A Fool & His JumpDrive Are Soon Parted. Lexar 256 MB Jump Drive Pro 80X
Written: Sep 13 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: So easy even Jessica Simpson can use it, great portage storage solution.
Cons: Easy to lose or forget it in a computer.
The Bottom Line: His loss is my gain and no, I don’t feel the least bit guilty about keeping it.
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| Freak369's Full Review: Lexar JumpDrive Pro 80X (256 MB) USB 2.0 Flash Dri... |
As some of you know, I am having a huge battle with my local cable provider. One day they tell me that they will be there within a week to install new digital lines then I get the run around when the service call isn’t fulfilled. Since I use the library and several cyber cafes I have met ‘the underground’ of the public access world; within this little subculture there are the devious guys that are in ‘happy relationships’ but never pass up the opportunity to hook up with someone else if the situation arises. Such is the case of Joe; a nice looking guy with a knock out girlfriend. I’d seen him at the library more than a few times and he always seemed like he was in a good mood. One afternoon he slinked in, popped in his jump drive and started cutting and pasting stuff to Word, all the while looking around to see if anyone was peering at his screen. For all I know he could have been picking out Christmas presents for his family and friends but Joe was up to more devious things.
When his cell phone started ringing, a complete no-no at the library, he booked out of the place like Lucifer himself was on the horn. He left behind his jump drive when he logged off the computer and it took every ounce of will power I had at the moment not to reach over, pull it out of the port and sneak a peek. When the library was getting ready to close the jump drive was still in the port, I’d been pacing in front of it like I was waiting for an egg to hatch - no one else took notice of the small oval shaped thing sprouting out of the front of the computer so I caved in and pulled it out of the computer. Wrestling with the idea of prying into someone’s personal life, I tossed it in my backpack and resolved that the next time I ran into him I would give it back to him. The next week he arrived with a new jump drive but was even more paranoid than on previous visits. When I handed him the jump drive he said that it wasn’t his, he’d never seen it before and I must have been mistaken thinking that it was his.
That’s when things took a very ugly turn ... about ten minutes later all hell broke loose. His girlfriend tracked him down at the library and made it known to everyone within earshot that he was up the creek without a paddle. Yes, Joe was busted in the act of booking a motel room to meet up with someone else. When he tried to hurry her out of the library saying that he’s explain everything you could have heard a pin drop. Again, Joe left the jump drive in the computer and made a hasty retreat. I looked over to the person that was sitting next to Joe’s computer and we both looked at the jump drive. Raising an eyebrow I shook my head and said, “Go for it, I tried to give him back the last one he forgot and he said it wasn’t his”. So Joe, where ever you are and what ever torment you are currently enduring from your girlfriend .. thanks for the jump drive!
Lexar JumpDrive Pro 80X 256 MB USB 2.0 Flash Drive
Since I had absolutely no idea how to use this I called up one of the eggheads that works at the computer store I go to. Telling him the whole story of how I came to acquire the jump drive he was amused and perplexed at the same time. “That isn’t something that you just ‘forget’ if it has sensitive information on it”. He told me to bring it to the store and he could erase what ever was on it if I didn’t want to be tempted to look at the files. I tell you, that was the longest four hours - on one hand I really wanted to try and figure out how to use it on my own and to see what Joe was up to but on the other hand I didn’t want to have some hidden virus from a porn site he could have been visiting corrupt the whole thing. Arriving at the shop I tossed him the jump drive and he started looking at what was on it. Wow, Joe, where ever you are, I salute your taste in women and while I’m at it - your taste in jump drives.
Since I had no idea how to use this the geek sat me down and said that within thirty seconds I’d know everything there was to know about it as well as how to use it. Yeah, I catch on quick but you will never hear me say that I am a computer type person. My geek, Brad, was brief and to the point. “It’s like sex, shove it in, let it do its thing and pull it out.”. Yeah, ok Brad, it can’t be that simple. In all honesty - that is how simple it is to use this. Most computers don’t require it to have any drivers loaded into it for it to work and when I plugged it into my older computer at home [it decided that it wanted to work this week], it recognized it in about thirty seconds, that’s not to say that it actually worked - it just recognized that something ‘foreign’ was attached to it.. With the computers at the library or cyber cafe, it picked up in it in about fifteen seconds. I’m not ready to give up my floppy disks yet because I am way too paranoid about losing this but I do have to admit, this thing is cool as hell to have when you want to save music, photos or huge files.
