SanDisk Cruzer Mini 128 MB USB 2.0 Flash Drive

September 14th, 2005

5 out of 5 stars

Like I said in my Cruzer Mini 256MB review, I purchased two of these, one 128MB and the other 256MB. I have a HP Compaq Pavilion ZT3280US laptop which is about six months old and I needed a portable storage device to save my documents, songs, and other files to. I looked around and found these Cruzer Mini's and was amazed at the idea of small storage devices that could hold more data than floppy disks. Since I shop at CompUSA a lot, I purchased this Cruzer Mini there for about $39.99.


DESCRIPTION :
The SanDisk 128MB Cruzer Mini is a very small storage device that plugs into your computers USB or USB2.0 port; it behaves like a removable drive. Since it is a plug-n-play (PNP) device, your computer will recognize it instantly and it will be ready to use without restarting.

It works almost like the floppy disk, but with some major enhancements. Floppy disks can store 1.44MB of data, but this Cruzer Mini holds 128MB. And unlike floppy disks these are small and the information is secure in the drive (no more lost data due to nature). Oh one more thing, these flash drives are much faster than any floppy disk drive. I think the floppy era has past and the flash drive era has erupted.


WHY I BOUGHT IT?
One reason I purchased this flash drive was because I already had one and wanted to get another one to go with it, but this time one with less capacity. I mostly use this for my documents.

My laptop does not have a floppy disk drive, so using floppies for transferring information is out of the question. I configured my laptop to connect to my home network which works very well, but I also needed something to store data on the go like at school or work.

Imagine if my laptop dies or the hard drive crashes, I will loose all data on it. But if I save all my important information on this Cruzer Mini, I will still have my information but will have to get the laptop fixed. Don’t you think that is a good idea?

My laptop does have a CD/DVD-RW drive, but who wants to wait ten or maybe fifteen minutes to burn a disk to transfer information from one computer to another. I just use this flash drive and transfers are done in just about a flash.


DIMENSIONS :
The SanDisk Mini Cruzer is about half an inch wide, two inches long, and less than a quarter inch thick. Yeah… it is small enough. It only takes up enough space for one slot; you can plug in two of these flash drives side by side if you had the need for it.

It comes with two different colored caps to protect the USB connector. There is a light in the back that notifies you that there is power passing through the flash drive when it is plugged in. Mine also came with a long strap to wear this flash drive as a necklace when I am on the go.


THE PACKAGE :
The package includes the Cruzer Mini, two additional color caps (green and blue), a neck strap, and a book of additional fun toys you can purchase that are made by SanDisk. I seem to only like the clear cap better because I lost the other two somewhere.


FINAL THOUGHTS :
The Cruzer Mini is easy to use because it does not require you to install drivers, and it is faster than any floppy drive and most zip drives. The drives compact size also makes it easy to store and plug in without disturbing other USB compatible devices. Best of all, you can almost use the Cruzer Mini on any computer with a USB port. If your computer has USB2.0 ports, than the transfer rate will be even faster (480 mb/s I think). So throw away your floppies and welcome the new flash drives.

Manufacturer:

SanDisk

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