomega Mini drive for my purposes. Sad to see for a company that I have loved in the past, but support is worse than the drive itself.

After purchasing an Iomega Mini-Drive the case of the drive started to develop cracks around the light. These cracks continued until pieces started to come off and then, finally, the case pulled off of the electrical components. Trying to return the Mini-Drive has been a nightmare. I have sent over a half dozen emails, I have made 5 phone calls (some of which were toll calls), I've been through 3 voice mail mazes, and I'm still waiting for the replacement Mini-Drive. Iomega's customer support is horrible!

This is the start of something big (physically small, actually.)
IOMEGA has provided a USB 2.0 pen drive. It can hold 256 MB of data and fit on your keychain, on your belt or in your pocket.
All you need is a Mac (or PC) with a free USB port and you are ready to go. It is a storage drive and media, built into one small package, weighing in at about 2 ounces!
It lost a star because of the price point and the construction of the casing. I still think the price is a bit high, but it is permanent storage. If you don't smash/crush it, it can probably last for years.
To use the pen drive, just plug it into a free USB port on your Mac or PC. The pen drive draws the power it needs directly from the USB chain. It then shows up like any other disk drive would. (Immediately on the desktop of Macs. You need to search through "My Computer" on PCs.)
It also works like any other disk drive would.
Transfering files between computers is also easy. Plug it into one computer, drag files to it. "Eject" the disk and pull it out of the USB port. Plug it into the USB port of another computer and copy the files you need from the pen drive to the local hard drive. It even works between Macs and PCs. Make sure you eject the volume from the computer before you try to remove the pen drive from the USB port. If you don't, you could cause data loss.
The fact that this particular pen drive is USB 2.0 rated can be very important, because USB 2.0 can be up to 40 times faster, transferring data, than USB 1.x. Since there are no moving parts, data transfer is extremely fast.
Pros: Convenient, light weight, easy to use, USB 2.0
Cons: Plastic casing easily cracks or can be crushed. Still pricey.
Bonus features: Comes with key ring and built-in belt clip.