Brad tried to explain to me the differences between the 256, 523, 1 gig and 2 gig jump drives that Lexar makes but it went right over my head. He did tell me that the storage size depends on what you are saving so if I had 100 discs of text files it would take up less room than 10 CD’s of music because the text files are a lot smaller and simpler for the jump drive to read, relay and store. Again, this really means nothing to me because most computer stuff goes right over my head. The first time I tried it out at the library I saved a few Word documents in text format, the light blinked and it was saved - a lot faster than a floppy and I could go back and save it in .doc format as well as any other Works or Word format I wanted without having to worry about filling it up or running out of space. I haven’t figured out how to tell how much space is left on it but when I called Brad he said that it should display the information if I press a certain key or when I am scrolling through the menu.
I do have to admit that this thing is easy to use; just push it into the UBS port [located on the front of most newer computers or the back of the older ones] and it should sync up with the computer and allow you to save or read from it. Brad, my computer angel, did tell me to mention that you need a 1.1 or 2.0 port - I have no idea what that means but it fit on my computer and that thing is old [it didn’t work correctly but it fit into the port and the computer picked up that something new was attached to it]. It should be listed as an external piece of hardware but all this depends on your computer. The older one that I have needed a set of drivers to let it communicate with the jumpdrive but since it is a finicky thing, I decided to pass on trying to get the drivers from Brad to install [if you need the drivers you can get them at www.lexar.com/drivers]. I use this mostly to store stuff for the shop on it but I also have a lot of .txt. and .doc files on it. It is easier than having to root through a bunch of floppy discs to find something but without my desktop computer working properly, I am limited to what I can do with this. Hopefully when I get a new computer this will allow me to eliminate having to carry a bunch of discs with me or at the very least allow me to leave them at home so I can have them as a back up. The other jumpdrive that I owned allowed me to store tons of songs on it so I could use it as a portable MP3 player but so far I haven’t had the time to play around with it on this jumpdrive. Brad did assure me that this was something that I could do easily with this unit so I am really looking forward to having a high speed connection soon so I can get some of my old songs back.
I was really impressed with how fast this saved information. Most photos and files were saved before I could even check to see if the light was off or on. When you are saving a file to a floppy you can wait up to twenty seconds for it to complete the process - longer if it is something that has a lot of information to it. With this, my text files are done in less than a second and photos and .avi’s are done in about three to five seconds. Some of the longer .avi files have taken about twenty seconds but that is still lightening fast compared to a CD or floppy. According to Lexar this can transfer or save up to 200 megabytes in 50 seconds - I have no idea how fast that is or how much information it is but from my experience this thing is quick when saving or opening files. To make things even nicer there is an accidental overwrite tab that you can flip so that nothing can be modified on the jumpdrive. This is nice if you want people to be able to have access to it but don’t want them saving or changing anything on it.
Warranty
Since this wasn’t something that I purchased, I had to call Lexar to get the warranty information. When you purchase this from an authorized store or vendor you are provided with a two year warranty against defects as well as for workmanship. If the drive fails at any time Lexar will replace or repair it at their discretion. This doesn’t cover getting it wet or external damage and if you try to modify it in any way, consider the warranty void. Make sure you fill out the warranty information and send it back to them; the rep that I spoke to was in hysterics when I told her how I came to own one but she was most helpful when I asked about the warranty information. Since I wasn’t the original purchaser of this I have no warranty for the jumpdrive but hey, it was free to start with so if it only lasts a year I am still not going to complain.
Price
Since these can be purchased for about fifty dollars [less than that at Amazon.com] it is something that can be replaced if it is lost or damaged however if you are someone that loses things, don’t store anything ultra sensitive on it. I had to look online to see what the current going price on this was - most sites advertised it for $30.00 to $50.00. If you see a site that is offering this for more, keep looking. I am seriously considering buying a few of these to load things on to send to the boys when they are at school as well as giving them one that they can use while they are at school. Because they are so small - about three inches long by about an inch wide - they can carry them in their backpacks or on their key chains without worrying about losing them.
The Bottom Line
I did feel a little bad when Joe left the jumpdrive in the computer but when I caught wind of the whole story I didn’t fell the least bit bad about having Brad erase everything [well, almost everything] off of it and using it for my own needs. When I need another jumpdrive I am sure that I will get one of the ones from Lexar. I will have to check with the brood to see how much storage space they need and I am sure they will tell me to get the one that holds the most - that’s when I’ll call Brad and tell him to get ready to go shopping! The bottom line is this - it is easy to use, doesn’t take up a lot of space and can store a plethora of different types of things. It is a get replacement for CD-RW’s, Zip drives and floppy discs - it’s faster and a lot more reliable! Now all I have to do is get a computer that isn’t two days older than dirt and a high speed internet connection ... hey, a girl can dream can’t she?!?
As always, thanks for the read!
~^V^~ Freak ~^V^~
© 2005 Freak369
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Recommended:
Yes
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